Samantha Burnstein's Khaliji Dance Project

Samantha Burnstein

Samantha Burnstein is a Montreal-based expert in and enthusiast of folkloric dance from the Middle East who studied anthropology and researches dance ethnology. She teaches and performs all manner of dances from the Middle East, and also directs the dance company Sanaa Dance. This group excels at the dances of North Africa and the Arabian Gulf (the "Khalij"). Samantha is also a silversmith who designs her own jewelry which you can find in her Etsy store, Sara Mali Jewelry. It was a delight to speak with Samantha about one of her recent dance projects.

In 2012, her dance troupe had the unique opportunity to travel to Dubai where they performed at a place called "Global Village". There they performed three shows and a workshop every night, and also performed in schools. They presented dances from Morocco, Egypt and one dervish style number. They were one of many groups performing folk dances from around the Middle East.

When the Bellydance Blossom Festival in Toronto put out a call for explorative and collaborate performances, she proposed a collaborative performance of Khaliji women's dance and performed it at the festival in April, 2016.

Q - What inspired you to organize this Khaliji dance project?

A - I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time. I do a lot of folklore and I  dedicate myself to that. Yet I feel there’s this gap. Either we see Oriental dancers bringing a short Khaliji section into oriental performances, or we see the overly stylized choreographed group Khaliji numbers that belly dancers do. And even with the folklore troupes it’s always the question of how much should we make it look arranged? I’m pulled in two directions. The best times I’ve had dancing Khaliji are at a workshop and it’s a crazy mess of girls or women, or we’re in a studio where we’re just dancing. It's not the performance part that really gets me. So I thought, "One day, one day I’m going to do it with as many people as I can.” The festival seemed like the right moment, so I jumped on that opportunity to try it and see if it would work and have enough people to do it. The festival was asking for explorative or collaborative work. And I said well I’m a folklorist, I’m not really explorative, but then began to try this number. I threw it out there, and I didn’t know if I’d get ten people or a hundred and it just went from there.

The only requirements she asked of those who wanted to take part were that one had to be registered at the festival and one had to own a 'thobe', (a thobe nashal, the celebratory over-dress worn by Gulf and Arabian women). In the end, Samantha performed with 29 dancers from Canada and the U.S. She choreographed segments for each group, some with more solo-like parts. They worked together via video and facebook to learn her choreography, had two actual rehearsals at the festival, and then performed it. The result was something she had been aiming for. It was not only an actual performance, but a communal dance experience that bridged pure social dance with an ultra-polished troupe performance.

Waiting to go on stage

Q  - How did it turn out?

      A -  I was happy about it. I kept telling them, "Don’t worry about performing. Don’t get hung up on the performance aspect." I think it came together quite well. There were mistakes but the feeling was really powerful. Hair was flying everywhere! I just think it’s a little hard because we are all dancers, and performers. I kept saying, "Don’t get into performance mode too much. Look at each other." That was a challenge. We’re used to wanting to get it perfect.I think the feeling came together. People said, “Wow that was powerful,” but I was a little distracted trying to get everyone in their place.

"Hair was flying everywhere!"

      Interestingly, the size of the stage forced her to keep the choreography simple. She used line formations, with various groups taking solo turns. Viewing the video (see the clip below), Samantha made great use of the stage as well as the floor in front of the stage. She framed and surrounded the mini-solos, and also had the dancers clapping at one point. The repetition simplified things and gave it more of a real folkloric character.

      Looking back, Samantha said the troupe's experience in Dubai helped confirm her love of performing folkloric dance. She explained. "Seeing the various work of so many different troupes next to one another did help me confirm that I prefer the more authentic and natural dancing, even on stage, or a small mix of staging, over the overly worked dances of some troupes. But this is something I already felt, it was just great to have so many live examples from all over the Middle East right at our fingertips there."

Below is a video of exerpts from the performance. Congratulations to Samantha and all who took part!

Thursday Night Fever

What is it about Thursday nights?

This fall I've been double and even triple booked on Thursday nights. When I worked in banking, the 20 somethings told me that was the big night to go out with work colleagues and party. For them, Friday night was recovery night, and then Saturday night was 'couples' night. Not sure if that is still the case, but even then, Thursday night was very big.

This fall, Thursday nights have presented marvelous options, but I have stuck to my first commitments, while wondering if it's foolish to do so if something more interesting comes along. The possibilities have been tantalizing: music concerts; debut author book readings; literary association panels; author talks and all kinds of meetings.

I conclude that the Thursday Night pile-up is the usual super-heating of the greater Boston culture scene right before the holidays. It seems everyone wants to finish their events before Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hannukah. But even more importantly, before the snow begins to come down with conviction.

December is filled with holiday-related events. January is the Deep Freeze Month, but stalwart souls organize events and people actually show up at them. However, organizers are gambling that a big Nor'easter won't blow up and stop the city in its tracks. My friend Lisa Esperson and I are organizing a Khaliji (Gulf) women's folk dance workshop for the last Saturday in January on Cape Cod. Are we nuts? Only time will tell. I remember going to a church event on Cape Cod in mid-January when about two feet of snow had fallen the night before. The sun was out, it was as beautiful as a Christmas card, and despite the hassle of coming out in the winter, the church was packed. So I'll take heart from that.

Habibi Magazine - Archives on-line

My first published writing was a series of essays that appeared in a Habibi, a newspaper/magazine from California. The series was called "Arabian Journal". In it, I wrote about my adventures living as a young wife and college grad with my American husband in Jeddah in the late 1970's. I wrote about exploring the folk dance scene and some of the interesting characters I met in the process of trying to learn about the traditions there.

Habibi served the burgeoning belly dance scene in the 1970's, and was originally published by Bob Zalot. Later, in the 1990's, Shareen El Safy revived it, and during that time I wrote a stand-alone article for the magazine, a kind of summary of what I'd learned about the folk dances of the women of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf. Just recently, Shareen digitized the articles from the years 1992-2002 and put them up on a website. I highly recommend this as a research tool if you're interested in the Middle Eastern performance arts. You can search by author or keyword. Some of the best writing about Middle Eastern dance was published in Habibi, and it's worth a serious browse. The link is here.


Here is the link to my story from the Fall, 1997 edition, Loosening their tresses: women's dances of the Arabian Gulf and Saudi Arabia