Thread: Om Kalthoum Lecture Workshop 11/04/07 in Milwaukee

Presented by Galatea Middle Eastern Dance

Om Kalthoum is the most important and beloved figure in the history of the Middle East. In this 90 minute multimedia lecture, Galatea will explain the religious, social and political forces that catapulted a humble country girl to become the icon known to this day as “The Voice of Egypt”. Documentary and dance performance footage will be presented, as well as translated lyrics to several of her best-known songs. If you already perform to Om Kalthoum songs, or aspire to in the future, don’t miss this lecture geared specifically to Belly Dance artists.

Where: Sunday, November 4th 5:30pm to 7:00pm
When: Shaia Fahrid Egyptian Dance Studio (3575 N. Newhall Street, Milwaukee)
Price: $12 in advance, $15 at the door
Contact: Galatea Middle Eastern Dance, 262 844-2483 or galateadancer AT gmail DOT com

Cool! It's really great to see an increasing number of dancers doing the research and presenting it in lecture form. I firmly believe that it elevates our dance form to show our students (as well as the public) that there's more to our dance than the movement technique people learn in class!

It sounds wonderful!! I am looking forward to this.

I wish I could go, ut I am holding the ultimate accessory party at my store on the same day. I hope that you will be able to do it again!

Nilaja

ahhhh, I wish there was something like this in the CT/NY area. have a great lecture!

Is there any way to get a copy of your lecture notes/ hand outs etc? I would love to be there but being in japan it is kind of impossible

Thanks for the votes of support! If anyone who can't make the workshop would be interested having me bring it to your neck of the woods, feel free to PM or email me .

How this came about was that I devoted an entire Level 2 class to the subject, and it was really well recieved by my students. I was talking to another teacher *waves at shaia* and she was saying she wished she had the time and knowledge to put something like that together for her students. I jokingly said "oooh, maybe I should take it on the road - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Om K But Were Afraid to Ask" :Ahappy: I was surprised when she responded that she thought that would be a great idea, and found there was interest when she asked her students if they would take something like that.

It seems like so many dancers, especially if their instructor is not strict Egyptian style, hear about Om Kalthoum, but it's never really explained to them *why* she's so important to the ME people (and by extension, us dancers). There's all this talk about how you don't do "x" to her music, but it's really difficult to explain to people why that's so, if you don't understand the context of her status in the ME. To the uninitiated, which I was for some time (my first teacher, and AmCab dancer for over 20 years, told me she had never even heard of Om K when I asked her about the subject ), it just sounds like, "Well, just because, that's why!".

For sure, I am no scholarly expert on Om Kalthoum, although I did put a good amount of research into the class (and will include more for the workshop, since it is longer), and I'm not even going to try to teach people how to dance to her music - heck, I'm still trying to get good at that myself! I really just want to pass along, in one consice chunk, all the information I learned the hard way over a few years.

annwyn, I sent you a PM, habibi!

Originally Posted by najla86

ahhhh, I wish there was something like this in the CT/NY area. have a great lecture!

There is a Film and History class that will take place at the Arab Dance Seminar in New Haven, CT. The whole event is suppose to be really informative and educational. You might want to check it out

here is the site
http://www.arabdanceseminar.com/

and here is their schedule
http://www.arabdanceseminar.com/ads_schedule.pdf

Good Luck

I actually attended that seminar 2 years ago, it was a nice mix of styles...VERY sore afterwards! The Film and History class and the Arabic language classes unfortunately weren't offered then--they must have added them recently.

Sent you a little PM ms Galatea!

Sent you a PM! :)

i think i'll take a road trip to milwaukee for this. haven't been in a while and I love Madame Khaltoum. This will give me a starting point so that next time I'm in Cairo I can go to her museum with a level of knowledge.

PM's have been returned! Wow, so much interest - I'm floored!

Rakgirl, Nilaja might be bringing me a little closer to you, but I have no idea when. But I would certainly be delighted to see you up here in Milwaukee too!

You go girl! Laura, Im going to email Naama Rose about this, she wanted to do something with Om K too.

Wow! Thanks, Sumaya!

Afraid I can't be there, Laura... but I wanted to offer you my utmost support on a FABULOUS workshop topic!

Now THESE are the sorts of topics we need, rather than learning choreography after choreography.

What a great idea! Maybe one day you'll get out to the Baltimore/Washington area. I took a short workshop with Lucy of D.C. on Om Kolthoum and it was one of the best workshops I've ever taken.

Originally Posted by Toya

What a great idea! Maybe one day you'll get out to the Baltimore/Washington area. I took a short workshop with Lucy of D.C. on Om Kolthoum and it was one of the best workshops I've ever taken.

Well, I doubt there's anything I know that Lucy doesn't - maybe she would do something similar locally if she were asked?

Originally Posted by Adishakti

Now THESE are the sorts of topics we need, rather than learning choreography after choreography.

Adishakti, I agree with you that these are important topics for workshops, but my experience has been that they don't attract very large audiences. When Saqra brought me out to Portland to teach my 2-hour lecture/video presentation as part of her Saqra's Showcase event on how Egyptian dance evolved in the 20th century, only 5-6 people attended it.

With such low attendance when sponsors experiment with that sort of alternative concept for a workshop, you can bet they won't be willing to take too many risks.

Still, I did manage to attract a significantly larger crowd size when I taught it in Omaha a couple of months ago, and I'm hoping the same will be true when I present it at Northern Lights festival later this month.