Sunday, February 24, 2008

Belly dancing as art

BELLYDANCE SUPERSTARS
8 tonight
Beckman Auditorium
Caltech
322 S. Michigan Ave.
Pasadena
$20-$30 adults and $10 children
(626) 395-4652 www.events.caltech.edu, www.bellydancesuperstars.com

Chiffon veils and costumes lush with coins and jewels are what usually comes to mind when you think of belly dancing. Some may also think of Barbara Eden in television's "I Dream of Jeanie" or perhaps women shimmying in a Middle Eastern restaurant, but the centuries-old art is much deeper.

"I think that one of my personal missions is not only to entertain people with the shows, but also to educate people about this art form," said Jillina, artistic director and main choreographer for Bellydance Superstars. "There's a lot of misconceptions about it and it's really a beautiful, respectable art form."

Pop music promoter Miles Copeland sponsors the show, which will unfold tonight at Caltech. Copeland originally contacted belly dance teachers and dancers across the United States, asking them for their favorite songs. He whittled down the selections and put out the CD, "Bellydance Superstars" (Mondo Melodia), in 2002. The record release party, complete with dancers performing, sold out the Roxy in Hollywood. This led to a stint with Lalapalooza and other tours followed. Today, the group has found itself performing on the same stages as prestigious ballet companies.

Jillina, who goes by a single name, said she thinks the interest in the troupe's shows is connected with the public's curiosity and interest in the Middle East, especially in this time of war.

"Most of what we see that comes from the Middle East is a very negative image," she said. "I think what's important and interesting for people is to come and see the beautiful side of the culture, the music and the art and another side of the Middle East."

In the beginning, the troupe's dancers were selected by Copeland, who didn't know about their training. Now auditions are held and those who pass second and third tryouts attend an intense weekend with Jillina, during which they are taught a massive selection of choreography.

"It's to see not just how fast they can pick up the choreography or what their training background is, but also to get a feel for their energy, their attitude," Jillina said.

She said she pushes the dancers past their limits, knowing that they won't be able to remember all the choreography. She watches for women who try their best and keep a good attitude. Most importantly, as most belly dancers perform alone, they have to be able to work as team, where they may not be the lead dancer or even a soloist.

The dancers must also be able to adapt to change, as on tour, the stages can be different at every stop and the choreography must be reworked accordingly at the last minute.

The current Bellydance Superstars lineup includes Jillina, as well as Sonia, Rachel Brice, Adore, Petite Jamilla, Sabah, Zoe Jakes, Mardi Love, Jayna, Kami Liddle, Hannah Nour, Colleen, Nathalie and drummer Issam Houshan.

Caltech's show will feature a variety of belly dance styles.

"Belly dance comes from so many different places, there's so many different types of music used in this art form, the costuming, stylization," Jillina said. "We also have some fusion pieces, pieces that are not just belly dance, so we branch out. Expect the unexpected."

Jillina concentrates on the cabaret numbers. Cabaret is the style of belly dance that you will often see in restaurants, where the performers wear jeweled and beaded costumes.

The tribal pieces are choreographed by Rachel Brice and Mardi Love. Tribal style originated in California and the dancers have more of an ethnic look, with costumes often boasting many intricate pieces and trims over a black base.

Jillina also oversees the costuming for the cabaret and troupe selections.

"Sometimes I buy fabric and I'll send it to Egypt to have it made or I'll contact my designer there and have them ship me out something," she said. "I'm pretty particular about what I want, the look, so sometimes I'll send him a sample of what I want or a sketch and cross my fingers and hope it comes back close to what I want."

"The tribal girls, they put all their stuff together themselves," she said. "That's part of what they do, the individual costuming, which is great because it adds so much texture to the show, to the look, to their dance."

Bellydance Superstars are on a tour of the U.S. and Canada, and after that, plan to travel to Italy to make a film. They have scheduled a performance in Casablanca, Morocco, which will be the first time the group performs in the Middle East. The group also hopes to make a stop in Dubai.

"I'm personally excited about it because I come from an Egyptian background and I've been to Egypt so many times," Jillina said. "The music, the culture and the style is all very close to my heart, so I can't wait to show what we've done with their art form, kind of bringing it back to them."

michelle.mills@sgvn.com

(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2128

Finding Harmony In Jewish, Christian, Arab Music Traditions

http://www.huliq.com/51399/finding-harmony-jewish-christian-arab-music-traditions
In one of its most innovative programs of the season, Seattle Symphony presents modern composer Osvaldo Golijov’s visionary song-cycle, Ayre, composed specifically for the incomparable Dawn Upshaw. This cross-cultural masterpiece will be performed by Upshaw and an ensemble of musicians known as Orquesta Los Pelegrinos, on Friday, February 29, at 8 p.m.

The Pacific Northwest premiere of Stephen Hartke’s Meanwhile, Incidental music to imaginary puppet plays, and George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae for amplified flute, cello and piano also will be performed.

Inspired by a time when Jews, Christians and Arabs coexisted in 15th century Spain, Ayre (A Medieval Spanish term meaning “air” or “melody”) finds harmony in the shard musical histories of these, at times, combative cultures. Mixing texts and melodies from each tradition, Golijov uses old-world and modern musical techniques, such as laptops and recorded sounds, to melt away the cultural barriers between these faiths. Amplified by Dawn Upshaw’s unmatched vocal capacity, Ayre both embraces the musical distinctiveness of these cultures and also expresses their common humanity.

Based on the mysterious beauty of Asian puppet theater, Stephen Hartke’s Meanwhile makes its Pacific Northwest debut, using creatively abstract elements – such as a stocking full of BB’s in the piano – to create exotic sounds and enchanting melodies. Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award–winner George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae uses imaginative techniques, including the ‘spoken flute’ (the musician speaks while blowing into the instrument) and amplified cello to interpret the hypnotic “voice of the whale,” for which the piece is named.

Beginning her career at the Metropolitan Opera in 1984, Dawn Upshaw has premiered more than 25 works in the past decade, including Ayre. With more than 50 recordings and four Grammy Awards, Upshaw was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation last year; this five-year award noted her as “a new model of a performer who is directly involved in the creation of contemporary music.”

Single tickets from $15 to $65. -- www.seattlesymphony.org

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Morocco dismantles widespread domestic terrorist network

Magharebia
Published on Magharebia‎ (http://www.magharebia.com) ‎
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2008/02/21/feature-01
Morocco dismantles widespread domestic terrorist network

21/02/2008

Investigations into a suspected terrorist network in Morocco led to the arrests of three senior political party officials, Morocco's interior ministry announced on Wednesday. The group, trained in part by Hezbollah, is believed to have links to al-Qaeda.

By Sarah Touahri and Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 21/02/08

[Sarah Touahri] Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday (February 20th) Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said Moroccan investigators have dismantled a "major Jihadist terror network" established in Tangier in 1992.

Moroccan authorities announced Monday (February 18th) that security services had dismantled a "major Jihadist terrorist network, which was preparing to perpetrate acts of violence in the country." Painstaking intelligence work led to the identification and subsequent arrest of the group's main active members.

Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa told the press on Wednesday that the investigations had uncovered a number of branches of the network, originally established in 1992 in Tangier. The group had connections to terrorist organisations active in Morocco and abroad, including al-Qaeda. Benmoussa said the network was preparing to assassinate top-level civilian and military officials and Moroccan Jewish citizens.

In all, 32 people representing a broad cross-section of society have been detained. Many are educated professionals, one is a police superintendent and three more are senior political party leaders. The network is reportedly led by Moroccan Abdelkader Belliraj, a resident of Belgium.

The interior ministry said searches of the residences and workplaces of members of the "Belliraj Cell" in Casablanca and Nador led to the seizure of large quantities of weapons, ammunitions and explosives, as well as supplies intended to conceal the terrorists' identities.

The ministry added that police helped to identify the sources of financing for the Belliraj cell, including armed robbery, sale of stolen goods, and direct contributions by members. The terrorist organisation also reportedly smuggled some 30 million dirhams into the country in 2001 that were invested in money-laundering endeavours in tourist, real estate and commercial projects in several Moroccan cities. Real estate purchased by the group was also used to house some of the terrorists.

The interior minister also revealed that the group received explosives and arms training from Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2002.

The Moroccan public was perhaps most shocked by the arrests of Secretary-General Mustapha Lmouaatassim and El Amine Regala of the Al-Badil Al-Hadari (Civilised Alternative) party, as well as Mohamed El Merouani, leader of the unrecognised Al Oumma (The Nation) party.

According to the interior minister, the terrorist network was found to be instrumental in the creation of the Al-Badil Al-Hadari party. As a result, Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi decreed the dissolution of the party, under Article 57 of the law governing political parties.

Al-Badil Al-Hadari contributed to the creation of an Islamist association in 1995 before becoming a full-fledged party in 2005. The party fielded candidates in the September 2007 legislative elections but failed to win any seats.

Al Oumma began as a partisan offshoot of Al Haraka Min Ajli Oumma (Movement for the Nation). Founded in 1998, the party applied for government recognition in 2007 but has yet to be approved.

"The creation of the Al-Badil Al-Hadari association in 1995 and Al Haraka Min Ajli Al Oumma in 1998," Chakib Benmoussa explained, "was just a front for the members of the [terrorist] network."

Saad Al Othmani, Secretary-General of the Justice and Development Party expressed his surprise at the arrests, saying the political leaders were "all known for moderation, rejection of violence and extremism, and for working within the framework of institutions and established national principles."

"We are sure that there is some sort of an error," he said, "and we hope it will be corrected."

Meanwhile, Mohamed Moujahid, leader of Morocco's Unified Socialist Party, said the charges are "in contradiction with their stances that call for modernity, democracy and human rights".

Mohamed Ziane, leader of the Moroccan Liberal Party, commented on the case, saying, "Political struggle has nothing to do with violence. The proponents of a culture of violence have no place in politics. This rule applies to both leftist and rightist ideologies."

In a statement issued Tuesday, Ibrahim Borja, Vice-Secretary-General of Al-Badil Al-Hadari condemned Mustapha Lmouaatassim's arrest, describing him and El Amine Regala as proponents of democracy and rejecters of all forms of extremism and terrorism, and called for their immediate release.

He said the arrests were a crackdown on people trying to effect a real democratic transition in Morocco. Mohamed Ben Hammou, leader of the Citizenship and Development Initiative party, said if the allegations prove true, then it is both shocking and frustrating. "Morocco is our country. We should defend it, particularly when we accept a position of political responsibility. We have to be vigilant when it comes to extremism. No one has the right to go down any route other than the democratic one," he declared.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Haddad Adel: Islamophobia major concern of contemporary era

Tehran, Jan 30, IRNA
Iran-Egypt-Haddad Adel
Majlis Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said on Wednesday that 'Islamophobia' which has escalated in the West in the aftermath of September 11 incident is regarded as a major concern in the contemporary era.

The speaker arrived in Cairo on Tuesday heading a high-ranking delegating to attend a biennial inter-parliamentary meeting of the Islamic countries where he is to give a keynote speech.

Addressing the fifth inter-parliamentary meeting of the Islamic countries, he underlined that it is about hundred years that world Muslims have fallen victims to terrorism.

The enemies try to depict a rough and inhuman image of Islam and Muslims through false propaganda and vicious slanders, Haddad Adel pointed out.

Another challenge threatening world Muslims is attempts by their enemies to sow discord among them, he said and invited fair western intellectuals to sit at negotiating table with Muslim intellectuals to help remove such unfounded slanders.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has designated the current Iranian year as the "Year of National Unity and Islamic Solidarity" to urge world muslims to forge unity, he said.

"We should prepare grounds for parliaments of Islamic countries to play a much more active role in the world of Islam," he said.

Referring to massacre of the Palestinians by the Zionist forces, he said "We are now witnessing heinous atrocities by the Zionists in the Gaza Strip being perpetrated with support of certain big powers," he said.

The Iranian Majlis speaker also pointed to the threats posed by the Zionist regime against Lebanon and its supporters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur and other Islamic regions.

On Iran's peaceful nuclear activities, he said Iran and IAEA have had very good cooperation and the reports issued by IAEA along with the report released by 16 US intelligence agencies confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program.

He strongly criticized the Zionist regime for possessing hundreds of nuclear warheads and for refusing to abide by international rules and regulations.

1430**1412
from
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0801301475154147.htm

Fareed Zakaria Says The War Is Over! Awesome!

It's called the MRAP, or "Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle." With a price-tag of as much as $1 million each, these new armored transports are designed with a wedge-shaped hull in order to deflect explosive blasts away from the cabin, therefore shielding the soldiers inside.

* Email
* Print
* Comment

And much like the surge, it doesn't appear to be working.

On Tuesday, an American gunner was killed when his MRAP vehicle hit a roadside bomb south of Baghdad. His comrades inside were wounded despite the MRAP armor. Reports didn't say whether or not the bomb was what's called an "explosively formed penetrator" or EFP roadside bomb which critics have warned has the power to rip through an MRAP's armored hull.

We make better armor -- they make deadlier bombs. Don't be afraid, though. Six months from now we're going to win the shit out of this war. But wait! Don't nobody move! Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, says the war has ended!

The Democrats are having the hardest time with the new reality. Every candidate is committed to "ending the war" and bringing our troops back home. The trouble is, the war has largely ended, and precisely because our troops are in the middle of it.

Okay. The war has largely ended because our troops are -- huh what? The war is over but if our combat soldiers come home, the war won't... be... over... anymore? The only thing I can make sense of here is that this is exactly the Bush Republican position on Iraq: The surge worked, the war is over, but no-one can come home because the surge worked and the war is over. Hooray for God's America!

And -- nyuck nyuck! -- this really has the Democrats flummoxed. Ya' think? I can't imagine why this Bush Logic would confuse people. It's not unlike being flummoxed by your roommate when he suddenly insists he's a reptilian Sleestak creature; then demands that you make linguistic sense of his constant Sleestak hissing. There's no sense to be made here other than the utter lack of common sense.

What's more disturbing is that The Very Serious Mr. Zakaria defined this as a "new reality." Maybe by "new" he meant "not a" or "I'm about to make shit up about [reality]."

Nevertheless, we can clearly gather that there are now two Iraqs.

There's Fareed Zakaria's awesomely successful "New Reality Iraq" which the traditional media and the Bush Republicans are observing -- mouths locked in frozen grins, and sweaty palms robotically smacking together in a deluded, drone-like round of applause. In the New Reality Iraq, nothing is ever achieved now; everything is achieved six months from now. Maybe. In the New Reality Iraq, Senator Graham bought a wicked-awesome rug for a dollar.

And then there's what I've been calling "Bizarro Iraq": an opposite, alternate Iraq in which the surge didn't work because the political benchmarks the increased troop levels were meant to facilitate... weren't achieved. In Bizarro Iraq, failing to meet those political benchmarks cost us the highest level of American military deaths in the war so far: 901 Americans killed in action and 6,071 wounded during 2007. In Bizarro Iraq, there's no such thing as victory because, in Bizarro Iraq, the president's illegal invasion and occupation, the president's torturing, the president's shock & awe, and the president's criminally botched reconstruction has fostered what are sure to be decades of catastrophic blowback against Americans and American interests.

In Bizarro Iraq, this is just a glimpse at January:

BAGHDAD -- The street battles between members of a messianic cult and Iraqi troops raged for a second day as the death toll from the fighting in two predominantly Shiite southern cities rose from 50 to at least 68. Iraqi authorities said at least 36 people were reported killed in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, and at least 32 in Nasiriyah, including Iraqi security forces, civilians and gunmen. At least 10 people were reported slain in Nasiriyah Friday. - JANUARY 20, 2008

BAGHDAD -- Nine American soldiers were killed in the first two days of a new American drive to kill al-Qaida in Iraq fighters holed up in districts north of the capital, the U.S. military said Wednesday. [...] Six soldiers were killed and four were wounded Wednesday in a booby-trapped house in Diyala province, where joint U.S.-Iraqi forces were driving through a difficult web of lush palm and citrus groves, farmland and fertile river bottoms. - JANUARY 9, 2008

BAGHDAD, Iraq CNN -- A well-respected Sunni leader who was key in helping reduce violence in his northern Baghdad neighborhood was among at least 15 people killed in three separate suicide bombings Monday, officials said. -JANUARY 7, 2008

And all of the following items were reported on January 6, 2008...

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest killed nine people and wounded 12 others in Baghdad's central Karrada district, a police official said. Another police source said nine people were killed and 17 wounded.

BAGHDAD - A parked car bomb killed three people and wounded 15 outside a restaurant in the Qahira district in northern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Twelve bodies were found in various districts across Baghdad on Saturday, police said.

BAGHDAD - Three blasts killed one person and wounded four in Nahda district in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb wounded seven people travelling in a minibus in the southern Baghdad district of Doura on Saturday, police said.

MUQDADIYA - Four human heads were found on Saturday in Muqdadiya, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.

DIYALA PROVINCE - One U.S. soldier died after a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Diyala Province on Saturday, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed Ismail Abbas, the leader of the Awakening Council in Shaab district, outside his home in northern Baghdad, police said.

Does this litany of death and violence indicate to you that the war has "largely ended" or does it indicate to you that the people telling us the war has "largely ended" are "largely nuts"? The answer to that question determines whether you're observing Bizarro Iraq or Zakaria's New Reality Iraq. On second thought, don't worry about it -- six months from now we'll reach a turning point in the war which we've already won because the surge worked but the troops will have to stay there or else we won't win.

I can't imagine why Senators Clinton, Obama and Edwards would want to end this goddamn thing.

Bob Cesca's Goddamn Awesome Blog! GO!
from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/fareed-zakaria-says-the-w_b_82916.html?view=print