Who is Shoma?

The Jawaahir Dance Company of Minneapolis is staging a dance and theater and music show entitled SHOMA, from September 28 - October 2, 2016. The performances will take place at the Lab Theater, and you can purchase tickets here.

A combination of storytelling, theater, dance and music, SHOMA is about love, weddings, marriage, blackmail, and social media, set at a henna party in an un-named modern Saudi Arabian city.

Here is the official blurb about the show...

Cassandra and Jawaahir Dance Company are proud to present Shoma, a dance theater extravaganza set during a bridal henna party in Saudi Arabia. A storyteller named Shoma entertains the bride’s guests with a Bedouin folktale. She tells the story of an independent shepherdess who gets lost in a sandstorm, only to find herself in a magic garden. Like all good storytellers, Shoma tailors her tale to fit the occasion. In this case, the bride’s reputation is threatened with public scrutiny. Will the Bedouin shepherdess find her way home? Will the modern day wedding go off as planned? Join Jawaahir to see it all play out!

So who is Shoma?

Sarah Jones-Larson plays the Arabian storyteller, Shoma.

Shoma is the name of the lead character in the show, and it's also the name of a real Saudi storyteller. She was born among the Huwaitat bedouin tribe of northern Arabia sometime in the early 20th Century. She was the niece of the famous bedouin chiefton Auda Abu Tayy (the character played by Anthony Quinn in the film Lawrence of Arabia). I learned about her when I was living in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970's. She had just passed away, so I never got to meet her. However, here's what I learned from a Saudi friend, and later from some members of her family. She ran away from home 'for reasons of love'. She took refuge in an oasis city and gradually made her way to the big city of Jeddah, and lived out her life telling stories about the desert. And one more thing, she was under the personal protection of modern Saudi Arabia's first ruler, Ibn Saud. 

We called the show "Shoma" strictly based on that character. The show does not deal with her own story, but rather conjures up a story she might have told if she were alive today. 

The word "shoma" means "club" or "thick stick". I'm told that the Bedouin often named their children after harsh things to protect them from evil. Interestingly, "shoma" also means "you" in a formal or plural sense in Farsi, the language of Iran.

The real-life Shoma provided inspiration for a character in my novel, A CARAVAN OF BRIDES, set in Saudi Arabia. In fact the show script flowed from a very early version of the novel, which I hope to publish in its final form in 2017.

Minneapolis actress and voice-over expert Sarah Jones-Larson (owner of School of Acting and Voice Over) plays the role of Shoma. A member of Jawaahir Dance Company since 1994, Sarah acted the part in the 1998 production, and now brings her added experience to bring Shoma to life on stage again. Sarah is a fantastic Shoma. 

"I adored playing Shoma in 1998,"  Sarah says, "and it's a lot of fun to revisit her now. Over the years, my approach has changed, and I keep finding new worlds in the text. I love the script updates from Kay and the new dances from Cassandra. It's going to be a wonderful show!" 

Sarah Jones-Larson will portray Shoma

 You can read more about Sarah and other key players such as our director Hilary Stellner Smith in an article by Patricia Cumbie in the Summer 2016 Jawaahir newsletter, Beledi Beat here.

With a twinkle in her eye, and a lilting voice, Sarah captivates her audiences and sweeps them off with her to the desert. There is no more perfect leading lady for SHOMA!

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.