Local Teachers Who Work Together

[Suheir]

Many of us have examples of teachers with out-of-control egos who are unable to cope with "competition", but how about examples of teachers who work together?

I travelled to South Wales a couple of years ago to take workshops with Khaled Mahmoud, organised by Safeena. Many of my fellow students in the Advanced workshop were local teachers and the organiser told me that they all worked together to promote each other's events. There's a great website which promotes events in that area, run by a local DJ: Arabesq - Middle Eastern beats and belly dance in Wales - Arabesque

 

[karena]

That's what I see happening in my area. I'm not a teacher so maybe I'm oblivious to some undercurrent, but I go to many events where the teachers get together, all the classes get together, and then the teachers perform together. There are teachers outside this group, and who know what politics happen, but the descriptions people give of teachers back-stabbing each other are just so alien to me.

 

[Aisha Azar]

Teachers, etc.

Dear Gang,
I wish that were true in my area. Of course, we do have a terrible market glut here and that may be part of the problem, along with personal hostilities based on real and imagined slights. It is hard to be nice when other teachers purposely book their events as close to yours as possible, or claim knowledge that they do not have in order to compete, etc. Yesterday my dance company sponsored a Belly Dance Swap meet. One person outside our group bought tables to sell her used items. We had the majority of buyers from one group of students, with representative buyers from two other groups, and two groups were conspicuously absent. We sent the exact same flyers to everyone, inviting all groups to participate either as sellers or buyers. These people will not bend even to benefit their students! I need to clarify that my students and dance company members DO attend events sponsored by these people. I have quite attending events sponsored by one of them because she does everything she can to undermine me and my dancers, but I do not expect my dancers to stay away just because I do.
Regards,
A'isha

 

[Suheir]

Dwear Gang,
I wish that were true in my area. Of course, we do have a terrible market glut here and that may be part of the problem, along with personal hostilities based on real and imagined slights. It is hard to be nice when other teachers purposely book their events as close to yours as possible, or claim knowledge that they do not have in order to compete, etc. Yesterday my dance company sponsored a Belly Dance Swap meet. One person outside our group bought tables to sell her used items. We had the majority of buyers from one group of students, with representative buyers from two other groups, and two groups were conspicuously absent. We sent the exact same flyers to everyone, inviting all groups to participate either as sellers or buyers. These people will not bend even to benefit their students! I need to clarify that my students and dance company members DO attend events sponsored by these people. I have quite attending events sponsored by one of them because she does everything she can to undermine me and my dancers, but I do not expect my dancers to stay away just because I do.
Regards,
A'isha

Has it always been like this in your area, A'isha, or is it just in the last few years? When I started dancing in 1999 it seemed to be the same, familiar teachers in the UK for a good five years and then belly dance suddenly became trendy (mainly due to Shakira, BDSS, etc) and people started appearing from nowhere, some, as you've also found, claiming experience and knowledge that they just don't have.

 

[Aisha Azar]

Dance, etc.

Has it always been like this in your area, A'isha, or is it just in the last few years? When I started dancing in 1999 it seemed to be the same, familiar teachers in the UK for a good five years and then belly dance suddenly became trendy (mainly due to Shakira, BDSS, etc) and people started appearing from nowhere, some, as you've also found, claiming experience and knowledge that they just don't have.

Dear Suheir,
Yeah.... it has pretty much always been that way here, and I was one of the first dancers in town. But, I do not think that belly dancers are alone in this. I know the same thing happens in other kinds of artistic communities, and I have seen it also happen in academic circles, too. I hear it happens in business of just about any kind, etc.
Regards,
A'isha

 

[Maria_Aya]

Well I cant speak about the majority of greek bellydance community, but the ones that we are practising arabic style, we are connected.
We work together, we make show's together, we teach workshops together.
And most of all we respect and love each other, and we spread the word to our students also.

Kisses
Maria Aya

 

[karena]

I should imagine that it reflects the culture within which it is situated. Not a big expert on Greek or American political systems, but from what I see I would imagine America is more neo-liberal, individualist and capitalist than Greece, so perhaps this impacts on people's attitudes. And I could imagine a regional difference in the UK too with the good old north/south divide. Just a view relating something know about, to pop knowledge of other countries, so may be wrong...

 

[Aisha Azar]

Social attitudes effect dance

I should imagine that it reflects the culture within which it is situated. Not a big expert on Greek or American political systems, but from what I see I would imagine America is more neo-liberal, individualist and capitalist than Greece, so perhaps this impacts on people's attitudes. And I could imagine a regional difference in the UK too with the good old north/south divide. Just a view relating something know about, to pop knowledge of other countries, so may be wrong...

Dear Karena,
I think this is true also, to some extent, however, there are areas in the U.S. where there is a lot of cooperation between dancers. A dancer just moved here from San Diego and she says the dancers there are very cooperative, except for one well known dancer with whom no one else wants to work.
Regards,
A'isha

 

[Shanazel]

There are only two other teachers in the area. They teach together and one is a friendly acquaintance and one is a good friend of mine. They teach in a private studio, I teach through Parks and Rec, and there has never been any animosity between us. I steer the occasional reporter and people seeking to hire dancers to them, they invite my dancers to their haflas and also to perform in public with their group. Sometimes I send them a student who is not a good fit for my classes and vice versa- our teaching methods and styles are quite different. We have very rarely had a student who wants to start an "us and them" rivalry, but once some polite firmness is applied to the matter, the student generally gives up and accepts peaceful co-existence.

 

[Zorba]

Teachers in my area always work together, quite well. Which is as it should be...

 

[Aisha Azar]

Teachers

Teachers in my area always work together, quite well. Which is as it should be...

Dear Zorba,
I think that would depend entirely on the teacher. I would work any time, anywhere with Shakira of Ohio for example, but there are teachers I would walk very far to avoid working with.
Regards,
A'isha

 

[gisela]

In my area I have not experienced any bad situations like you have described. The teachers seem to invite each other to their shows and there's "the guild of oriental dance" that also handles a lot of belly-business. Since this is a very small country, everyone (imagine that, you people in many-million-people-countries!) is invited to the spring recital and it tours the country in an attempt to not be Copenhagen-centered all the time. If there are any fights going on between teachers, at least they are proffessional enough to keep it for themselves and not slander each other.

 

[Eshta]

I think things are shifting quite a bit, and I think it will be interesting to see how things pan out over the next few years. I think (correct me if I'm wrong, Suheir) that 10 years ago there was a dominant group, but then there was this explosion of isolated pockets that didn't want to know anyone else even if they were only down the road from each other. And now I think they are cautiously peeping out of their shells a bit more!

Personally I have experienced a lot of goodwill from all sorts of different corners, as a student, as a performer and now organising our events, but then I have kind of learnt to filter out most of the croneyism and cliquishness, and focus on the kind and generous goodwill instead. I can name 3 factions I know I'll never be invited in to their crowd, but I'm not really bothered by that!

 

[Suheir]

I think things are shifting quite a bit, and I think it will be interesting to see how things pan out over the next few years. I think (correct me if I'm wrong, Suheir) that 10 years ago there was a dominant group, but then there was this explosion of isolated pockets that didn't want to know anyone else even if they were only down the road from each other. And now I think they are cautiously peeping out of their shells a bit more!

That's probably a fair assessment. The popularity of belly dancing, like other hobbies, goes in waves and it's been going through a boom for the past few years - where there's a boom, there are those who want to cash in.

I've seen this very clearly in the past few years with burlesque/neo-burlesque/new burlesque, whatever people want to call it. It'd been fairly underground for a few years, in London a few clubs were putting on burlesque-type acts and Jo King's London School Of Striptease was really the only place offering classes in burlesque, along with erotic dancing, exotic dancing and, unsuprisingly, striptease.

The first big show in London was Immodesty Blaize And Walter's Burlesque in May 2005 - when it opened I got a half-price, front row ticket for the show as the critics didn't know what to make of it and it got some negative reviews. Now, of course, Immodesty has been crowned Reigning Queen Of Burlesque in Las Vegas and there are schools purporting to teach burlesque opening everywhere.

 

[Brea]

...

 

[KuteNurse]

That's what I see happening in my area. I'm not a teacher so maybe I'm oblivious to some undercurrent, but I go to many events where the teachers get together, all the classes get together, and then the teachers perform together. There are teachers outside this group, and who know what politics happen, but the descriptions people give of teachers back-stabbing each other are just so alien to me.

Karena! I forgot to post from another thread about you watching the Tour of Cali on tv. I watched most of it too on tv with my son. It was fun watching Levi win since he can't do the Tour de France this July My son is biking like crazy! Today he rode 100 miles in pretty cold weather. He is amazing...I tell you, I bike a mile and I am exhausted.:shok:

 

[karena]

Karena! I forgot to post from another thread about you watching the Tour of Cali on tv. I watched most of it too on tv with my son. It was fun watching Levi win since he can't do the Tour de France this July My son is biking like crazy! Today he rode 100 miles in pretty cold weather. He is amazing...I tell you, I bike a mile and I am exhausted.:shok:

You been watching Paris Nice? We were but the feed kept cutting out. Only the time trial today so not the most interesting and very rainy. Made me wish I was in France though. Although it nearly didn't happen at all from what I hear. Yeh Astana are in a bit of a mess aren't they.
My fiance went out today. Only 50 miles I think but with 1500 metres of ascent and it snowed on them :shok: