Today we’d like to introduce you to Seyyide Sultan.
Seyyide, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I always loved to dance and listening to music will make me daydream with choreographies in my mind. I did some ballet when I was very young but not intensively enough to become a ballerina, and at times I had to put dancing in the back burner, but I was driven to get back to some sort of dancing a few times again, I tried partnered dances such as Argentine tango, In 1998 I tried my first belly dance classes and I was hooked. Since then, it has been a non-stop learning process, as this dance is much more than what its common name says. The proper name of the dance is “oriental dance” and its traditional style reflects a music that is different in structure to the Western music and a culture that is also different. It is important to understand the music and some cultural aspects in order to portray this dance properly.
I took as many dance classes as I could back then in the Boston area and surroundings, and on the year 2000 I spent a year in my home city, Buenos Aires (Argentina) where I studied a bit more intensively with some internationally well-known teachers: Amir Thaleb and Saida Helou. I even was admitted in Amir’s dance company and participated in a show in an important theater in Buenos Aires. When I came back to Boston in 2001, I decided to start teaching a beginner class so I could keep all I learned in BA alive, and I was brought in by the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. I also missed being part of a dance company, so I joined “Collage”, and international folk dance group with an emphasis in Turkish folklore that was thriving at that time under the direction of Ahmet Luleci. I danced with Collage for one year during which I learned a lot not just folk dances but about putting a show together, and the dance scene in our Boston area.
My class at CCAE was very successful and always full with a waiting list. Some students were taking it over a second and a third time, and that’s when I decided it was time to grow into another intermediate level dance class, which I started on my own. That’s how my dance teaching business started.
Another thing that I did on late 2001 was start my own dance troupe. We were active since 2001 until late 2006, participating in different events and competitions, as well as three shows of my own production, with students from my school, my troupe and I.
In 2006 I became a mother and my dance activities were kept to a minimum for a while, but I started teaching more intensively again in 2011 and have since then continued. I also recruited new dancers and beginning 2015 resumed the dance troupe work. My group is called Sarab-Mirage Dance Company, and our most recent and ambitious accomplishment was putting a show together last May 7th, with partial funding of the Arlington Cultural Council. The show was entitled: “Helwa! From Cairo to Boston” and included dancing by Sarab-Mirage as well as a live band playing Arabic music.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
As of now I teach classes in three different levels from beginner to advanced/professional and have taught for different programs such as high schools and universities student centers, as well as offer private lessons and coaching.
I am also working on new projects to do with my Sarab-Mirage Dance Company, and recruiting new dancers to join us in our venture.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Cambridge is a good place for dance classes in general, and ethnic dance classes. Arlington in turn is not good in that regard. I am still struggling to get people of Arlington recognize oriental dance for the art it is. Lots of people have misconceptions about it.
Pricing:
- 5-class cards are a great way to taste the waters, and cost is $70
Contact Info:
- Address: Seyyide’s dance classes have a home at Jose Mateo Ballet Studios, which is located at 400 Harvard St., Cambridge
- Website: www.seyyide.com
- Phone: 774-473-9785
- Email: seyyidedancer@gmail.com
- Instagram: @seyyidesultan
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Seyyide-Belly-Dance-335504153289739/
www.facebook.com/seyyidebellydance/ - Twitter: @seysuldance
- Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/seyyide-belly-dance-cambridge
- Other: http://www.youtube.com/user/SEYSULDance/
Image Credit:
Bobby Guliani, Dreamers’ Realm, Denise Marino
Personal photo is by Kam Boustani
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