Interview with Ami

October 8, 2009 05:52 PM

Name: ami

What is your role within the Sahara Dance community? instructor and company member of std (sahara tribal)

Childhood ambition: my first ambition was definitely to be tall. when that clearly looked like it wasn’t going to happen, i think my next was to climb a really big ass tree.

First job: training trick goats to jump over each other.

What’s playing on your iPod or CD player? santigold, the veronicas, peaches, ani difranco

Indulgence: shrimp shumai, pho, shrimp shumai, pho, shrimp shumai, pho…

when i’m not eating shrimp shumai or pho, i’m watching arsenal fc or buying socks to wear with my boots.

What’s your favorite belly dance moment or experience? so many, where to begin? one that really stands out is when rachel, laura and i jumped on the bus with oojami and left for canada. performing with them in montreal and toronto was amazing.

being backstage and goofing around is always some of the best times too.

Current inspirations: rachel brice, of course! mardi love, amy sigil, heather stants and mira betz.

balkan music, the sounds of vaudeville, waltz rhythms and anything circus-y

What is your dance background? i did ballet up until college and realized my life style didn’t fit with the ballet life style. i took 1 hip hop class… i’m pretty sure in the future i’ll do some ribbon dance (with dee dee) and interpretive mime.

How did you get interested in belly dance? after years of not doing any dance i decided i wanted to get back to dance, and just stumbled into belly dance. lucky for me, my first teacher was rachel brookmire and i fell in love.

Finally, what do you love most about Sahara Dance (other than Hip Talk, of course!)? i met my closest and dearest friends through sahara dance (it was actually organic dance back then) and they are my family now - my crazy-ass family, but i love them all.

i was with sahara from the day it was created and seeing how it’s grown into an amazing community of beautiful women makes me so happy! i love the community that has become sahara dance.

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