My Blog

My L.A. Adventure with "So You Think You Can Dance"

amyraks — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:09:00 GMT

So the last few weeks have been crazy and I probably didn't get to tell everyone this but I won a contest and went to LA this week. Here's the story: I entered a contest on a whim and I won! So I took my brother, Craig, with me to LA to participate in this (http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/05/20/so-you-think-you-can-dance-breaking-world-records-and-interviews/) Nadine from TVgasm (who selected me to win) interviewed me for her show on ManiaTV and will have the interview up on TVgasm later this week. My brother took a whole bunch of photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/7932483@N03/sets/72157605186321441/ I think "So You Think You Can Dance" is the probably the best dance show on TV (with the worst title) and as you know, l love dance and I love TV :) It starts tomorrow on FOX at 8pm.

So You Think You Can Dance, yeah I can dance.. whoo!

amyraks — Thu, 15 May 2008 03:49:17 GMT

I never win anything... so to my surprise I have won a trip to LA to participate in the "So You Think You Can Dance" Dance Off. All my TV blogging has finally paid off. Thanks so much to TVgasm.com, they rock! http://www.tvgasm.com/newsgasm/news/newsgasm/so-you-think-you-can-dance-con.php

1:45 am surprise

amyraks — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 23:45:08 GMT

I turned my TV on last night before going to bed (I was going to watch a DVD) and suddenly there was Um Kolthum singing on my television set. I must have left my cable set to The Arabic Channel so I immediately grabbed my remote and hit "record" to save it to my DVR and managed to record a good half hour of her concert. What a welcome surprise after a night out and I must make a note to check The Arabic Channel more often. Yay! Time Warner Cable rocks. I heart my DVR :) An old blog.... http://venusuprising.typepad.com/venus/2007/04/egyptian_heartb.html

I'm trying to deny it but I think I love her...

amyraks — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:15:32 GMT

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=1742872&vid=152179# Damn MTV.

Bellyqueen promo hits #1 on google's most popular list!

amyraks — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:11:01 GMT

I have to say that I never expected this. But my promo for Bellyqueen is fighting to stay in the top 5 along with an Anna Nicole Smith video and some other viral videos. So yay for bellydance and Bellyqueen! I was telling my brother and he was like, "Oh, #1 video of all bellydance videos?" Me: No, #1 video of all videos. Him: "Wow." Thanks to Andrew Potenza for sending me this screen shot. Bellyqueen video here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8196749249677852682

Hey Everybody, let's do the Fakkarouni!

amyraks — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:45:56 GMT

Here's my performance at Rakkasah East this year with Helm. I'm dancing to Om Kolthoum's Fakkarouni... This is only the second time that I have performed to an Om Kolthoum piece-- the first was Ana Fi Intizarak ( with Raquy and the Messengers). I almost chickened out and was going to do Ana Fi Intizarak again but Helm worked really hard on practicing Fakkarouni for me, so I went with it. Enjoy! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsaBe9D41c8

Adventures in Minya and Giza

amyraks — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 14:30:29 GMT

I can't believe I only have a full day and half left here. Needless to say, I have a lot to do. I'm going to videotape Raquy today on Mohammed Ali street and at Khan el Khalili. Mohammed Ali is the where they sell all the musical instruments and she needs to take care of some stuff regarding the "Raquy" dumbeks and then she's going to Khan El Khalili to pick up the "Raquy and the Cavemen" galabeyas. I must have one of those. Anyway as I write this, I am really sore. Was is from my dance lesson with Aida Nour yesterday? Perhaps. But I think it's from the big face plant I did outside of Aida's studio in Giza. Someone put a big stupid concrete block in the middle of the street and I, well, tripped over it right before my lesson. Splat. I was a little confused and lacking in sleep, I was checking the time on my cell phone and BAM! I went down. Cell phone flying. I get up, like, yeah, I'm fine... I go up to Aida's studio, I'm kind of mess of dirt and bloodiness. She and her assistant proceed to bandage me up, I have scraped my knee and I have a big cut on my elbow. Okay, I can't believe Aida Noor is wrapping me in gauze... so I dance anyway. We worked on baladi style, it's that earthy country girl belly dance style that I love, like Fifi Abdo. So let's back track... the night before, upon my return from Minya (more later on that) I went with Andrea and Liz to see the street musicans at Khan El Khalili. We all got up to dance and the crowd there, all Egyptian, went crazy. I didn't have my video camera but Liz did and I'll have to put that up somehow. This was no cheezy nightclub, this was the real thing and we had a blast. Then this little girl got up to dance and she was so amazing. Wow, I really love the girls here. Minya.... Raquy got a grant from the American Embassy to do a show in a non-touristy part of Egypt, hence our trip to Minya, 3 hours away from Cairo in Upper Egypt. We were greeted by Joseph, our host from the Jesuit compound where we were staying and performing. Everyone as the Jesuit compound was so nice, they gave us three meals a day, whatever time we wanted and they wanted to take us around everywhere. Not only Joseph and Bassem (the tech guy in the theater) but a whole bunch of security guards. Even soldiers felt like they needed to come with us on our walk along the cornish (boardwalk) on the Nile. The next day we went out on Felucca. I was filming our entire ride when I thought that I felt the boat almost tip over. So I grab my camera and hit the floor, as did the girls with their Kevork riqs ( a very expensive riq, handmade in Lebanon). The sail ended up breaking in half but we and expensive things were all fine. That night Raquy and the Messengers performed for a very excited audience, the best yet so far. The energy in the theatre was buzzing and people were loving Raquy's music. Especially when she did some classic Egyptian pieces that they could sing along to.Raquy invited up a security guard from the compound who also happened to be a tabla player and they played the "Minya" song together. The audience was like "Akram, Akram..." One day your a security guard, the next, a rock-n-roll star. Well that's all for now, more to come on some of the shows I've been to while I'm here.

Wedding Crashers and dancing boys...

amyraks — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:27:36 GMT

So I get off the plane in Cairo and get into a taxi. I have no idea where I'm going. The apartment that we had in Garden City fell through and so Andrea gave directions to the driver and I just hoped I would arrive in one piece. After another phone call to Andrea, I ffinally met up with her and Liz in front of our apartment in Zamalek, a part of Cairo that reminds me of Sunnyside, Queens. It's a nice place with 3 bedrooms and we even have satellite TV. Andrea had been invited to a wedding, but alas we arrived to late, 2:00 am, so we just crashed a different wedding in the same hotel. They had a huge band with like five percussionists and we danced with the bride for a bit until we got kicked out. The bride was really sweet though and was a great dancer. After that adventure we decided to check out one of the nightclubs that are on a boat on the Nile. This one was called Queen Boat, and every 45 minutes a new band would play with different singers, etc. The clientle varied, from prostitutes to some sort of Prince. One band came out with four frame drummers who then started to dance and play at the same time. With like choreographies... They caught our attention and we totally egged them on. We got up to dance with them eventually, they were pretty cute. Hopefully we'll see them again before we leave. The next night we had a rehearsal on a felucca. Raquy and the Messengers (Rami, Marjorie, Bashirah, and Natalia), practiced their pieces for the show at El Sawy on Sunday. We rode around the Nile for about 2 hours as I filmed that rehearsal. Sunday was the first show at El Sawy Cultural Center. Raquy was like a rock star and she played with the Messengers as well as famous Egyptian drummer, Khamis Henkish. The audience loved the show and I really hope my footage came out okay. After the show, Raquy and the gang got interviewed for TV show that should be airing next Monday in Egypt. The interview took like a hour... with lots of fighting between the director and the news reporter. We met we some Egyptian friends that Andrea and everyone met last year, Atef and Karim, who we then invited over to our place to hang out. The doorman wouldn't let them up because we were foreign women and they were Egyptian men. We were like these are our friends! But no go. They couldn't come upstairs with us, so for now on any male friend of ours has to wear a wig and be fully covered! Tomorrow Raquy has a show at the American University in Cairo and then on Wednesday we are off to Minia. Raquy taught a seminar at American this morning which I didn't get to videotape because I didn't have security clearance. My poor camera was confiscated at security but... tomorrow night everything should be cool. At American we ran into a woman named Dina who we know from Middle Eastern Camp. She is a friend of our friend Miles, who is arriving in Cairo 2 days after we leave. Ah, Damn! Miles is pretty awesome guy and bassist that we met a camp last summer. Anyway that's all for now, I'm off to the shopping area, Khan el Khalili for some bellydance stuff....