by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Renada Rochon has one flashy outfit.
"Somebody went blind making this for me," Renada Rochon said of her dance costume weighed down with sequins.
Rochon is the president of the UNM Middle-Eastern Dance and Theatre Association. The group had its first performance at the SUB ballroom on Saturday night.
Rochon said the association became an official UNM organization a year ago and used the first semester for organizing and fund raising. She said the goal was to create a positive outlook on belly dancing.
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She said members have been practicing diligently, sometimes one to two hours in the morning and three hours at night.
There were about 50 people in the crowd on Saturday.
"They're going to love it, because it's a fun show," Rochon said. "Whenever we dance at the Mediterranean CafÇ, we get excellent feedback."
Diana Chantalle, a former UNM student, attended the show.
"It is a celebration of feminine mystique," she said. "You feel very feminine, very lovely, when you dance like that. It exuberates joy."
Dawn Marie Gottieb, or Taghrid, is the head of the association. She said Taghrid is an Arabic name meaning "song of birds." An Egyptian choreographer she met while dancing at the Nile, a famous nightclub in New York City, gave her the name.
Taghrid said before she went to Iran, she believed Middle-Eastern women were oppressed and incapable of self-expression.
"I went over to Iran thinking that the women were repressed, thinking that I had to free my sisters from their hijab and their chador," she said.
A hijab is a scarf worn by Muslim women that covers their head and neck. A chador is a head-to-toe cloak that also covers the face.
Taghrid lived in Iran from 1988 to 1990. She said during her stay there, she realized the women are strong, highly educated, multifaceted and expressive.
She said she discovered the woman dance freely in their homes.
"I learned a lot from watching the women dancing in the kitchen while cooking," she said. "Dances happen all the time informally in Iran."
She said after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, public dancing was banned. Thus, Persian underground dancing began. That is what Taghrid studied after a year of searching for a teacher.
The association performs all aspects of Middle-Eastern dancing including Turkish, Egyptian, Persian, Moroccan and folkloric fertility dances, Rochon said.
Carilyn Rome is the vice president of the association.
"It's ancient," she said. "Like martial arts, it's been around forever. It's a great way to exercise, and it's very empowering for women. In America, women's bodies are
repressed. We don't usually get to be women, and belly dancing lets us do that."
Taghrid said the association is open to everyone.
"We welcome anyone who is curious about or involved in Middle- Eastern performance," she said.
The association's next meeting is at noon on Friday in the Cherry Silver Room at the SUB.
