Published in Bellydance Oasis magazine
            Issue 28. April to June 2007

Greetings to you all,

My name is Devi Mamak. Some of you may know me as the Artistic Director of Ghawazi Caravan. I would like to introduce myself as the new voice for Tribal Corner. I am very excited to be given this opportunity to share and bring to you all the latest happenings in the world of Tribal both here in Australia and overseas. I will be bringing to you articles and interviews not just from my perspective but from many other Tribal sources with the idea of presenting a well rounded view from around the country and overseas.

I’m sure you will all agree with me when I say that to date Alaine Haddon – Cassey has done a wonderful job with Tribal Corner. Her articles and interviews in have been a wonderful resource for both my students and I, as I am sure they have been to all of you. We wish Alaine luck in her future ventures.

For this, my first issue in Tribal Corner, Alma suggested that I should formally introduce myself and talk about my troupes, students and teachers as well as my thoughts and aspirations, so we can start the ball rolling on what I hope to be some sort of a forum for all of you Tribal gals and guys out there!

IN THE BEGINNING

I am based in the Blue Mountains [west of Sydney, N.S.W]. I started my fascination with ME dance sometime around 1996. My first teacher [and in my eyes, always my teacher], Kaiya Seaton, had a very organic and unique approach to the dance but was also heavily influenced by Suraya Hilal. After learning with her for about 2 months we had a video afternoon and this was to be my first exposure to Fat Chance Belly Dance [FCBD]. It was the FCBD LIVE ! Video [there were no DVD’s back then!]. Jill and Rina [then members of FCBD] were dancing facing each other and at first glance I thought it was one girl dancing to a mirror and was amazed when I realised that there were actually two dancers. I was very inspired by their grace and synchronicity, not to mention the beautiful hand movements but put it to the back of my mind as Kaiya informed me that there was no one [to her knowledge] doing ATS in Australia at that time. I concentrated on my dance studies with Kaiya and became one of her principal dancers in her troupe “The Raqs Sharqi Dancers”. In 1999 I decided to catch up with some family in San Francisco and decided to check out Carolena Nericcio and her FCBD classes. I was there for several months and did as many classes as I could with her.

Upon my return I realised that I had fallen in love with ATS and wanted to dance this beautiful art form with other dancers, so in 2000 and with the blessings of Kaiya, I started teaching the little that I did know about ATS to others. Classes grew steadily and after only 6 months I had a few students performing at local events. The numbers of performers steadily grew as I hand picked them for our performance troupe and eventually we had to come up with a name. We decided upon Ghawazi Caravan. The Ghawazi were known for their free spirits, using zills, dancing with props on their heads and in general for entertaining and shocking their audience.  Sounded like us!  An “authentic“Egyptian troupe we were not but from these Egyptian Gypsies we drew our name and inspiration. Besides it somehow felt like I was paying some sort of homage to Kaiya, as back then we were fusing a lot of ATS with what I had learnt previously with her.

GHAWAZI CARAVAN DEVELOPS.

Around 2002 I was also doing regular flamenco and classical Indian [Odissi] classes but I needed more from the source of ATS so I sponsored Karen Gehrman [then Assistant Director, FCBD]. Her workshops were fantastic. They filled in many “holes” for me but the light bulb really went off for me when Karen and I performed an improvised duet together. I was amazed how she communicated to me through her eyes and fully understood the connection between the dancers needed for successful ATS. I finally “got it” and made a decision to abandon all other dance styles until my body had fully absorbed ATS. Don’t misunderstand me, it’s not that I don’t appreciate other forms or fusion work, on the contrary I can fall in love with any other dance style, whether in its pure form or fusion as long as it is presented well and “works”. I do think it is important to understand where you have come from in order to figure out and understand where you want to go from there.

That decision was one of the most important decisions I have made for Ghawazi Caravan [GC]. We all worked hard on our ATS technique and our improvisational choreography skills and in 2003, entered the first annual belly dance competition and to our surprise we came 2^nd! In hindsight I realized that I personally did not enjoy the idea of competing with others but I cannot deny that it was great exposure for us and really put us on the map as far as belly dance and Tribal goes, not to mention Tribal itself as it was really starting to become popular around about that time.

In 2004 nine of GC traveled to San Francisco for direct training in tribal style. I was blown away that so many of my girls made the effort and felt humbled at their dedication to me and to the dance. We managed to get along to Tribalfest [Sebastopol, U.S.A] where we attended many informative workshops not to mention the opportunity to perform [also alongside Diaspora of W.A]. We also had lots of one on one time with Jill Parker from Ultra Gypsy and of course Carolena from FCBD. It was at this time that Carolena accepted me into her teacher training course [not at easy task!] and over the next few years I worked on my technique as well as me teaching skills either through the long process of video critic and email or in person when we could mange this. I found Carolena to be an excellent, thorough and honest teacher and who better to teach me than the original source?

While this was going on GC and I were also lucky enough to sponsor other great artists to Australia including Paulette Rees Denis from Gypsy Caravan [2004 & 2005], Carolena Nericcio [2005], Carolena Nericcio & Megha Gavin from Devyani Dance Company [2006] and Rachel Brice [2006] which all added to our learning & repertoire.

Through out this time GC and I gained in popularity and were asked to travel around the country and N.Z to conduct workshops and shows. It is satisfying to share what we love and to meet and learn form other Tribal enthusiasts in our own corner of the world.

DEVI’S AND GHAWAZI CARAVANS MOST RECENT NEWS.

Well last year I managed to complete my teacher training with Carolena and am now the only person in the southern hemisphere [to date] to have done so, with 3 of our GC, flamenco inspired moves being accepted into the FCBD format! I feel like I have achieved my goal of absorbing ATS into my muscles and mind and at the same time through doing this have deciphered where the “seams” are in ATS to be able to successfully fuse yet still keeping the form true to its nature…hence Carolena accepting our movements into the format.

Last year I managed…[somehow!] the huge undertaking of the First Australian Tribal and trance Festival which we held here in Katoomba. We had workshops and performers from all over Australia and N.Z as well as Carolena & Megha from the U.S.A. It is exciting to say that the whole event was a huge success and a fantastic example of how much Tribal has grown here in Australia.

Last year GC also picked up the award for Troupe of the Year at the Belly Dancers Ball Awards.

ABOUT GHAWAZI CARAVAN CLASSES, TROUPES, TEACHERS & WHAT WE ARE UP TO NOW.

I receive a lot of emails from people asking me on how I direct such an amazing troupe as Ghawazi Caravan. The truth is I am really in awe of all of them and I feel so lucky to be able to work with them on a regular basis. They are all so dedicated not to mention talented and innovative dancers. They are part of the troupe because for the most part we really do think as one, having the same sense of body movement yet at the same we each have our strong points and preferences which we bring to the group. It would be stupid of me, as troupe director not to utilize their talents as they often come to class with new choreographies and ideas which are brilliant. We work very collaboratively and if there is a stalemate in the vote?....well that’s where I step in to make the final decision which they whole heartedly support me in.

 This year I have expanded my regular classes so we now have more classes in various locations in the Blue Mountains and Sydney. For this, Lara Bucknall [relief teacher and GC Assistant Director], Sandy Burrow and April Erzetich, all GC members, have come on board to help with teaching. We now have 2 student Troupes, Ghaziya and Aziff [Aziff directed by Sandy] as well as under 12’s, Ghawazi Girls. It has been great working with some of GC as teachers as I really feel like we are part of a team and now have the comfort of knowing that classes and rehearsals will be taken care of when I am interstate teaching & performing.

On the performance side of things as well as our regular type of gigs which range from private gigs to festivals to corporate events we are excited to work on two very exciting projects. They involve fabulous African dancers and musicians, Classical Indian dancers and musicians, Thai dancers and contemporary dancers. All of GC are very excited at the prospect of working with such fantastic artists and look forward to gaining in knowledge and experience while working with them. As these projects develop I will look forward to bringing these developments to you all.

 I am also the mother of two great kids, Kalon [boy aged 11] and Diamanda [girl aged 4].I have a fabulously supportive partner, Anthony [all belly dance mums need one!] and am also a classical trained conservatorium accredited piano teacher….phew! If you want to find out more about me or GC you can check out our website. www.ghawazicaravan.com but for now I think that’s enough about me!

I would be thrilled to hear from all and would love for Tribal Corner to reflect all of you out there. So please email me with anything tribal that would be of interest that you have been up to. I’ll look forward to hearing from you all! You can email me on devimamak@ghawazicaravan.com