Marilyn Lane - aka Ravanna
Adah and Zuleika
Jewels of Cairo wearing Aziza ’ s costumes at Rakkasah
Aziza attended UC Berkeley and majored in English . She loved linguistics and olde English , and loved to play Words with Friends and would always slaughter me .
From Stasha Vlasuk Aziza ’ s great seamstress talent and especially her always cheerful demeanor are her legendary traits , the ones she will always be remembered for . She and I go a long way back : she toured with oudist Guy Chookoorian back in the late 60s thru early 70s , and I followed her and starting touring with Guy in 1975 ( I had also started working with him nightly at Haji Baba ’ s in LA ).
I ’ d visit Aziza each year at Rakkasah , and we ’ d giggle and gossip about road stories . I still have one of her skirts ! It was made from an extensively beaded lavender Indian sari , so beautiful , with a matching vest too - and puffy sleeve gauntlets ! ‘ Member them ?
I remember when she married the Greek guy who “ thought it was OK ” for her to continue dancing . I ’ m grateful she had a loving partner with her as she passed . I ’ m grateful I have wonderful memories of a dear , loving person .
From her spouse , Markie Parker Aziza loved elephants and we visited them at zoos and at multiple visits to the circus over the years . What she wished she could do was ride on an elephant but not in the howdah ( special seat ) that was always used for ‘ rides ’ at amusement parks and fairs , but just like the showgirls did at the big circus shows we saw . Well , I went on a many months long search to find out if that was possible .
I finally contacted a couple down in Los Angeles who supplied elephants for the Hollywood crowd for movies and TV shows . Very nice people who said they could bring an elephant to OUR HOUSE ! Of course , that would have cost many thousands of $$$ to haul that giant beast 400 miles up to Diamond Springs . Not possible for me to do that and told them so . They said that they ’ d call me back in a few days and they did . It turned out that they also brought their elephants up to Sacramento for the giant California State Fair .
They told me that if we took her to their paddock , they ’ d make sure she could ride like she dreamed about on Kitty , one of their elephants . So , we went to the fair , but she didn ’ t know anything about my plans . She looked at the kids riding the elephants on the howdahs and she again wished she could ride like one of those showgirls . I said OK and went up to talk with the men in there and they were expecting us . Kitty didn ’ t have a howdah on her
October 2020 � The Belly Dance Chronicles 57