News & Notices
| On January 17, '99, while swimming in the ocean of Maui, HI, dancer KIMBERLEY FITZSIMMONS
injured her spine, crushing two vertebrea in her neck, and nearly being paralyzed. After being hospitalized
and immobilized in a brace for one and a half months in Maui, she returned to her home in Marin County. She underwent a successful surgery at UCSF Hospital to remove the two broken vertebrea pushing against her spinal cord, to replace a vertebrae with a piece of bone from her own hip, and to fuse vertebreas C-4 through C-6. She is wearing a halo brace for three to four months following surgery and will wear another brace for another two months. Kimberley has been a dancer in Suhaila Salimpour's Suhaila Dance Company for the past three years, and was a regular dancer at Kasbah Restaurant in San Rafael for the past two years. SUHAILA AND THE SUHAILA DANCE COMPANY with live musicians are presenting a benefit concert to raise funds to help cover spiraling medical expenses (currently aprox.$30,000) for Kimberley, who did not have medical insurance. The benefit will be on MAY 1 at CASABLANCA RESTAURANT in Albany (979 San Pablo Ave). Show time is 9:00 p.m. To purchase tickets or for information, please call (510) 526-4344. Come enjoy Suhaila's awesomeshow, and support this cause! Kimberley will be writing an article about her experience to be posted in the Gilded Serpent soon!  REPORT ON FRIEND AND DANCER JAMIE MILLER aka SABAH Jamie was diagnosed on March 11 with a grade 4 astrocytoma. This form of brain tumor is difficult to remove surgically because it has tendrils that reach out from the center like an octopus, as contrasted to a tumor which is a centralized, contained mass. The tumor affects the portion of the front left lobe of the brain that is "expressive". This means she has difficulty communicating outwards, e.g., talking. The receptive part of the brain, responsible for listening, feeling, etc., has not been affected. It is good to report that she is still enjoying dancing and is in very good spirits. Jamie has health insurance with Kaiser-Permanente and has also been seen by a neurosurgeon at UCSF Hospital. She has decided to decline surgery because there is only a fifty percent chance of survival and the prediction is it would only give her twelve additional months to live, during which period she would not be feeling well during the struggle to recover from the surgery. The prospects with chemotherapy and radiation are apparently the same. She will be performing this weekend, perhaps for the last time, as part of the Sabah Ensemble. The dates are Saturday, April 24th, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m., at Berkeley Moving Arts and 8th Street Studios (Western Sky Studio) as part of National Dance Week (many dance studios are having "open studios" that week) and Sunday, April 25th, at Martin Luther King Park, 3:00 p.m. This is part of an all-day performance. Having declined surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, Jamie has turned to Eastern medicine, i.e., acupuncture, Tibetan herbs and psychic healing. Her surgeon gives her three to five months. She is emotionally prepared. |
NADIA HAMDI From Cairo, Egypt Two Special Workshops
Two Completely Different Shows ----- The Aswan Dancers,
Changes in the Bay Area
Middle Eastern nightclubs are creating new musical ensembles adding variety and spice |
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