Kajira WS review in the Sept/Oct '07 issue of Zaghareet

 

Tribal ohne Grenzen / Tribal without frontiers

A tribal workshop with Kajira in Pirmasens Germany March 2007
sponsored by Setareh Ha

It was Friday afternoon; 3:00 when I sat in the car and we were stuck in traffic on one of Germany’s most used highways the A8. Upset about the delay, I thought, I will actually meet and train with the famous Kajira. She seems like she really knows her stuff and HOW she wants it done. After all, I always read her articles in the Zagareet. What if she is a tribal fusion eating dragon and has an appetite for dancers like me? “Well, I guess we will find out” I thought to myself.

After what seemed forever, we made it to the PSV in Pirmasens. PSV stands for Police sports Club. The organizers, Ramona and her tribe Setareh Ha are part of this club and use their facility which lies in a very wooded part of the city. This club is very special to me since I started dancing with them.  They are mostly volunteers that teach and train the 2 performance troupes: Setareh Ha Tribal and Shanamar.

I entered and immediately was welcomed by my good friends from Setareh Ha as well as some of the new members I hadn’t met yet. A glass of Champaign was put into my hand and after cheers, and more hugs, I got to see who else was there. Before I moved to the states I hadn’t been very active in the tribal scene in Germany. But I remembered that they are like a big family where everybody knows everybody. The cool thing was that I was integrated and welcomed into this family immediately without questions to who I am or what I do.

After being settled in and more Champaign and snacks (delicious cake, fruit and nuts served with apple tea), we got to gather around in a big circle and we all introduced ourselves to Kajira. Leonie, one of Setareh Ha’s members translated the mostly German comments. By the way, she translated the entire workshop word for word. Great job Leonie! Kajira sat among us and I watched her as everybody introduced themselves. There must have been 30 of us and everybody told a little about themselves, which Miss K seamed eager to hear. From that point on, she remembered everybody’s name!

We were such a good group (mostly Germans, but also some cool girls from England). It was hard to get started since we all enjoyed our “get to know each other time’, but we did finally get up and start dancing. I will not go through all of the little details of the workshop, let me just tell you, YOU HAD TO HAVE BEEN THERE! Kajira made each and everybody there feel comfortable, competent and she inspired us. Her comments were productive, precise, never hurtful, and always ended with encouragements. We did not get tired of listening to her and soaked up every bit of information she offered. Every question was answered (and translated by LeonieJ). My personal highlight was when we got to improvise and follow our great instructor. It certainly gave me an overwhelming feeling of pride to have danced with such a wonderful performer and teacher.

All of the scheduled topics were more than covered and lots and lots of extra information was given; like how to do floor work, dancing with props, how to change your Zill patterns to make it more interesting and also how to use the Turkish  wooden spoons.

She encouraged us to experiment and to come up with new things, to add our personalities into our dance without sacrificing the integrity of traditional ATS.

One thing I need to add. The workshop was 16 hours over 2.5 days. I never saw here get tired, loose her patience, or to stop smiling. Her posture was impeccable from the first minute to the last. Wow! And no, she is not the tribal fusion eating dragon I was afraid she would be. She did however teach us the importance of proper naming of various styles. She taught us also the importance of keeping the improvisational aspect of ATS pure. It was clear; it is a matter of her heart and needed to be respected by all.

But we didn’t just work! If you have ever been in Germany, you’ll know that we are famous for our parties, beer and wine. Luckily I convinced Kajira to taste a glass of German red wine while we had dinner. Dinner, supplied by Setareh Ha was prepared by two Iranian ladies, Masoumeh and Nahid. It was simply heavenly, just like the grits cake; a specialty of Mr. Shazadie! While we wined and dinned, talked and laughed, the Middle Ages group Danserye prepared for the after party. A lot of these German tribes mostly perform at Ren fairs and it felt as if I was at one of them. The hookah was brought out; some girls fixed Turkish coffee (really strong!!) over a little boiler. Everybody got in a circle and to my surprise, we all started improvising.  Let me tell you, that was a sight! Individual dancers split off from the chorus and performed and applied the newly learned techniques in the center of our big circle. Right along with Kajira, who of course didn’t hesitate to join in the fun. We danced the night away to live middle ages music. When the band took a break, girls danced to recorded music: Tribal Fusion, Poi, glowing balls, and traditional ATS Performances, none better than the other. Just fantastic!

I could go on and on. To bring it to just a few closing sentences: If you ever have the opportunity to train with Kajira, or to see her perform, take advantage of it. I personally feel that I grew to be a much better tribal dancer in just those few exciting hours I had with her. …..My only question that was not (yet) answered was: "When are you going to be back in Germany?” I and all the other tribal dancers present that weekend think it can’t be soon enough. To all the participants there like Amira More, Shalia, Tanzweiber, Heike and Tonia and all the others, I loved dancing with you all. Thank you also Setareh Ha and -especially Shazadi- for the well organized event, for your hospitality and for the T shirts everybody got as a keepsake.

As of January ‘07, Aela Badiana resides in Stuttgart Germany where she teaches the various styles of Middle Eastern dance at the Military Installation "Patch Barracks". She is currently teaching workshops at various German studios. For more information and schedules of her workshops visit: www.aela-badiana.com