Posted in The Belly Dance Geek Clubhouse

Geek Out with Sahra Saeeda – Again!

Moulids

Belly Dance Geek Clubhouse Episode 62:
My guest, Sahra Saeeda (Sahra C. Kent), will talk about Egypt’s Saints Day Festivals.

Many dancers long for the opportunity to travel to the lands of the dance and some are lucky enough to be able to make a trip (or several!). But it can be difficult to know how and when move away from the tourist spots and engage with the local culture and people in their lives.

Sahra will be joining us in the Clubhouse to chat about Moulids, her experiences in Egypt, and what dancers can discover when engaging with the culture on a deeper level.

You’ll learn:

What Moulids are and how to find them
What you will see at a Moulid
About Sahra’s recent research and upcoming archive

We’ll also have some discussion time, so you can ask Sahra your questions.

About Sahra

Sahra started her Bellydance career at the Arabic nightclub, The Cascades, in Los Angeles, CA.

While she had always been interested in the intersection of culture and dance (her Bachelors was in Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology), a need to grow as a dancer sent her to the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) where she pursued a Masters degree in Dance Ethnology.

Through the course of her study, she had the amazing good fortune to find a great friend and mentor in her program, Farida Fahmy. When the time came to begin research for her thesis on the Zeffat al’Arusah, Farida encouraged her to come to Cairo and pursue that research in person.

While in Egypt she received a contract with the Meridian-Heliopolis 5-star hotel, which she held for nearly 6 years. Her position as a local dancer gave her an amazing springboard to learn about the zeffah, and so much more.

Sahra now teaches and dances around the world, sharing her theories on dance in Egypt, the regions, the “tables”, and the way everything fits together. She is constantly conducting more research with two trips to Egypt each year, every time hunting for that next “puzzle piece” that will reveal ever more about the dance, and the culture, that she fell in love with over 30 years ago.

Check her out at:
http://journeythroughegypt.com/