This shot was taken in Salt Lake City for The Athenian! |
Gilded
Serpent presents...
I
Loved the Old Days at the Bagdad!
by Habiba
Nawal
Last night
my yoga group had a holiday party at the Marrakech
Moroccan restaurant in Sacramento. We had
a group of about fifty fun-loving students. We loved the atmosphere,
eating with our hands, and most of all, the dancer and the
music. I had taken finger cymbals and some tambourines to
play. When I got home, I was really thinking about Bert and
my dancing career, so I googled Bert and in the process, found your
wonderful nostalgic website. It brought back so many good
memories that I wanted to write to you about them.
I danced
at the Bagdad
Cabaret and the
Casbah during the late 1960s. Encouraged
by my mother, I had always been into dancing, and had studied
many kinds of dance, such as jazz, ballet, hula, tap and acrobatics,
but I had no real passion for dance until I began to study
Middle Eastern dance. I found a flyer advertising belly dance
lessons from Bert Balladine at a studio on Fillmore Street
in San Francisco, and for the first time I tried something
by myself! (I
was very young – only nineteen!)
I drove
to the ballet studio and went up the stairs to find a room
full of beautiful women in long, flowing skirts, dancing and
playing their finger cymbals. There was even a guy in class,
a tall, dark-haired hippie who reminded me of Jimmy
Page from Led Zeppelin. The
class was very crowded, but Bert paid attention to each of
us.
Bert had
on sexy jeans and a brown leather belt, and his shirt was pulled
up to show his belly – when he wanted to really
show us undulations, he would pull his shirt up even farther!
The
students looked on him in awe! Here was this hot-looking guy
with hard abs undulating for us! He danced around, sometimes
with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and he was the sexiest
individual there. Oh, if my mom had known where I really was! (I
finally did tell her.) Everything about the dance inspired
me, and I knew that I had found something that I could be good
at! I loved the music, the movements, and the costumes. We
moved around the room in a big circle – Bert would jump around
and yell out, “Good, Donna!! That’s it! You’ve got it!” I
did? I guess I did… We were taught all the parts of the dance: Undulations.
Hip shakes. Floor work. Veil work. Drum solos. Stomach
flutters. Arm movements. Eye contact. Bert had a theory
that a small movement was much more effective than a huge one. I
loved it when he leaned back and “framed his hips”. He would
give so much to each of us. He was teaching us to present
ourselves as beautiful women, each with her own style. Bert’s
style was very flashy! He loved the sexy beaded costumes and
colorful veils. I remember learning the finger cymbal pattern
for kashlama – I thought at the time that it was so difficult,
but once I got it, it was a real turn-on.
I
witnessed body and confidence changes in the students in
class; a soft-bodied
woman would put on her costume and become a Dancer! I
have always had an athletic body type and I actually
wished I had
more of a belly!
Bert teaches in 1994 at Snake's Kin Studio |
I sometimes
heard about other teachers, such as Jamila and Jodette. I
got the feeling that it was us against them! Their styles
were very different from Bert’s. He was all about flash, being
sexy and expressing yourself, and I think he was probably a
lot more fun than the others. Jamila’s style was more tribal
and became more so as time went on. I never did take any classes
from her, but I saw her students dancing at the clubs on Broadway
in North Beach in San Francisco. They were good dancers –
just a different style.
I took classes
very regularly, and after a couple of years I got good enough
to dance at an audition night at the Bagdad. About ten of
us went there with Bert, and the club seemed so mysterious
to us. Yousef greeted
us, and, as a young woman from the suburbs, what could I be
but scared of him? We went on early, before there were many
regular customers there. I felt I was in a “big person’s world”,
and I was scared. After we watched one of the house dancers,
some of us danced. I went up the stairs to the dressing room
and got into my costume (I had bought one from Mimi),
then I heard my name and the music started – I was shaking,
but I began playing my cymbals and somehow got down the stairs
and onto the stage. I really don’t remember much about my
time on stage, but it went by very quickly. I think I was
hyperventilating, but I did it! I was young, I had the basics
of the dance, enthusiasm and a nice body. I do remember that
toward the end of my show I went through the audience and got
tips, mostly from my fellow students. When we were all through
dancing, Yousef asked Bert if I and another student would be
interested in dancing a couple of nights a week. I said YES! I
had no boyfriend, husband, kids or anything else that would
stop me from working there or try to change my mind about it.
My dancing
name started out as Habiba, but once I started
dancing at the Greek Taverna on Columbus, I changed it to Nawal,
and that is what it remained. I was attending the College
of San Mateo and was a hippie when I began my career, and Yousef
said I had to shave my legs and armpits if I wanted to work
for him, so I reluctantly did. At that time, Manny worked
there, playing the guitar and stepping outside to smoke on
his breaks. Yousef’s sister, Arousiak, worked
as hostess, usually wearing a caftan. When I started, I had
only one costume, a coin costume that I wore so much that the
real coins it was made of turned green under my armpits. Yuck. I
loved that costume – it made me feel so sexy and I loved the
noise the coins made when I would shake or do a “freeze”. I
eventually bought more costumes, one from Fatma
Akef, who danced with a parrot on her shoulder
and standing on glasses, and some from other dancers at the
club. The costume I bought from Fatma was very nice; it was
totally beaded and cost about fifty dollars. I thought that
was a lot of money!
Fatma
Akef from
Amina's photo collection |
Some
nights I would walk into the club and a new dancer would be in
the
dressing room. The New York girls would usually just take
a spot in front of the mirror. Nobody messed with them. They
would set up shop and oh, well – so much for my spot! I think
I ended up using a small corner on the floor.
They
weren’t bitchy, but just had that attitude: I am here,
I am from New York, so move over.
I danced
with a beautiful Jewish girl who lived in Oakland, though she
was originally from the East Coast. Her name was Mimi (later
it was Fadwa). She made her own costumes
and I bought my first bra and belt from her. She had been
a school teacher, but eventually stopped teaching and became
a full-time dancer at the Bagdad. She was very feminine and
was one of my idols. Later she went to Salt Lake City to dance
in a job which was arranged by Bert. At that time, the
Athenian was the only place in Salt Lake that
had belly dancing. The job paid $250 a week plus tips, and
included the use of an apartment and food. I went out there
and worked after Mimi did. This was my first experience with
Greek food. There was an old guy who ate lunch there every
week day. He was a good tipper and bought me my first lobster. (Now
I am a vegetarian.)
There were
so many beautiful dancers at the Bagdad, and we worked very
hard but we loved every minute of it! Most people then and
now do not realize the work that goes into being a great dancer
and performer. The beautiful Amina worked
at the Bagdad and later at the Casbah. She was petite, with
beautiful auburn hair and a husband named David,
who would come in to watch her dance. He always wore a hat
and reminded me of David Crosby at the time. Amina
did killer floor work and had a great following. She danced
barefoot, and so did I. I danced so much that my feet would
get raw. I had little slits in them from the seams on the
floor! I tried wearing heels, but I could not get the same
feel for the dance in heels. There was one beautiful girl
named Bahia who did wear heels. She
looked like a high fashion model and wore heels like a jazz
dancer would wear; she came into the club wearing furs in the
winter. The men were in love with her! I hated to follow
her in the dancer rotation. Talk about an ego let-down! There
was another dancer from the UK, whose name was Patty. She
was a very slender blonde who did not look like a belly dancer
(but then, neither did I). Zoraida, a Puerto
Rican girl from New York, told me that her husband was a professional
gambler. I thought, “Wow! That’s hot! Like in the Mafia!”
The Bagdad in 1975
from
Amina's photo collection |
Starting
about the same time I did, a dancer by the name of Rayna worked
at the Bagdad. She had long, brown, shiny, waist-length hair. She
was very beautiful and a great dancer, too. I remember when Aziza! danced
there. I thought she was very pretty and a very good dancer
– not really emotional, but solid. She had a child. I met Hoda there;
she was also a dancer from New York, but she had moved to San
Francisco. She lived with a roommate in the Haight. She had
a boyfriend named Gordon who had a parrot
– he lived in Half Moon Bay on a ranch, and she was on the
cover of a book he wrote on massage. Hoda and I once took
a road trip to Portland. I think she had danced there before,
but she wanted to dance there again. We drove up in her blue
Volkswagen station wagon that her parents had bought for her
after she called them and cried about how they didn’t understand
that things were far from each other in California and she
needed to drive!
For about
two years I worked at the Bagdad. I wasn’t a star there, but
a solid house dancer. The musicians were right behind us on
the stage, and I loved it when they would honor me with a drum
solo. I ended up being able to hold my own among the stars
at the Bagdad.
I
think I was making about fifteen or twenty dollars a night
plus tips. It was all about the tips! The
girls from New York made twenty-five, if I remember right. Bert
sometimes got me shows for about thirty or seventy-five
dollars for what he called “The Furry Animal Clubs”,
like the Lions,
the Elk and the Kiwanis.
I worked
in a club in Sacramento called Zorba’s (what
else?) and at the Greek
Taverna on Columbus in San Francisco. I
went to Canada and danced with a rented snake named Sarah in
Edmonton. The customers, however, complained about the
snake; once when we were dancing, she tightened up on me,
and Hans,
one of the waiters, had to untangle us.
I did two shows a night for two or three weeks,
but I had trouble with the owner of the club, who was not
a very nice guy and was always coming on to me. I missed
North Beach, so I returned to the Bagdad. North Beach was
fun! We were young and hot, and it was so cool to be seen walking
into the club with your bags. I was actually able to find
a parking place every night in the neighborhood. Nothing was
ever stolen from me in the clubs or from my car. Men wore
suits a lot, and women also would come in to watch us. It
was a joyous place to be, though Yousef seemed worried a lot,
like most business owners. The Greek night club owners walked
around with worry beads rolling in their hands, but I had a
wonderful, magical time. I left the club at night wearing
hot pants and boots, to go to Zim’s to
get a tuna sandwich. How funny is that?
After I quit
dancing I went on to become a flight attendant for ten years,
and the airline published in their monthly newsletter that
one of their recent graduates was a former belly dancer! Since
then I have been a jazzercise instructor, a perfume sales rep,
a marathon runner, tennis instructor and a winner of body building
contests. Today my specialty is yoga. My instructor trained
with the Baptiste Group, among others! I
will never forget my wonderful times dancing, making costumes
and getting tips, and most of all the people – the beautiful,
talented dancers. I can still dance and play the cymbals,
and I still love the music and watching the dance! When I
read that Bert is in ill health now, I cried. He was a big
part of my life – more than he realizes. If I could turn back
time, I certainly would. Thank you, Bert, for putting up that
advertising flyer! Peace to you all. Namaste, as we say in
yoga.
Love, Habiba/Nawal/Donna
Sagor
P.S. I danced on the Gong Show under the name of Marina. I came
in second (with 29 out of 30 points) to a country western band.
Go figure!
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Ready
for more?
1-25-04 Chapter
1: One Ad Changed My Life by Amina Goodyear
I
was very desperate and determined to get back to my old self.
5-1-00 Working at the Bagdad #2 by
Aziza!
..in the early days, had to have accents when we talked to the customers, to
carry out the non-girl-next-door thing.
3-22-00 The Beginning #1 by Aziza!
When she
came out to dance in the audience, I thought to myself, "She
better not get too near to my husband!"
2-25-00 Bert
Balladine- at
long last Bert begins his North Beach Memories!
4-8-08 Divorcing
Belly Dance From Burlesque by Miles Copeland
As
it is traditionally understood, I do not find Burlesque, (meaning
nudity—no matter how hard one pretends it does not) amusing or
creative in the slightest when it comes to including Belly dance,
an art that has suffered too long with such unfortunate associations.
I find it completely irresponsible and detrimental.
4-7-08 When
the Hip Hits the Fan by Princess Farhana
Though
fan dancing is not considered traditional in raqs sharqi, due
to the increasing popularity of fusion, many Oriental dancers
are exploring fusing the many styles of fan dancing and Belly
dance with stunning results. When used onstage, fans are FAN-ciful,
conveying various emotions to an audience, as well as being a
spectacular visual treat. They can be dramatic and stately, or
coy and flirtatious and are always a crowd pleaser!
4-3-08 Dances
along the Nile, Part 1: Raks Al Asaya by Gamila
El Masri, Reprinted with permission, from Bennu, Issue
Vol.6 #3
There
is strength in the cane twirl but not aggression, extreme rapid
twirling should be held as an additional sensational feat, less
is more. Have your body of twirling be moderate so that you can
vary from slow to climatic; always reflecting the music, it's
mood and tempo. Get down without getting crazy.
2-8-08 Amina's
North Beach Memories, Chapter 7: Yousef –Black
Lights and Veils by Amina Goodyear
It
was kind of hard to compete with this kind of action when we kept
our clothes on.
2-11-08 Photos
from Carnival of Stars 2007- A-Z Page 1- A through
K photos by Carl Sermon, Duane Stevens, John Kalb,
Murat Bayhan, and Lynette Harris
Novemenber
10 & 11, 2007, produced by Alexandria and Latifa Centennial
Hall in Hayward, California
1-10-08 John
Bilezikjian Where Old World Charm Meets Musical Genius by
Elizabeth Artemis Mourat,
First
in the series- DANCING WITH LEGENDS…honoring the musicians
who shaped our dance world
3-31-08 A
New Venue for Rakkasah Festival West by Susie Poulelis
In
retail, there is a saying that having an item sell out was a happy
problem to have. You want to keep your customers yearning for more,
making sure they won't hesitate to buy the next time they see something
they want.
3-27-08 To
Buy or Not to Buy –A Guide to Mass Market Belly
Dance Instructional DVDs by Yasmin
Most
producers ask or hire others to write glowing reviews. You will
often see the same people reviewing a producer’s entire line
of product. Those are suspect. Look for the one-off comments. They
will give a better overview, along with anything less than 5 stars.
3-25-08 A
Career Path Less Traveled: Dancing in Movies and TV in
the'60s, An Interview with Tanya Lemani by John Clow
In "Get
Smart" I enjoyed working with Karen Steele and Don Adams.
They took some of my lines out and Don saw that I was upset. Don
insisted that they give some of them back to me.
3-22-08 Hafla
at the Hoover featuring Morocco February 10, 2008,
Hoover Theatre in San Jose, CA Video and photos by Lynette
Debbie
Smith on scene reporter, event produced by The San Francisco Bay
Area Chapter of MECDA |