[Artemisia] Re:because you can can can!

[Reuben and Arwen]

  I hear ya'.  Sometimes the SCA is too wonderful in too many ways and you have to make these darned choices!  Fan sounds like it could be fun.  Can you recommend a technique video?  I don't think anyone in my area teaches it.  Is there any possible connection to an SCA period dance done with fans?  That could be interesting.  Cane is a blast, as well as maybe being period documentable (is that a word?)  I'm working on finding out.  Shira interviewed Mahmoud Reda about this recently.  I've pasted the info from Bhuz.com below.  I know Isis wings and shamadan are modern, but it would be fun to try just them just once.  Ain't too many zeffas in Helena, Montana <wink>  We must get an Arabic translation for Dance of the Turkey Leg.  How about a can dance in a Melaya leff dress?  In an odd way it seems to fit the bill.  Esther
   
  "Arwen, I interviewed Reda for 3 hours last July, which generated a series of 9 articles. The first 3 articles in the series have been published in Zaghareet Magazine, starting with the November/December 2006 issue which had Reda on the cover. The first article in the series was an introductory overview talking about how Reda did his research, how he created his dances based on his research, etc. The second article in the January/February 2007 issue was devoted to melaya leff, the third in the March/April 2007 issue to the men's Saidi stick dance. I expect the fourth to come out any day now - it will be about hagalla. In each article, I've included a map of Egypt which shows the part of Egypt associated with that particular dance.

You should be able to purchase the back issues from Sharina (the owner of Zaghareet) - her web site is http://www.zaghareet.freeservers.com/ and I'm sure you can find contact info on there."
   
  I'll see if I can drum up an appropriate cane or cane substitute for 
myself, although I think I'll skip the metallic foil ones. I'm 
actually not 100% sure I'll be able to attend, although I am going to 
try. Someone might want me to do a hair wrap or something. Just 
between you and me, being a merchant is nice when it pays for the 
event, but not so nice when the event has 100 classes on the list you 
want to attend.
    Fans are FUN! You must try them. They're a little like veil in that 
they're pretty easy to bling the audience with at any level, but 
there are plenty of ways to make them more hard and interesting as 
you become a more advanced dancer. I did a fan dance when I was in 
Thia's troupe Wisteria that was pretty fun, but the really, truly fun 
one I did was with a private troupe, Nenephta. We had one great big 
fan and three sets of small fans, and well, you'd probably have to 
see it, but I promise it was very, very cool. As for Isis wings, EEK! 
Wisteria did a wing dance one year. I hated it. I think both Wisteria 
and Nenephta did cane dances, too, but it was after I left.

I've never tried Shamadan, either. I thought about that when I 
mentioned missing props, but I've actually always thought dancers 
looked just a bit funny with candelabras on their heads. But then, 
who am I to talk? I decided to put a plate with a turkey leg on it on 
my head last weekend at a ren faire, along with a plate of curly 
fries on each palm. That might just be as ridiculous as the Egyptian 
can can costume I envisioned.

Taja (Belladonna)




       
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