Old friends:

The first photo was taken in Seattle with Omar Baptiste, a well respected, charming man from Seattle with a vast knowledge of folkdance and music. He was a mentor to many of the Northwest dancers and much beloved. The second photo was taken when Hamza el Din was in residence at the University of Washington. He generously gave his time to both Muzzy and John as a mentor and teacher. It was Hamza who first inspired me to into the field of research while I was still in high school and discovered his albums on Vanguard Records. I had the incredible honor of dancing for him when he came to one of our performances at the Seattle Center, and later was thrilled to see him in a small concert setting as part of his time as an adjunct professor at UW. The last photo was taken at Town Hall in Seattle at a performance Bou-Saada did with Sirocco. Sol and Armando were always good to us as we wound our way through the learning process of Middle Eastern music and dance. Sol was an old acquaintance of Muzzy's from the folk music scene in Southern California in the early 1960's. I saw Sol and David Lindley with the rock band Kaleidescope, when they performed at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco in 1967. It was the first time I saw belly dancers with a rock band, and I beleive it was Marta Schill, who was with Sol at that time. We finally met in person when I became friends with Farideh/Cathryn Balk, who moved from the Bay area to Vancouver B.C. She and Sol had a daughter, Fairuza Balk, and Sirocco (Sol and Armando) often stayed with us in Bellingham on their way north to play in Vancouver B.C. Armando passed away in December 2012 and will be sorely missed for his great warmth, generous praise and encouragement and enormous talent. He was truly a Great Soul.

More goofin' around pics. The Puyallup Fair did give us ample room for silly pics. We all loved The Penetrator:

And Top Class Dancing Girls

And the trip to Disneyland where we got to park our bus in the "Bus Zone" and take a tram to the gate. At the infamous Campbell River gig, we rode in the Salmon Days Parade and took a pic with the honorary camel.

More photos because we all like photos. Saheed, Gail Smedley, was the last dancer to join Bou-Saada. Gail taught in London. One of her most notable pupils, Wendy Buonaventura, went on to publish several books on Middle Eastern dance and to create her own threatrical dance productions with a decidedly feminist/middle eastern flavor. Gail borught her own unique style to the troupe, quickly mastering our group material, learning to play in the band, and eventually adding her lovely voice as we expanded into vocal interpretation. This first shot is of Gail teaching before she moved to Washington State and joined Bou-Saada.

Two Gail solo shots:

Gail and John Zeretzke

Gail performed a basket dance to an Armenian piece, and became my partner in the Algerian/Ouled Nail.

Very early on we started running the troupe like a band, with regular rehearsals twice a week, three times if we were working in new material and getting ready for a tour. It evolved to where we had a repertoire of a certain number of pieces that we did for the year and we mixed and matched for the various shows we had contracted. Some sets leaned toward the more educational, ethnic side and others were flat out belly dance designed for taverns, bars, rock 'n' roll. We rehearsed as a full group, musicians and dancers, because when the dancers weren't dancing they were part of the band, and eventually, the musicians danced too. About the middle of our 10 year active run, we added singing. John Zeretzke's incredible ability to play several instruments really added to our ability to explore different music from a wider variety of countries. Some of the experiments were more popular than others, some dances were favorites of the group and some that were audience winners were loosers in our minds. We had a whole set of troupe language and set phrases that meant nothing to anyone but us...I guess you could say we were tribal, but the intention to be a "tribal dance troupe" was never conscious. It just evolved. Below are some rehearsal pictures. However, the first one is called 'The boys in the hall". It is a companion piece to "The girls in the hall". Both were taken at the Western Washington State Fair in Puyallup. We played there 2 years in a row, parking our bus at the back with the other carnival caravans, which we thought was wonderful. One evening after the show we came back to the bus to find the aisle occupied by a life sized wooden cut out cow. Randy the Roadie just couldn't resist.

This last one is Marj at the Fair with her new sword!

Screwing around, on stage, off stage, back stage, on the bus, in general.

Girls in the hall, Puyallup Fair, early 80's

Janet and Lani on the bus

Outdoor show? On one of the islands? Help?

The Ladies

On the street, Eugene, OR

Pt. Roberts

Setting up in 105 degrees, Banning, CA

The Bousaadettes with the Atlantics, political rally, Maple Ridge, B.C. Canada

Candle Dance done with masks (Jennifer and Yasmela)by Shayla

Algerian with Sahira and Yasmela

Drum Dance by Cassima

Jennifer started taking flamenco classes from Maestro Teo Morca and wanted to incorporate that into her dancing. We read a little about Zambra Mora and saw some Rom dancing from Spain. From that, she and John worked up a routine. He learned a Romanian violin piece and she choreographed this piece that used shawl work. It was quite good!

We did group publicity photos from the very beginning of the troupe. I found some of the originals, in fact, I found the very first one where we built a tent of Inidan bedspread tapestries from the 1960's, put some props in it and had a friend take some shots. Carol Fulcher and I are standing on the left in back. Muz, Marty and Steven Brown are the musicians, and CeCe and Jennifer are lounging in front.

Obviously we got a little more sophisticated at this process. We started selecting two shots a year, one on the ethnic side, one in more cabaret style poses so we could supply our employer with the appropriate shot. This one was taken before Marj retired. I always liked this shot and even have it in color, although printing 81/2x11 color photos was cost-prohibitive back in the day. We could never justify printing them up to actually use, so they sit in my box of photos, looking nice.

And this one was done right after she left when Gwynne Stutzman actually moved to this side of the mountains to join the troupe! Both of these are "ethnic". We tried to mix it up. For more educational shows we presented several folkloric dances with program sheets or real full on programs that gave a little history about the dances and areas they came from. At bars and taverns, nightclubs and such, the shows showed more skin, were more "rock n roll". We were a Rock n Roll Belly Dance Troupe.