I just finished attending the very first Jamila Salimpour Format Level I weeklong workshop (well, the first in the last 25 years, anyway.) It was an incredible week. Not only was it a chance to really dig into the roots of tribal bellydance, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to spend the week with Jamila herself. Going in I wasn’t sure how much of the workshop would actually be taught by Jamila, (after all, she just recently turned 82 years old,) but aside from the morning warm-ups which were taught by Rebecca, and the morning review sessions which we handled by Sabriye, the entire [sold out] workshop was conducted by Jamila. What a treat!

We wore finger cymbals every day, and practiced all of the patterns on her finger cymbal CD, sometimes just standing, but mostly while dancing. It was intense and LOUD (earplugs were acquired and helped tremendously). We learned all of the movements from the first 3 Jamila Salimpour Format Archive videos and almost everything in her manual, The Danse Orientale. (The remaining steps are to be taught in the Level II workshop.)

Every day we had a lecture (storytime!) from Jamila, who shared with us her history, spanning from her childhood and her time with the Ringling Brothers circus, through her three marriages, learning to bellydance, owning two nightclubs, teaching dance, the creation of Bal Anat, and her first retirement from teaching (she returned to teaching weekly classes at Suhaila’s studio a few years ago.) She is a terrific storyteller, funny and frank.

We also got to see rare archival footage of Bal Anat in the early 1970s, Jamila’s classes, and some of Suhaila’s first stage performances, which were especially instructive in terms of understanding the evolution from Jamila’s format to Suhaila’s.

Suhaila was present at much of the workshop but yielded the floor to Jamila (with the exception of occasionally reminding her mother that certain steps were to be introduced *later* in the workshop when Jamila, in her enthusiasm, introduced them earlier than planned.) I could tell that for Suhaila hosting this workshop was a gift, not just to us, the students, but to her mother as well.

Jamila absolutely glowed during the whole workshop. It was clear that she was thrilled to be able to share her knowledge with such an attentive group of women, who were equally thrilled to bask in the presence of this icon of American bellydance and to learn as much as they could. The participants included women from all over the US, Canada, Taiwan, Korea, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. It was staggering to witness their commitment and hunger for knowledge.

At the end of the week, all but a handful of the attendees took the certification test, a requirement for admission into the Jamila Level II workshops which will be held in March 2009 and 2010. As I whispered during storytime to a friend who was waffling on whether to take the test, “How could you not want another week of this?” We came away with improved finger cymbals skills, a better understanding of the history and foundation of American bellydance, and many, many ideas and plans for how to incorporate more of these movements and cymbal patterns into our repertoires. And the tote bag with the Bob Mackie (yes, *that* Bob Mackie) illustration of Jamila on it was the icing on the cake. 