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April Dancer of the Month:
Nandi!
Nandi is a performer and teacher that is a recent
addition to the St Louis Belly Dance scene. She brings
with her years of performing and teaching experience
as well as show production and dance company direction.
This interview was conducted by Sakinah Ali.STLBD: How long have you been dancing?
Nandi: Well, I've been been belly dancing since 2000, but I've been dancing since I was 8 years old. I started my training with ballet, tap and jazz. After graduating from college, I went to different countries and learned lots of different styles of cultural dance, including traditional Japanese and Polynesian. I'm also very dedicated to African Dance, since that's my way of connecting to my history and my ancestors.
STLBD: What led you to bellydancing?
Nandi: After I returned from learning Polynesian dance in the South Pacific, I saw a show on tv that had veiled belly dancers. They were doing moves that looked very similar to the moves I had learned in Polynesian and I thought it would be interesting to take classes. A few days later, I went to my first Renaissance festival to see my sister perform. I heard this "ching ching" in the distance and this lady was playing finger cymbals and leading a group of belly dancers. I tackled her after the performance and asked for her card. I went to her class and haven't stopped since.
STLBD: Tell us about your first teacher?
Nandi: My first teacher, the lady with the cymbals, was named Zarifa. She was trained by Cassandra, andmoved to Charlotte many years ago. She was one of the first belly dance teachers in the area. She was in her sixties when I started my training with her, and I remember thinking to myself that I wanted to move like her when I became her age. That little lady could move! She trained us in the classical Egyptian style and her training is some of the best I have ever received. I will always be grateful for what I learned from her. She is still dancing and teaching in Charlotte.
STLBD: Who are the performers that you admire?
Nandi: I absolutely love Dandesh from Egypt! She has a very grounded earthy style that she does that seems like it's effortless. Sadly, she is not dancing anymore. She now wears hijab. She has felt the pressures of conservatism that has been sweeping over Egypt lately. Others that I admire are Fifi Abdou, Saida from Argentina (her stage presence alone will smoke up a stage) and I like Suhaila's business sense.
STLBD: You are new to the belly dance scene in St. Louis. Why did you choose this particular area?
Nandi: I think that St. Louis actually chose me. Certain situations led me here. Though the "reason" for moving here does not exist anymore, there have been many reasons for me to stay. St. Louis is in a transitional state, and there is mass potential for growth here. Especially in the arts. Great things are in the making!
STLBD: What's the scene like in your hometown?
Nandi: Belly Dance in Charlotte is young compared to the scenes in St. Louis or someplace like the Bay Area. It has grown alot and there are now a variety of performers and teachers and different styles represented now. Just like Charlotte itself really. It's also a young city that has grown alot. I've seen both the city and the belly dance scene grow and change before my eyes.
I really love the scene in the Triangle area , Raleigh/Durham NC. I lived there before I moved here. They have built a community based on respect, sisterhood, and support. Dancers even arranged events so that they wouldn't conflict with some other belly dance event that was taking place. A professional organization was created that addressed issues like standard fees that we all honored to prevent under cutting, and insurance for teachers which was inexpensive since every teacher bought into the plan. Their community is evidence that belly dancers don't have to be catty, back-biting, or negative. We are fabulous women and we can treat each other with that same kind of fabulous respect!
STLBD: You used to teach. Do you think you will began teaching again?
Nandi: I don't know if I'll teach regular classes again, but I am teaching alot of workshops. I'm really passionate about training performers at this point. Performance is a whole different animal, and separate training is required to prepare for that.
STLBD: Tell us about you name?
Nandi: My name is actually a Zulu name. Nandi was the mother of Shaka Zulu, the greatest ruler of the Zulu nation. When Nandi was pregnant with her son, she was cast out of the kingdom, she raised her son to be a great warrior who went back to the kingdom, and redeemed her. So the name translates to "Woman of high esteem". Since I'm not Arabic, I wanted a name that spoke more to my culture and history. Strangely, in Hindi, my name means "Joy" which is what my birth name is!
STLBD: How do you think the community at large sees bellydance?
Nandi: I think that they still have a really hard time understanding what belly dance really is. It is essentially an art form from another culture that we expect them to respect, yet we sometimes give them no context to relate it to. The rhythms are foreign, they don't understand the words to the songs, etc. An authentic Egyptian show works in Egypt because the audience understands the context. They know the words to the songs! We as dancers learn and absorb the music, culture and context of the dance well and we perform it flawlessly at times, but we forget that we still have to make this understandable here in America. And we have to do this through performance! Not everyone is going to take a class, and if they do, they still may not connect. If we fail to translate on stage through the dance, then the only thing they will ever relate to is half-naked dancing girls! If you look at the Golden Age dancers, they did alot of things that were not traditional (like veil dancing, and adding elements of ballet,) in an effort to make the dance understandable to European audiences. I don't think this was wrong or compromising at all.
STLBD: What are your plans for the future?Nandi: Gosh! It's going to be a busy year! I'll be traveling and performing alot. And teaching more workshops. I'm happy to be sponsored in a workshop and show by Somra El Nubia in June this year. I'm really looking forward to it!
October-Nisaa
November-Deserae
December-Somra
January-Diana
February-Sakinah
March-Salwaa
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