First Annual Tucson Raqs and Rolls

So let’s just get this out of the way: I adore Artemis Mourat. After spending a weekend learning from her, she’s my new role model for myself when I hit my 60s. I want to be an awesome, knowledgeable woman who can still dance a full set after teaching all day.

Artemis was brought to Tucson by local dancers Cat Vigil (aka Zeina) and Barbara from Veils of Mystery, to headline their first annual Tucson Raqs and Rolls event. I have to say, it’s so nice to once again have someone in Tucson hosting instructors from out of state, because it’s been way too long and I wasn’t about to take that task on myself! I think it was a really good choice in their part to kick this new event off with such a respected and knowledgeable dancer. I like it when people don’t do things by halves!

The weekend started Friday night with a hafla featuring some of Tucson’s favorite local dancers. It was also supposed to serve as a meet-and-great with Artemis, but her travel plans went awry as they so often do, so she didn’t make it. We still had fun, and I had the pleasure and honor of closing the night with a vintage-inspired femme fatale number.

Saturday we had two workshops, the first on Turkish Oriental belly dance, the second on Turkish Romani dance. I really appreciated how in the first workshop, Artemis compared and contrasted Turkish and Egyptian in a way that discussed the similarities and differences without any judgement on which was better. Then in the second workshop, she compared Oriental and Romani. I found that it really helped my understanding, to know not just what the dances were, but what they were not, and where there was also a little overlap.

Unfortunately my injured toe was not fully healed as I had optimistically felt it was. It was a little sore after Friday’s performance (I blame the concrete floor and my insistence on dancing barefoot that night), and it quickly made it clear to me that it was not ready for the fancy footwork of Turkish belly dance. So I ended up sitting out most of the first workshop and all of the second one. However, just by sitting on the sidelines, taking notes, and gently marking the movements, I feel like I absorbed a lot, which I can revisit when my foot is strong again.

On Saturday night, there was a gala show with more Tucson dancers, visiting performers from Phoenix and northern AZ, and a full set from Artemis. She must have danced for 20-30 minutes, and it included a Turkish Rom fusion piece and an acoustic zill number where she showed off the various tones she could get from her beautiful vintage finger cymbals. Not only did she demonstrate great skill, but her stage presence was scintillating!

Sunday morning we had a lecture. A lecture you guys! I am a total dance nerd and when I’m in the presence of someone with scholarly knowledge of dance, I really want to just listen to them talk all day. So I really enjoyed this! Artemis spent about 1.5 hours sharing her research and theories on the history of belly dance, all the way through its evolution to what we see on the stages today. My favorite part was when she said that belly dance was like a tree, and it doesn’t have just one single root. Anything that someone points at and says “This is the origin of belly dance!” is really just one part of the vastly tangled whole. After the talking, there was half an hour of vintage video clips, photos, and paintings that showed the evolution of dance and costuming, as well as some footage of Turkish Romani villagers dancing at a wedding. It was awesome!

Obviously, I really enjoyed my weekend and I feel like I learned a lot. Artemis had so much knowledge and was so open with it. Any time anyone asked a question, she gave a well-thought-out answer. She was really encouraging, excited when people got things and happy when they asked interesting questions.

I highly recommend taking a workshop with Artemis, or attending one of her lectures. Conveniently, she is offering her lecture on the history of belly dance at Waking Persephone, as well as a sacred dance lecture and ritual. But if you’re not going to be in Seattle in October, you can also visit her website Serpentine.org and see when and where she’ll be teaching next.