Joana Saahirah´s World Blog
A Collection of Articles, Videos, and Freebies on Egyptian Dance, Self-Discovery & Empowerment
What happens - in your dance & in your life - when your heart is closed?
Egyptian Dance has become a competition, an endless marathon, a game of divas, lobbies, and marketing-made stars. I´m not complaining, just stating. Knowing where we are helps us define where we want to go.
Within this trend, there´s no space for EMOTION, SOUL, PRESENCE, LIFE.
The Egyptian Dance scene has become an extension of the world we´re currently living in, one that´s obsessed with EFFICIENCY, PRODUCTIVITY, GOAL ACHIEVEMENT, MACHINE-LIKE SPEED &...
What is FREEDOM?
Teaching is learning twice. Indeed.
As I work on the NEW ONLINE COURSE "My first Tabla Solo - Introduction to Rhythm & Freedom" (Click HERE to discover this pioneering course), I´m invited to go deeper into dance, rhythm, and freedom.
From these elements, FREEDOM is the trickiest and also the most important. 
If you´ve been following me and my work, you know I don´t separate Egyptian Dance from Life. What we learn for the first applies to the second. And...
Precious Lessons I learned from Mahmoud Reda, the Father of Egyptian Folklore
My path, in life as in dance, hasn´t always been easy but it has been rich, filled with evolution, joy, accomplishments, pleasure, and blessings.
One of the biggest gifts I received was Mahmoud Reda´s friendship, teachings, and support.
Mahmoud Reda
If you love Egyptian Dance and you don´t know Mahmoud Reda and/or The Reda Troupe, you have to change it. Educate yourself, starting HERE and HERE...
STOP postponing LIFE, DANCE, and the JOY you deserve - embrace them NOW!
The moment you stop waiting for others to bring you joy and you become The One who brings it into your life is the moment you start Living.
We often disempower ourselves by putting the responsibility of our happiness, an inside job, into strangers' hands, failing to understand other people may add to our life but they can't make our life. Only we can.
The same happens with Dance - "I'll enjoy it when... I'll put my heart into it if... I'll be creative when... I'll dare...
A BOOST for your SELF-ESTEEM - a loving kick in the butt from yours truly
Self-esteem is one of those invisible tools without which nothing in ourselves, our dance, or in our life can grow.
When we don´t have self-esteem, we don´t know how to value, take care, present and invest in ourselves; when we don´t have self-esteem, we choose self-destructive thoughts, feelings, circumstances, and relationships; if we don´t have self-esteem, we´ll always sabotage our own happiness, success, and inner peace. In dance, as in life.
Who would want...
The Perfect Woman Trap - I´m sick of it; aren´t YOU?
What does it mean to be a WOMAN?
I´ve seen it in myself and in most of my female students and friends - a sense of confusion, overwhelm, impossibly high expectations that leave us drained, machine-like, on survival mode, multiplying ourselves yet never feeling like we´re enough or doing enough.
This morning, I went through my morning routine - early rising, ingesting a few cups of water, doing yoga and meditation -; I dressed the nurse cloak and took care of my man...
What makes a Good* Dancer?
Here´s a tricky question because there are many definitions of what makes a good dancer.
As in any other subject, all I can do is offer you my own perspective:
*A good dancer is – above all – a generous being. She/he does not dance to gain applauses, affection and praise but to GIVE, SERVE, SHARE and ADD something to the audience and the world.
*A good dancer lives in a fine line between self-confidence and the essential insecurity that makes her/him want to improve, study,...
What is TARAB* (or the Art of Loving)
The question is constantly returning to the table, insistent as a love affair we threw in the past although it keeps hunting our nights and days.
What is TARAB? I could answer with another question: What is LOVE?
Both concepts are hard to describe by words (and live beyond words) – easier to EXPERIENCE (for those are or were blessed to be offered experiences that made them merge with Life in the NOW and get lost in the moment).I believe there are feelings, experiences and concepts which...
What is (Egyptian) Oriental Dance?
The so called “Egyptian” Oriental dance style has often been talked about, chased and even taught without a clear understanding of what it really means.
As I assisted the Master Mahmoud Reda (search for “Reda Troupe”) on his choreographic and teaching work, I met a lot of dancers who popped out of every corner of the world in order to study with him, yet not knowing exactly what he was teaching. Was it Egyptian dance? Oriental? Folklore? What, exactly?
I often ended up...
What I learned from Egyptians (for life and for dance)?
In 8 years of Life and Career in Egypt there are trucks of Knowledge, Lessons learnt and Treasures gathered. They will not fit in a website post but here I leave “just” a hint of the Magic*
What have I learned from Egyptians?
*Life wise and Dance wise – both internally connected.
I can honestly say I recovered the Roots and Essence of Egyptian Dance from the experience of having a life and daily performing ritual in Egypt. It has not been an easy school. It has actually been...
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