1. OPENING: We opened up the show with Tammy Modis-Carlson, a local bellydance instructor in Huntingdon, PA.  Tammy has has been dancing and performing for 14 years and has been teaching now for just over a year now.   She has traveled and studied with numerous dancers, including Tamara Tahira and Shannon Bishop both from the state college area. She has developed a special passion for Egyptian style over the years, and has traveled to Egypt twice to enhance her studies, and is returning for a 3rd time this spring. Tammy enjoys both choreographing and improvisational style. She looks forward to continuing to share this beautiful and joyous dance. She will be opening up the show to the popular song Leyla, by the Mohammad Ali Ensemble, followed by a version of the arabic classic Aya Zein, by Gypsy Funk Squad, with whom she performed live with several times.

2. Katie:  Beledi Helwa, the song that you are about hear, is a specific style of Egyptian music called a beledi progression. It starts with a simple, soulful flute or “Ney.” A playful accordion jumps in and is drawn into conversation with a drum. This gradually builds into a steady rhythmic song, and then ends in a rapid finish.

3 Group: (performed by Tammy and her students):  Classic bellydance piece performed to Zeina by Lost Nomads - Around the Inland Sea album. 

4 Group This will be followed by a shabbi bellydance performance. Shabbi- A music and dance style originating in working class Cairo in the 1960s, Shaabi means ‘of the common people’, or working class. It developed into the ‘70s as people began to get cassette players and boom boxes in their houses, enabling the spread of counter-culture music. The second dance will be performed to Gamed – by Hamza - Bellydance Superstars Volume 11.

5. Students - Self taught- Student performance will be Middle Eastern Fusion style to Arabe Strings – choreographed by Marizol Ortiz (Zumba instructor) – Arabe Strings is a Zumba® Fitness Original.

6: Tammy performing her own choreography to the beautiful and romantic song, Shibbak Habibi, by Tony Mousayek.

7: Dawn & Deneece  performing an American Cabaret-style bellydance with the veil. American Cabaret style is based mostly on Turkish Belly Dance, and was popularized in the 1960s and 1980s by dancers taking the best of all the Middle Eastern Belly Dance movements and developing a rich, lively dances that are often performed with live music. A typical American Cabaret set usually includes at a minimum a lively entrance, a slow number performed with veil, and a drum solo, and is almost always performed with finger cymbals (zills).  Tonight will not be the typical American Cabaret as Dawn and Deneece have modified it slightly to their liking.

8: Shannon- For our extra feature performance we had Shannon Bishop, the owner of Black Cat Belly Dance in State College. Shannon performs regularly throughout the region and teaches a number of different weekly classes in various belly dance styles in State College. Shannon has been teaching and performing many different styles of belly dance for more than a decade, and she performs regularly at restaurants across the region as well as at festivals, weddings, and special events across the East Coast.  You can see her on most Friday nights at The Greek restaurant in State College. She has also studied and 

9: Tammy - performing her own choreography to the song Ana W'Habibi, from Hossam Ramzy's new baladi albumn, and she has actually had the incredible opportunity and privilege,to study with Hossam Ramzy in person

Final Performance: Tammy ending the show with a dynamic drum solo from Khader Ahmed's, Dum Tak Revolution, entitled Tab Tabla.

Tammy Modis-Carlson Little