Habib

Habib's photoHabib began studying Middle Eastern Dance in 1993 with Delilah,in Seattle WA.

She absorbed the movements quickly,falling in love with the rich history and earthy spiritual energy of Oriental Dance.

Within one year, she was hired as a belly dancer actor for the Arizona Renaissance Festival. Habib spent the next year traveling across the U.S. belly dancing in "Gypsy Camp" at various festivals nation wide.

It was Larkspur, CO 1995 where she first came to develop "Belly Metal"... where Belly Dance meets Heavy Metal. " I would go and practice behind one of the stages every day and there was always this old flannel shirt that was left behind. I looked in one of the pockets one day and found an Metallica tape. It gets sort of boring practicing to Middle Eastern Dance music all the time so I popped in the tape just for some fun... "Enter Sandman" started to play and that was it.... "Belly Metal" was born..."

In the Fall of 95 Habib was flown to Amsterdam,Netherlands by "High Times" magazine to perform in the 1995 annual marijuana festival "The Cannabis Cup". She can be scene belly dancing at the festival in the documentary on DVD/video called "Weed". 

Belly Dancing at the Shakopee MN Renaissance Festival lead to one of Habib's favorite memories... "One of my favorite memories is the year and a half I spent as apprentice to Cassandra's Middle Eastern Dance troupe,"Jawaahir" in Minneapolis MN. We had four hours of class and two hours of troupe every week. It was like being in Belly Dance college! I just loved it!!"

While in Minneapolis Habib also had the wonderful experience of performing regularly with the Middle Eastern band, "The Electric Arab Orchestra".

In Spring of 1996,she traveled to Egypt and Turkey for the first time and turned a childhood fantasy into reality. Habib explored the beautiful mosques,bazaars and of course.... the nightclubs, where ever traditional "Raqs Sharki" (dance of the east) was to be found.

December of 1997 found Habib back in Egypt to continue studying the Egyptian and Bedouin way of life. Pilgrimages to Sinai and Jordan helped enrich her understanding of Arab Culture.
"There was a brief stint I had dancing  "Raqs Sharki " on a casino boat in Israel, but the particulars of the gambling scene didn't appeal to me "

Returning to Seattle after a four year absence, Habib began teaching Belly Dance classes and continued to perform and study Oriental Dance.

In July of 2000 Habib suffered a serious back injury which kept her bed ridden for the next two years. "To see the positive side of it, I like to say that it gave me a chance to work on the energetic part of Belly Dance.  WHY do we dance? What makes you want to watch an Oriental Dancer? What draws you in and captivates you?  How does a Middle Eastern Dance routine flow from beginning to end? I had LOTS of time to ponder."


It was in Habib's "Dark Night", that she began to study the folk dances of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran and the Gulf States... in addition to Egyptian Raqs Sharki.

Regaining her mobility in the Spring of 2002, Habib returned to performing and teaching Belly Dance and hostessing monthly dances venues for the Seattle Middle Eastern Dance Community.

In June of 2003 Habib traveled to Morocco to seek out the "Schikaat", "learned" woman who are a sort of Moroccan "Geisha".  She traveled from village to city studying and copying their unique North African, or "Raqs Shaabi" performance styles.

Habib moved to Sedona,AZ in the Fall of 2003 to...."Go for all my dreams or die trying...! "

One of her dreams was to live in Sedona.... pretty much in the middle of now where, it seems an unlikely place to accomplish much of anything. "They say Sedona, Arizona is the healing vortex center of the world. Supposedly all the iron and crystal in the surrounding red rock formations really focuses energy and seems to have the effect of forcing you to deal with aspects of your personality which don't serve you any longer... at an accelerated rate too!" It was from her home base in Sedona that Habib began to manifest her dreams.

"The main thing I would like to do is tour the world performing in a Middle Eastern Dance Show. I had this desire before the "Belly Dance Super Stars" ever existed... so when they materialized it was a no brainer to me to try and make it in their Belly Dance show."


Habib entered the 2004 "Belly Dancer of the Universe" competition in Long beach, CA and swept the Fusion Category winning both first place and peoples choice with "Belly Metal". She also placed third in the Universal category by the judges choice and won the Universal title by the peoples choice award.

"I entered the Belly Dance Superstars competition in Texas and won my preliminaries in the Fall of 2004, but only came in fourth in the finals. That was OK, but not good enough to make the Superstars".


"After hearing the difficulties of their touring schedule, I was sort of less disappointed to not have made it. "

Another dream of Habib's, included appearing on David Letterman's "Late Show" for "Stupid Human Tricks". "Belly Dancers are always doing coin tricks and I just got a little goofy with it..... I like to make people laugh." In late April of 2004, Habib went to an audition in Phoenix for the "Late show". She was selected to be on the show for  "Stupid Human Tricks" by flipping a little hamburger from her lower abdomen up to a bun on her chest using only her stomach muscles. Habib was asked to stay on and be on the show for two more days, but each day she got bumped by bigger stars. So only ended up being aired on May 2nd 2004.

"I had always wanted to be in a Belly Dance Troop and so I started dancing with a Flagstaff AZ. based Alternative Belly Dance Troop called "The Gypsy Chicks". I officially became a "chick" in January of 2006. Not only do we have a great time entertaining at events of all sorts, we are truly close friendson and  off the dance floor."


 In the Spring of 2005, Habib became the owner of the well known Belly Dance/ Gypsy Costume Company "Ganesha Bazaar".  In the winter of 2006 she went to India for the first time on a Belly Dance Costume buying trip for "Ganesha Bazaar". She had several opportunities to perform while abroad and also studied Bhangra and Bollywood that winter while in India.


She is currently residing in Flagstaff, Arizona, but is prepareing to hit the road once again with her snake "Axl",  to "Run away with the Circus".... Actually to travel with the Renaissance Festival for a few months as she performs with the touring fair which roams the US through out the year.

Habib is an eternal student of Middle Eastern Dance. She attends as many Belly Dance workshops by master instructors as possible and travels to North Africa, the Mediterranean, Middle East and Asia yearly to study the native dances.

--Armando Uncle Mafufo; Santa Cruz, CA "Never light your veil on fire." :)

 

--Amaya; Albuquerque, New Mexico "Use tiny hair rubber bands to create flounces, tucks and even create sleeves in your veil. Once you remove your veil in your dance, simply snap and the bands fly/snap off and you have a flat fabric to dance with."