Lynette Harper alphabetizes more eccentric likes. Reprinted with permission from the Middle Eastern Dance Association newsletter, Sahda, September 2014.
Dance Centre
Bekaa Valley Girls
Several excerpts from Bekaa Valley Girls, Lynette’s full-length collaborative creation with Rahma Haddad, presented in the Noon Dance Seriesat Vancouver’s Dance Centre, November 2009.
Duet with Rahma Haddad (part 1)
This segment recalls when Lebanese cousins Lynette and Rahma first met. Though raised in different parts of Canada, they shared a family history of immigration and a deep love of dance.
Duet with Rahma Haddad (part 2)
This excerpt from Bekaa Valley Girls continues from Part 1. Rahma presents Lynette with a hipscarf, and introduces her to belly dance.
Gnossienne
In this excerpt, Lynette wonders if she has missed something in her western dance training.
Dance is in their blood
Gilded Serpent June 2007
by Kevin Potvin
A reluctant visitor to a multicultural arts show comes away with a new appreciation for how art entwines with ordinary life for ordinary people. . . . (click here to read article)
Excerpt: That doesn’t mean I don’t understand dance at all – as a form of art done by artists, or as an activity people do at clubs. Haddad presented a different thing I had previously bean unaware of, and it bridged the two forms – art and popular pastime – to form a third distinct thing: popular art, or folk art, in dance form. This was no contrived presentation of foreign exoticism to satisfy some state-granting agency looking to spice up multicultural awareness week. This was a moving and utterly personal expression given in so highly evolved a form, it appeared to be fully grounded in the Earth.
It was Lynette Harper’s talk and performance that, though it came first, served to wrap up the whole of the noon hour’s entertainment–which was fitting since she organized this show. Harper spoke in general terms of how belly dancers share their dances with each other, and how they get caught up in each other’s pleasure of dancing. “At any gathering,” she emphasized, “there was always dance; it was loved and honoured.” . . .
(previously posted in The Republic of East Vancouver, April 2004)
(See short clip “Arab Women Arab Dance” in Video section)
Arab Women Arab Dance
Arab Women Arab Dance
Opening of Arab Women Arab Dance, presenting life histories with dance. Featuring Lynette, Rahma Haddad, Salma Ferchichi, Rabab Ward, and Emily Basha. Produced by Vancouver’s Dance Centre.
Excerpt from a Vancouver Dance Centre production, interweaving life history narratives with demonstrations by five Arab women.
Arab Women, Arab Dance
When most people think of Arab music and dance they usually think of bellydancing, the North American dance craze based on an ancient tradition. These two presentations at Vancouver’s Dance Centre (2004 & 2005) provided a personal and cultural context for understanding the dynamic and evolving art of Arab dance. Five diversely accomplished Arab women, well known as teachers and performers, explored their dance form through words and movement. We revealed the meaning of Arab dance as art, cultural expression, and source of personal identity.
Each of the presenters has a unique history, their origins reflecting the diversity of the Arab world and the Arab diaspora. During the first informal event in 2004, Salma Ferchichi, Rahma Haddad, Lynette Harper and Rabab Ward spoke about self and identity as it relates to their Arab dance teaching and performance. The following year, 2005, Emily Basha joined the group. OOn both occasions, our words were accompanied by short performances, and a group improvisation that conveys the joyful social dimension of Arab dance. In 2005, co-organizer Rahma Haddad produced a series of dance workshops featuring all five presenters.
These events integrated masterful professional performances of diverse Middle Eastern and North African dance styles with insightful personal narratives. They were a first for the B.C. dance community – and perhaps for Canada – in presenting Arab perspectives about Arab women and their dance. The 2004 performance was reviewed in Vancouver newspaper The Republic and Gilded Serpent.
Press Release from the Dance Centre, 2004
The Dance Centre presents
The Noon Dance Series
Raks Araby – Arab Women, Arab Dance
With Salma Ferchichi, Rahma Haddad, Lynette Harper and Rabab Ward
Insightful narratives with masterful performances of
Middle Eastern and North African dances
Friday March 26 2004 at 12 noon
Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St (at Granville), Vancouver
Tickets $7 at the door Info: 604 606 6400 www.thedancecentre.ca
Followed by a tour of Scotiabank Dance Centre at 1pm
The monthly Noon Dance Series continues with a unique and stimulating presentation of Middle Eastern and North African dance forms, by four diversely accomplished Arab women. Salma Ferchichi, Rahma Haddad, Lynette Harper and Rabab Ward go beyond the popular preconceptions of bellydancing, to reveal Arab dance as a dynamic and evolving art, means of cultural expression, and source of personal identity.
During this informal event Salma, Rahma, Lynette and Rabab will speak and perform, exploring self and identity as it relates to their Arab dance teaching and performance. Their aim is to facilitate new understandings about the vitality of dance in the lives of women of Arab origin in Canada, and to challenge audience preconceptions about both Arab women and bellydancing.