Evening of Decadence (events » community) Friday, June 20, 2008 - 7:00 PM An upcoming event in Iowa City designed especially for women. It's called "Evening of Decadence", and it's an evening of activities designed to relieve stress and enjoy socializing with other women.

Details:

Who: Sponsored by Kahraman Near East Dance Ensemble. Open to the public.

What: Evening of activities, including introductory lessons in reflexology, energy work, henna, and mineral makeup. Vendors will be available for those who wish to purchase massages, henna application, or makeup.

When: Friday, June 20. Doors open at 7:00 pm, first activity begins at 7:30 pm

Where: Kahraman Dance Studio, 330 East 2nd Street, Iowa City, IA (just off Gilbert, across from Nagle Lumber)

Why: Fund-raising event to benefit the arts non-profit, Kahraman Near East Dance Ensemble. We tried our first one in March, and received so much positive feedback that we're going to try to do them somewhat regularly.

Price: $15 for tickets purchased before June 13, or $20 for tickets purchased after June 13 or at the door. Send a check made out to "KNEDE" to Kahraman, 330 East 2nd Street, Iowa City, IA 52240. Include your name, phone number, email address, and a comment that this is registration for the Evening of Decadence on June 20.


Refreshments will be served, including CHOCOLATE! Bring a pillow and a friend! Wear comfortable, relaxing clothing.

For more information:

Web site: www.kahramandance.org
Phone: 319-354-9638

SOLD OUT!!! Sahra's 3-day folkloric intensive: Iowa City, Iowa! (events » arts) Friday, July 18, 2008 - 5:30 PM 382 RSVPs *** AS OF JUNE 9, 2008, THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT. NO NEW REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED. ***

Kahraman Near East Dance Ensemble will present Sahra's three-day Journey Through Egypt intensive program on Egyptian folkloric dance in Iowa City, Iowa July 18-20, 2008. Although Sahra is teaching other workshops in other parts of the Midwest this year, Iowa City is the only Midwestern location where she will be teaching her 20-hour folkloric program that culminates in a certification.

Due to the intensive nature of this course, we will be accepting a maximum of 25 registrations. This is your opportunity to study from a master instructor in a small class size environment for an affordable price.

Upon completing the full 20 hours of instruction, attendees will receive:
* A teaching notebook
* Map of folkloric zones
* New "Journey Through Egypt" DVD
* Music CD
* Certificate

Sahra will cover these topics in her instruction:

* Nubian
* Ghawazee
* Saidi
* Cairo (Awalim, Oriental, Hassaballah, Shamadan)
* Suez Canal Zone
* Delta
* Bedouin
* Pan-Egypt (History, Moulid, Tannoura, Melaya Leff, Zar)

Because this instruction was designed as a single cohesive unit, we do not intend to sell single-day passes. We are offering only registrations for the entire 3 days/20 hours, as follows:

Friday, July 18: registration at 5:30 pm, class starts at 6:00 pm
Saturday, July 19: class runs 9:30 - 1:30, then lunch break, then 2:00 - 6:00
Sunday, July 20: class runs 9:30 - 1:30, then lunch break, then 2:00 - 6:00

Prices are:

$250 if advance payment received by June 1, 2008
$275 if advance payment received between June 1 and June 15, 2008
$300 if advance payment received between June 16 and June 30, 2008
$325 if payment received July 1, 2008 or after

Register early - we expect this event to fill!

Oriental Dance: Egypt's Shameful Profession (events » arts) Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 10:30 AM Julie Elliot (Shira) be delivering a lecture / video presentation as part of the Arabic Arts Festival in Liverpool, England - Oriental Dance: Egypt's Shameful Profession.

The presentation will cover the position that dancers occupy in Egyptian society. It will use a combination of lecture and showing of dialogue scenes (with English subtitles) from Egyptian motion pictures to illustrate key points about the uneasy balance that represents the daily lives of dancers. The presentation will show the parallels between real-life news events involving dancers and similar situations portrayed in story lines of the films, and it will show how the real-life affair that a writer had with a dancer influenced the way dancers were portrayed in the scripts of movies based on his novels.

Sahra's folkloric intensive Part 1 in Iowa City, Iowa (events » arts) Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - 5:30 PM 401 RSVPs Join us in Iowa City, Iowa for Sahra Saeeda's Egyptian folkloric intensive! Upon completing the full 20 hours of instruction, attendees will receive as a part of the registration packet:

• A teaching notebook
• Map of folkloric zones
• New "Journey Through Egypt" DVD
• Music CD
• Certificate

Sahra will cover these topics in her instruction:

• Nubian
• Ghawazee
• Saidi
• Cairo (Awalim, Oriental, Hassaballah, Shamadan)
• Suez Canal Zone
• Delta
• Bedouin
• Pan-Egypt (History, Moulid, Tannoura, Melaya Leff, Zar)

Space is limited to 25 attendees. Register early - when we sponsored the same workshop in July 2008, it sold out a month before the event!

If you also want to sign up for Part 2 in Iowa City the weekend of January 9-11, register for both together and receive a discount.

You can sign up for Part 1 without taking Part 2, if you wish.

For those who want to come but are trying to hold hotel costs to a minimum, we've arranged a block of hotel rooms at only $57/night. We can help you find a roommate if you need one. Also, you can bring your own sleeping bag and pillow and sleep AT NO CHARGE on the floor of Kahraman Dance Studio - the city has a local recreation center whose locker room showers you can use for free.

Sahra's folkloric intensive Part 2 in Iowa City, Iowa (events » arts) Friday, January 9, 2009 - 5:30 PM 391 RSVPs www.kahramandance.org/images/...te12.pdf

Join us in Iowa City, Iowa for Part 2 of Sahra Saeeda's Egyptian folkloric intensive!

Sahra describes Part 2 as follows: "In JtE-2 we address movement proficiency, in addition to instruction in core Dance Ethnography concepts. We aim to study and replicate each dance zone's movement at the levels of: authentic indigenous home-style, local performers, regional government groups, national government theater-stage troupes: both Reda and Kowmeya, and within Night Club shows."

Space is limited to 20 attendees. Register early Pre-requisite: completion of Part 1 - it's ok to have completed Part 1 somewhere other than Iowa City, but if you took Part 1 in Iowa City then you're eligible for a discount for Part 2.

If you also want to sign up for Part 1 in Iowa City the weekend of December 5-7, register for both together and receive a discount.

For those on a tight budget, bring your own sleeping bag and pillow and you can sleep AT NO CHARGE on the floor of Kahraman Dance Studio. The city has a recreation center with free showers you can use. We've also set aside a block of hotel rooms for $57/night. Let us know if you need help finding a roommate.

Nearest airport is Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It has shuttle service to Iowa City.

Egyptian Dance: Evolution of an Art Form (events » arts) Saturday, April 18, 2009 - 6:30 PM 409 RSVPs Every dance has a history, and knowledge of that history empowers those of us who study, teach, and perform the dance today. Discover how Oriental dance ("belly dance") evolved from its roots as a social dance into the theatrical form we know today.

This lecture/video presentation brings to life how the traditional Egyptian dance was transformed over the 19th and 20th centuries from a social dance into a performing art presented in large theatrical environments and concert halls. Using video clips of dance scenes from Egyptian movies and dance concerts, this course illustrates how political, economic, and social factors all shaped the development of raqs sharqi in Egypt.

Following the 2-hour workshop will be a hafla with light refreshments, a mini-lesson for those who have never belly danced before, and dance performances. Workshop attendees who would like to perform can contact Liquid Hip Therapy for a performance slot.

For more details, see: www.shira.net/shira/workshops.htm

Oriental Dance: Egypt's Shameful Profession at Saqra's Showcase (events » arts) Saturday, April 25, 2009 - 7:30 PM 406 RSVPs The career of professional Oriental dancer is one of the most shameful ways a person can earn a living in Egypt. Dancers are considered synonymous with prostitutes because they use their bodies to make money. Many Egyptian movies have been made over the years depicting dancers as central characters. Although some paint an idealistic picture, others reflect the reality that dancers face, and also shape that reality by creating beliefs about dancers in the minds of the movie-going public.

This presentation uses a combination of lecture and dialogue scenes with English subtitles from Egyptian movies featuring dancers, their admirers, and their detractors to demonstrate the dark side of what it's like to be a dancer in Egypt. It shows dancers drinking and flirting with customers, wedding guests mocking the dancer, and more. The accompanying lecture links these fictitious movie scenes with factual background, revealing the real-life affair a movie's writer had with a dancer, the banning of a film from Egyptian television due to its content, a situation where a scene in a movie was paralleled by an actual news story, and more.