The inspiration for it all, the amazing Naima Akif.
	The spirited and sassy, Tahia Carioca!
	The incomprably beautiful, Samia Gamal
	Zikrayat rehearsal for the February 16th show with (clockwise) Johnny Farraj, Nikolai Ruskin, Gaida Hannawi, Tareq Abboushi, Brian Prunka, and Sami Shumays and Bridget Robbins (not shown.)
	Naraya rehearsing with the band.
	A time out for laughs!
	Nahara stopped by to say hello. She will be performing Shamadan and a special recreation of a Nagwa Fouad piece and the final song of Tamr Hinna for our March 2nd show.
	The Zikrayat Puppy, Suha. She actually belongs to dance company member Nahara, but she let's us share her!
	Time to get back to work!
	A veil piece from the movie "Ahibbak Ya Hassan" staring Naima Akif.

ZIKRAYAT (www.zikrayatmusic.com) is a New York based ensemble of musicians and dancers dedicated to presenting the traditional repertory of Arabic music, song, and dance. In addition to well-known standards, ZIKRAYAT highlights little-known gems from the golden age of Egyptian Cinema. With each show dancers Dameshe, Naraya, Sira and Nahara research and recreate original dance pieces by legends Naima Akif, Taheya Karioca, and Samia Gamal, but with their own unique flair.

Recently co-founders Dameshe and Naraya had a chat about the group, their goals, and the politics of Oriental Dance.

Naraya: Ok, first of all, how did you come up with the idea for Zikrayat?

Dameshe: Well, first, let me explain what Zikrayat is. The word "Zikrayat" is Arabic for "memories". There is Zikrayat the ensemble, and Zikrayat, the dance company. The dance company consists so far of 4 members. In addition to you and I, there is Sira, and Nahara, and occasionally we have special guest stars.

We all work together as a collective, where the dancers are essentially a part of the ensemble. We perform a unique repertory of classical Arabic music that is rarely heard in this country or anywhere else in the world anymore for that matter. Many of the dance pieces are taken from old Arabic films and most of the choreographies are modern interpretations of the originals.

I guess the idea for the dance company came to me gradually. I have always had an affinity for the old school dancers, so this project was sort of inevitable. During my first year of studying Raks Sharqi there was a film festival which featured two Egyptian films. One was "Every Beat of My Heart" with Samia Gamal and "Love in Karnak" with the Reda troupe.

Watching Samia onscreen in a full length digitally remastered film with subtitles was a joy. I found her to be a really funny, charming actress, in addition to being a beautiful dancer. The memory of that film stayed with me for a long time.

Soon after that I became interested in Tahia Carioca and I bought the "Stars of Egypt" videos of her. I actually grew to love her more than Samia after that. She had this really earthy, sassy quality to her personality and her dancing that I fell in love with. It wasn't until this summer that I discovered Naima, actually. I had purchased the movie "Tamr Hinna" and fell in love the music and her dancing, but when Sami (my husband and violinist for Zikrayat) and I visited Cairo, his music teacher Alfred Gamil told me that Naima was the very best dancer of Raks Sharqi and that I HAD to see more of her. Sami and I went and purchased about 5 of her movies. We watched "Aziza" first and I was hooked.

One of the things that struck me when watching her movies was the music. Many of these old films contain some of the most unique and beautiful Arabic music I ‘ve ever heard. This has been the most fun part of working on this project. So far I've searched through hours and hours of videos searching for songs, and I've found some true gems.

There are the standards that emerged from these films like "Aziza", but there are so many more that I felt really should be heard. When I played them for Sami he totally agreed. The idea to recreate the dances came in part from a conversation I had with a good friend of mine, Nicole LeCorgne, (a fabulous tabla player, by the way) where we daydreamed about putting on a full stage show recreating dances from the old movies.

At the same time, Sami had been looking to start an Arabic ensemble (due to the lack of Arabic music in the city) and he began getting together with several musicians with whom he had worked previously. He approached them with the idea of performing both a repertory of rare classical music and rare film pieces, and within a few weeks Ensemble Zikrayat emerged.

What was most important to Sami and I was that the dancers be a working unit with the band. He didn't want the band to be another "belly dance band" working with random dancers assigned to dance with them for the night. I felt that the only way to achieve this was to create a dance company within the ensemble. We really want to make a statement with the music we are doing, and appeal to a wider audience—those interested in the classical Arabic repertory, as well as dance enthusiasts—so it's imperative that everyone be on board with the goals of the ensemble.
Not only that, but many of the musicians are classically trained Arabic musicians and have never worked with dancers before. We felt it would make for a better performance if the dancers develop a working rapport with the musicians and vice-versa, so all of the dancers must attend rehearsals with the band before their show, even the special guests.

I choose dancers whose talent and achievements I respect, who wanted to create something special in a unique environment, and above all else, who were just plain nice! The community aspect of this group is really important to me, so it is vital that everyone enjoy working with each other. We are hoping to revolutionize the working relationships between dancers and musicians. So far it's been great. I'm really proud of everyone involved and it's really amazing to see all of our hard work pay off with every show.

Ok, that's the short answer, haha! Now here's a question for you. What made you say yes when I asked you to join me in this venture?

Naraya: Apart that I love you to pieces? :D A lot of things. First what comes to mind is my desire to delve deeper into classical Raqs Sharki dance. What lies beyond the restaurant scene and dancers dancing for a measly $75 a night? There must be more, right? What drives us? Where does our passion come from? Where does this dance come from? I needed to answer these questions for myself.

I needed to fulfill an urge that I was indeed dancing for a deeper meaning. That I was connected somehow to something older than the latest restaurant gig, but what? What was driving my passion? To answer these questions I started looking at the past, at the history of Raqs Sharki and to the dancers that brought us here. Here were these amazing, beautiful women. And on a STAGE no less! (It is possible!) Here I found inspiration. And it was here that I also found mystery. Not much could be found on exactly WHO these women were. I wanted to know who they were and why they danced. But during my search I realized that I could perhaps experience who they were through their dance.

My second reason is that I want to educate the public as to exactly what Raqs Sharki is. I am beyond tired, and probably a little annoyed, at the number of myths and stereotypes that pervade and influence the dance on a daily basis. We work far too hard to allow these myths to continue. As a dancer, and especially as a dancer interested in Raqs Sharki, I feel we have an obligation to educate our audiences concerning the dance. And frankly, who's going to educate them if not us? The gap needs to be mended and the audience and dancer need to be brought closer together.

Dameshe: You know how much I agree with you here. It's so funny isn't it? The constant battle to defend this art. Sometimes I wonder if I will be 80 years old, still having the same debate with people. I recently had a woman tell me that because the dancers are "naked" they are degrading themselves, just letting themselves be viewed as "sex objects." You can imagine how this infuriated me. I say, a woman is degrading herself when she gives up her power. That is when you become a sexual object.

Everyday when I pass a newsstand and see some of these magazines with women sticking their hind-parts into the camera, I feel embarrassed for them. It is very clear to me that they are truly objects. Their image is only there for one purpose. But when I watch a beautiful, graceful, skilled dancer on the stage or screen, as a woman I feel so empowered. I know first-hand how much courage, skill and strength it takes to go out there and do what you love despite the way many people view it.

Again, take Naima Akif. Naima's dancing wasn't sexual, but she was very sexy. She had this confident, saucy energy even when she was playing the "damsel in distress." Very much like Tahia. You can see that deep within they had that power and they ran with it. That power is the very essence and beauty of womanhood. That power is what Raks Sharqi is to me. It is what Raks Sharqi has given me.