Shoma is Back - Thanks to the Jawaahir Dance Company

One sunny morning in the depths of winter, 2016, my good friend Cassandra Shore called. The wood stove was humming, and the bright snow outside lit up the house inside. She was calling with an idea. Cassandra is not only my friend, she is also the Artistic Director of the acclaimed Jawaahir Dance Company of Minnesota. She was calling in her official capacity, wondering if I'd be interested in working on a new revised production of SHOMA, a dance theater project that Jawaahir staged back in 1998.

I was thrilled with this proposal. SHOMA was a landmark project for me, and I believe it was for Jawaahir as well. I wrote the skeletal script for the 1998 production, and directed the all-female orchestra that performed for the show. I created all the musical arrangements, wrote out the scores (many by hand), and directed the group. I sang lead vocals and played oud. We all stretched ourselves in that production, and it paid off in spades. With lots of excitement and fabulous preproduction press, including a feature article in the Minneapolis StarTribune by Mike Steele...then full length reviews in both the Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, SHOMA sold out nearly every show.

I have so many good memories of that show. Sitting in the orchestra section, one gets a sideways view of it. Soon the rhythms, the dances, the specific lines and pauses, the lighting changes (all orchestrated by the incomparable Jeff Bartlett at the Southern Theater) were a living thing that we experienced and savored each time. I remember one show where an artist sat in the front row and sketched it. At another sell-out, the audience was raucous and seemed to have a hard time remaining seated. It was clear that many of them were repeat attendees.

The huge bedouin necklace that appears in one of my favorites - The Necklace Dance

Years later, I learned that many people who came to see SHOMA were inspired to begin studying Oriental Dance because of it. Some later joined the dance company and recall their first experience was SHOMA. My family members who attended still remember their favorite dances. The 1998 stage manager, Hilary Stellner Smith, tells me that was her first experience working with Jawaahir.

Sarah Jones-Larson, who played the title role in the 1998 run, was willing to reprise her work in the new show. And Smith is now the director of the new production. Helen Voelker, the original Muna/Munira - the leading lady in the drama, will now play the mother of the bride. Several dancers from the original show are going to be in this version, including Cassandra Shore. My friend and colleague, Egyptian-American actor, poet, musician, dancer and educator Karim Nagi, will play the male lead theatrical role of Badr.

Instead of me leading a small women's music ensemble, this time the all-star orchestra that accompanies Jawaahir shows these days will be making the music. Led by Georges Lammam, the group will feature Naser Musa, an expert in the music of the Gulf. This dream team will create blissful music for these much loved dances.

After rewriting the script over the winter and helping Cassandra with a few musical issues, I was preparing to fly out to Minnesota to watch the production in September. Then, in June, she called again. Unbeknownst to me, Jawaahir had won a choreography grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, for me to create a dance for them using the folkloric dances of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. I choreographed the finale for the show. It seemed that once again, Shoma was beginning to make its magic.