Miyah and Aziza Sa'id draw names for the raffle

On April 2, 2005, the Rainbows of the Desert in Des Moines, Iowa brought Aziza Sa'id to town for a workshop and show.  Here is a photo gallery featuring the day's events. The organizers estimated that about 80 people signed up for the workshop, and for the evening show the 300+ seats in the auditorium were nearly full.

During the workshop break, there was a drawing for door prizes.  In this picture, Miyah offers Aziza Sa'id the box of name tickets to draw one.  The door prizes were gift baskets of toiletries. I was lucky enough to win one!  My basket contained Sea Breeze bath oil, a pocket mirror with sparkly decorations around the back and rim, three scented candles, a loofah, a bar of Green Apple scented soap, a sparkly pillbox, juniper breeze body splash, and hydrating freshener from Mary Kay. The others that I had a chance to see up close contained similar items.

It was clear from the overall setup that the Rainbows are very experienced at sponsoring large workshops. 

The event occurred at a middle school.  The gymnasium was large enough to hold all the attendees without being too crowded, and an adjacent room provided space for the vendors to show their wares. A raised platform had been set up for Aziza Sa'id to stand on so even people in the back could see her, and a microphone ensured that everyone in the room would be able to hear what she had to say. The school's auditorium was well suited for the evening show, and the use of several classrooms as changing rooms ensured that everyone would have plenty of space to get ready for her performance.

First Half of the Show
The evening show opened with a performance by the troupe, the Rainbows of the Desert directed by Arien, who sponsored the day's events.  Unfortunately, I was back stage getting ready at the time they danced so I didn't have an opportunity to see them.

The Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening was Miyah, one of the members of Rainbows of the Desert.

She introduced each performer and kept the show flowing as smoothly as it could, considering that Murphy's Law struck!

The first soloist of the evening was Juni. She swept onto the stage with her fluttering veil and began to dance.

About a minute into her performance, her music abruptly stopped.

The audience immediately began to clap for her at the same tempo as her song, and for a few seconds she bravely kept trying to dance.  Finally, she gave up and graciously exited the stage. 

As luck would have it, the next dancer in the line-up, Leyla from Kansas City, had brought her own live drummer to play for her and therefore didn't need the sound system.  

After Leyla's dance, Miyah came on stage to announce that she periodically tells the students she teaches at school that when she gets tired of teaching she'll begin a career as a stand-up comic. And, with the sound system problems, the time had come for her to practice for her second career!  She kept the audience entertained with a couple of school children jokes while the final work was done on the sound system.

The good news is that it didn't take long for the backstage crew to announce that they were ready to restart the dancing. The bad news is that Miyah didn't get much time to practice her stand-up act.

The troupe Al Raqs Ma'al Miqass ("Dances with Scissors") from Cedar Rapids, Iowa performed to the song "I Wanna See You Belly Dance" by the Red Elvises.  I had previously "met" one of the members, Sidrah, through dance.net and it was fun to meet her and the others in person when we shared a dressing room.

Sherazade represented the Sun/Moon Belly Dancers troupe from Mankato, Minnesota.

Shiara from Ames, Iowa (the one in this photo who is wearing the black body stocking) invited her sister Barbara and her two nieces to share the stage with her. It was the very first performance that Barbara and the two girls had ever done.

Juni was welcomed back to the stage with thunderous applause.  The Rainbows felt that, after the problems with the sound system in Juni's first attempt to perform, it was only fair to bring her back to do her full-length performance. She did a lovely job.	Danae danced to the song Chickie by Oojami   Aziza Sa'id closed the first half of the show with the first of her two performances.
The mother-daughter team of Vashti and Amira performed a duet.

Second Half of the Show

The Rainbows of the Desert opened the second half of the show with a tambourine piece. Haleema came all the way from Springfield, Missouri (about a 7-hour drive) for the event.  I had enjoyed getting to know her when we were both part of Morocco's tour group in Egypt in 2004, and it was fun to catch up with her over the course of the day and evening.

It was great to see the Athenian Dancers from Lincoln, Nebraska perform.  I had met them over dinner in my Omaha, Nebraska stopover in early August 2004 when I was in the process of relocating from California to Iowa. During the workshop's lunch break earlier in the day, we had a chance to get reacquainted.

I was the next performer in the show. I chose to do a double veil piece to the song Bir Demet Yasemen.

The troupe In Your Dreams performed after me.

Ziya and Vella performed a playful duet.

The troupe Diva Soma from Omaha, Nebraska filled the stage with their high energy,
dancing to the song Chickie by Oojami.

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