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EVOLUTION OF ORIENTAL DANCE IN SLOVENIA
first published in Mosaic Magazine The beginnings This is a very short story of the evolution of oriental dance in Slovenia, a small country in SE Europe (Slovenia was a part of Yugoslavia until 1991). The first oriental dance workshop was organised in 1982, led by Kate McGowen, the wife of the director of the American cultural centre in Slovenia. One of the students of this workshop was Jasna Knez, an established and very well known contemporary dancer, who sought her inspiration on her travels to Sudan and Uzbekistan (here she studied Uzbeki, Afghani, Persian, Pakistani and Iraqi dances). Jasna started teaching oriental dance occasionally in the Studio for Free…
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FINGER CYMBALS
Where do they come from, what is their purpose and how do we learn them? I decided to dedicated the following lines to my favorite dance prop – finger cymbals. I was lucky to discover finger cymbals at an early stage of learning oriental dance and they became an integral part of my dance routine ever since. Did you know that finger cymbals were actually one of the first props used by Egyptian dancers?We can find certain archeological evidence as far back as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia are concerned. The first ancient Egyptian finger cymbals were made out of wood and ivory, in a rectangular or crescent-shaped form. Later, post…
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A LACK OF MOTIVATION FOR DANCE IN THESE QUARANTINE TIMES?
These are challenging times we are currently living in and we have all been exposed to this new quarantine situation, where things have changed a lot for dancers, dance teachers, and artists all over the world. Lately, I have heard so many stories about some dancers and dance teachers not being able to cope with this quarantine situation, losing their motivation for dance and the associative creativity that is a part of it. Being a dancer and dance teacher myself, I wanted to share with all of you some of the things I do to keep my motivation for dance at its highest level possible: MUSIC – now it´s the…
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THE REVIEW OF MY BOOK
I am extremely happy to share with you a wonderful review of my book, written by Cennet Seher and published by one of the best belly dance magazines in the US, The Belly Dance Chronicles. You can find the review on the following link: https://joom.ag/SBEC (page 75 & 76)
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ARTICLES
I am a very passionate and inquisitive Oriental dance researcher. I want to know everything about its roots and the culture behind it. I go to Egypt on a regular basis, where I gather new knowledge, and research how people dance in cities, villages, homes and night clubs. Some of my articles (based on academic and field research) will be published on this page.
