Thread: Habibi You Are My WHAT?! Survival Arabic for Dancers ~ San Francisco Bay Area 4/19/09

“Habibi You Are My WHAT?!” Survival Arabic for Dancers
~ Taught by Leyla Lanty

$15 - After USA tax time price buster!

Sunday, April 19, 2009 ~ 2 pm to 4 pm ~ Doors open 1:30 pm
Lunatic Fringe Belly Dance Essentials Studio
182 South Murphy St., Sunnyvale, CA ~ 408-732-2405
~ Plenty of Free Parking!
email contact ~ leyla@leylalanty.com

Do you wonder what Arabic singers are singing about while you're dancing? Do you wonder how to interpret Arabic songs to your audience? If you want to know how to put real meaning into your dancing, this fun and informative workshop is for you.

While you won't learn to speak Arabic in 2 hours, you WILL learn the most commonly heard words and phrases from Arabic dance songs along with the gestures and body language that go with them. This will help you understand the tone and emotion of Arabic songs and how to express them to your audience. You'll have everyone, even Arabs, wondering where and how you learned Arabic! Dance classics and recent pop songs will be used as study tools. By the end of the workshop you’ll be able to sing along with a well known pop song and how to interpret it to an audience.

Besides speaking Arabic, Leyla Lanty is known for her Egyptian style cane dance, zill playing, and music interpretation. She has studied Egyptian Arabic and singing in Arabic with native Arabic speakers. On frequent study trips to Cairo, Egypt, she interacts with dancers, musicians, and “just plain folks”, observing how they embellish their words with gesture and body language whether singing, performing or just having a conversation. She has brought this knowledge back home to share it with you.

I wish I still lived in the Bay Area - I'd come if I were local!

Y'know, it might be interesting to propose this to Raqia as a workshop to offer in her festival in the future!

I can't afford to travel there just for this course either, but...

Wouldn't it be great if it could be saved on video, then offered for purchase as an on-line video course? Perhaps as a video podcast on i-Tunes or other similar service. I'd love it! Has anyone tried anything like this?

Fionna

Originally Posted by *Shira*

I wish I still lived in the Bay Area - I'd come if I were local!

Y'know, it might be interesting to propose this to Raqia as a workshop to offer in her festival in the future!

Shira and Fionna, I wish you were in the area too. I'm offering this now before going to Cairo to AWS to get a little more experience with it before discussing it with Raqia. There may be a problem doing it at AWS because I can only translate into English, not the many other languages spoken by festival attendees. OTOH, English is the main communication language at the festival, so who knows? There may be an online or "no frills" video version in the future - currently investigating.

Wish I could attend, also. Love the title!

I will be in Windsor on the 19th, darn!! Opposite direction of Sunnyvale. I would be there otherwise for sure -- will you be offering this on any other date -- anywhere? Please email me if you are, Leyla -- thanks!

too bad I'm on the East coast.

Alrana

Yay! Just checked my calendar and it is clear that day! Will be there :)

Yes, please!

Originally Posted by leylalanty

There may be an online or "no frills" video version in the future - currently investigating.

Khalila, it'll be great to see you there! Naiya, I'm sorry you won't be able to make it - drat! I may do it again in the Bay Area in the fall or early 2010.

Originally Posted by leylalanty

Khalila, it'll be great to see you there! Naiya, I'm sorry you won't be able to make it - drat! I may do it again in the Bay Area in the fall or early 2010.

Can you do it at COS in October? John and I are vending, I'm dancing, will be there for sure --- please-please-please!!!! It would be such a great workshop to take! If you can do it, count me in .....

Originally Posted by naiyahayal

Can you do it at COS in October? John and I are vending, I'm dancing, will be there for sure --- please-please-please!!!! It would be such a great workshop to take! If you can do it, count me in .....

Great idea, Naiya, but I can do it only if Alexandria invites me. The teachers, Dahlena and Mahsati, are already lined up and on the website. I'll be there, probably volunteering.

Too bad I'm in Australia!

Now that's a distance that almost has me in tears a lot as there are workshops over your way I'd love to attend :(

I think the idea of turning it into a video and marketing it is a fabulous idea. It wouldn't necessarily need to be a slicked out video, either, just a taping of your workshop. I would definitly be interested in buying it.

Originally Posted by jamielynn

I think the idea of turning it into a video and marketing it is a fabulous idea. It wouldn't necessarily need to be a slicked out video, either, just a taping of your workshop. I would definitly be interested in buying it.

A self-produced "no frills" DVD with maybe some minimal, simple chaptering (translation - something I can do myself) is a possibility. Gauging interest here - anyone else interested in such a DVD?

I think you should post it as it's own thread since this one is specifically titled for the Bay Area. I bet you would get lots of bhuzzers interested.

Originally Posted by jamielynn

I think you should post it as it's own thread since this one is specifically titled for the Bay Area. I bet you would get lots of bhuzzers interested.

Good idea - will do it soon, after the workshop, which is in 2 days!

I would definitely be interested in the DVD

I'll say it again - yes!

I have a 10-disc set of marketing related DVDs where they basically filmed the class with the ten participants, who were sitting around a big table, while the instructor went through the material via PowerPoint on a screen. There is nothing fancy about the DVD set. Even the filming was super simple - I think the instructor's wife filmed it. It came with a booklet of info that the participants had, too. Even in its simplicity, it is a very effective delivery method as opposed to just reading the info on your own. It was worth the cost because the content was/is meaningful to us.

Originally Posted by leylalanty

A self-produced "no frills" DVD with maybe some minimal, simple chaptering (translation - something I can do myself) is a possibility. Gauging interest here - anyone else interested in such a DVD?

Thanks, Kiyaana! The workshop went very well. I hired a videographer and sometime in the near future will have a DVD with chapters. Stay tuned...