Performing at Rakkasah
West the Ouled Nail dance
(Bou Saada - Algeria) ~
Photo by Michael Baxter
“Dance
is my
voice”
By Ma*Shuqa Mira Murjan
Photos by Birame Ndiaye, unless noted
It’s my pleasure to introduce a professional colleague who
has been teaching in the USA for the last 25 years, Leila
Haddad. Although many dancers have studied with her
at the Rakkasah Festivals in California and New Jersey
and many other US cities, they may not know Leila’s
childhood experience, development, and history and
accomplishments in Oriental dance. Leila, how did you
learn Oriental dance?
I started dancing in the belly of my mother and came out
in this world undulating. Dance is part of my life. As a child,
born in Tunisia, from a Tunisian mother and Syrian father,
I was very shy (Yes!!! Unbelievable, no? AHAHAH!!!).
However, I was so shy that whenever there were musicians
playing in any feast, I would run into the middle of the
crowd, dance, dance, and then run and hide under the table.
I was born a dancer, this was my IDENTITY. In Tunisia,
I could go to see the same Arabic movie many many times
featuring Tahia Carioca, Samia Gamal, Nabawiya Mustafa,
Naima Akef…, come back home and would reproduce their
dances in front of my mirror for hours, hidden in my room.
Coming back from school, I would rush into my room to
dance, dance and dance to Arabic and Berber music.
During the summers, we vacationed and lived in a house
by the beach where there were lots of weddings and family
gatherings. I would sneak out of my room with my cousins,
disguised, and hide on the terrace to watch the people dancing.
In my family, it was like a tradition to play an instrument,
sing, and recite poetry, not “professionally speaking”; but
for our private gatherings, my mother played harpsichord,
and we would dance all afternoon with our neighbors, our
friends… That’s how I ‘was introduced to’ Dance. For me, it
was as natural as breathing, drinking, eating.
October 2015
The Belly Dance Chronicles
9