Since I knew many of these dancers personally and I had a large historical video and photo library , I appointed myself as the person in the perfect place to honor our American dancers . “ This is going to be fun and easy ,” I said to myself .
Initially , I had hoped to produce a series of DVDs honoring dancers from my long list . Once I got deeply into my first project , I realized how time consuming and expensive this was going to run . Aside from monetary concerns , I ran into problems with dancers not happy appearing in the background or foreground of a photo . Music and video rights were suspect . I was questioned as to why so-and-so was NOT included . I was questioned as to why so-and-so WAS included . There were a lot of naysayers and most disheartening of all , the critics that claimed I was getting rich and exploiting dancers . After my Legends DVD , I was quite washed out , financially , energetically and spiritually , and decided to put all the work and segments I had already finished into one Legends disk and nixed the upcoming series idea .
Moving forward ten years later . Without the astute advice of Mher Panossian , owner of Hollywood Music , I would not have delved into my second documentary project , “ American Belly Dance Icons .” He offered to help with marketing , distribution and in the replication of the master . He also generously supplied me with music that his company owned to help with the music rights . The other lucky piece
of the puzzle was having an editor friend , Rachael , who lived nearby and was patient , super talented , and easy on my pocketbook . With these two extra-special people , I got re-energized to do it all once again !
Mher , recording the intro for Amaya ’ s documentary “ American Belly Dance Icons ” at Avo ’ s Studio
I estimated that the “ Icons ” project would take 12 months to complete and approximately $ 600 per segment of editing time . I put out an invite to 13 dance icons , thinking that only 10 or so would actually respond . Eleven came onboard to share their stories .
Amaya with her editor , Rachael Rodgers
42 The Belly Dance Chronicles � October 2020