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You might as well say it all started when I was
6 months old with my grandmother Sue Nasser David who came to visit
us in Philadelphia (where we were stationed since my Father was in
the Navy) for the first time to see me. She used to sing to me the
old classic Lebanese songs in Arabic and said I would dance in my
baby swing. Shortly after we moved to Guam, a little island in the
South Pacific. It was there when I was two that my Mother put me in
dance class. I continued to studied ballet, tap and baton when we
moved to San Diego, CA in 1964 until I was 8 and then before we
moved to Norfolk, VA I put my foot down and told my Mother I did not
want to dance anymore. I think she was heartbroken for two reasons,
one because she just spent a small fortune on all new equipment for
me including new toe shoes, and two, she really wanted to see me on
stage as a prima ballerina. I did love to be on stage and entertain
but I had to practice at least 2 hours every day after school while
my friends we out playing, it was no longer fun for me. We moved to
Norfolk in 1969 until 1971 and then moved back to San Diego, CA.
Keep in mind I was still entertaining by writing, directing
commercials and little skits that I would have my friends perform
then record on my little tape player. Shortly after we arrived in
San Diego, I asked my Mother if I could enroll in dance class again
only this time, I wanted to study Modern Jazz. My ultimate goal was
to become a dancer in the chorus line on Broadway. I loved to act
and dance. Every week my Mother would drive me to Pacific Beach for
my lessons, I did not mind practicing every day, I loved it and then
one night when my Mother was waiting for me in the lobby, a group of
belly dancers poured out of a class. My Mother was in awe and was
bitten by the dance bug. She wanted to take the class but was a
little she and asked if I would take the class with her. I told her
no I want to study Modern Jazz so I could make it on Broadway, well
she said I could do both and that is what I did. Belly Dance or
“Orientale” came very easy to me because I understood the music,
after all I had been listening to that music since I was a baby and
at our family Hufles and wedding celebrations, we would always have
live music and dance. It was in that class that I found my stage
name Mazahar of all places from my Grandmother’s cousin Helen
Corey’s cookbook “The Art of Syrian Cookery”. The word Mazahar means
orange blossom in Arabic and the orange blossom water is used in
baking sweets. Since my first costume was an orange color, the name
just fit plus no one else had that name, it was original.
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In 1975 my Father got his orders for New Orleans, LA although I
found theater there that I could continue to study, I could not find
Orientale dance so in 1976 I decided to rent space from my swim
coach who had a studio and I began teaching class there, 3 per week
1 Jazzercise and 2 belly dance classes. My Dad helped me out by
ordering belly dance books from a Lebanese bakery of all places. I
literally continued my studies of the art through books written from
Turkish, Lebanese and Greek Dancers overseas and her in the states
and passed on that knowledge to my students. I loved it and so did
the community. Every July 4th celebration my students and I would
perform at The Woodmere Country Club in Harvey, LA. I loved
directing so much that I put on 2 plays at the local mall and had my
high school friends perform in the plays. Then I started performing
at a Greek and Lebanese restaurant, parties and weddings until we
moved in 1979 to Memphis, TN. I had danced for another 2 years and
quit. See I really wanted to be on Broadway in the chorus line but
when I was ready to leave for NY at 18 years old my Dad had told me
that Broadway was too competitive and that I really should think
about going to college instead. I really admired and respected him;
I followed his advice. He later told me I was that good to be on
Broadway but he did not want his little 18-year-old daughter to pack
up and move to NY City by herself and he knew that I would do just
that to follow my dreams.
It wasn’t until 2007 that I got back into dance. My 30th reunion
was in May of 2008 and being out of shape I thought of one thing I
knew would get me back into shape quickly and that was belly dance.
I began looking in the local recreation newsletter in Lakewood, OH
and phonebook to see if I could find a class and as luck would have
it, I did, it was an 8-week course. At one point one of the
instructors asked me if I had taken a course before and I told her I
had but I was a little rusty. I enjoyed it so much that I continued
to study under their company. Then I got into Latin Aerobics and
Kick Boxing at Gunning Recreation Center in Cleveland. I noticed the
instructor was trying to do a few belly dance moves so I approached
her and asked if she would teach me Latin Dance styles and that I
would teach her belly dance in return and she agreed. So, every
Saturday I took Latin Aerobics at 10 am, Latin Dance at 11 am and
taught Belly Dance at 12pm. Pretty soon people started coming up and
asking if they could take my classes.
By 2010 I had made so many friends on this new social media website
called Facebook that a friend had introduced me to in 2007 that is
when and where I met so many dancers, musicians and artists
literally around the world. I met 28 people around the globe that
had started learning Orientale in 1973. We became the 73 club and I
knew one day I would make it my mission to meet all of these
artists. I had this brilliant idea and in Feb 2011 I met Andre Cato
a fellow artist and as I call him my “Berry Gordy” to discuss my
ideas with him, he loved it but rather than just local I told him
this show Raqs for Joy needs to be international. See I really
wanted to produce this show because I wanted to meet all of my
friends from the 73 club. This was one way to financially do it.
Later that year I met Kasey King through Andre and we formed Raqs
for Joy TV Show under the company Lions of the Desert Productions.
We promoted the TV show Be in the Toa Festival in 2011 & 2012, we
filmed an interview and promo piece for their first year in 2012 as
The Global Village Festival of Greater Akron, we also had a fashion
show and belly dance show for the festival. I taught a mini class
for the audience as well. In January 2013 we had a show called
Dancing with Qismah, Raqs for Joy brought a belly dancer from
Columbus Elianae Stone to perform for The Avenue Radio Show’s
opening party in Sept 2013, In 2014 we kicked off the Belly World
Tour starting at O’Tooles in Dec with 4 belly dancers Dahmia&
Jameela who I met at the ICC-WIN Annual Christmas Party , Pryia of
Pheonix from Habebba’s of Columbus, Mariah of Canton and followed by
a new show The Round Table with Priya, Dahmia, and Mazahar (me) , a
table discussion of the belly dance industry from the past to the
present and everything in between. In 2015 Lions of the Desert
Productions hosted two shows Flowers of the Desert in Hillard at
Kitamu Coffee with 12 belly dancers from all over Ohio and then our
new series Vintage Hollywood Glamour of the Desert with 9 belly
dancers. Moe the owner who was from Madagascar was so surprised how
we packed the house with more than 75 people in his quaint and artsy
café. He said he had never imagined how big and beautiful this show
would be and he absolutely loved it so did the Indian community
because Priya did a very famous Bollywood song and number called
“Choli KePeeche. In 2015 Lions also presented Dahmia and Sister’s of
the Island at the Asian Festival and One world Day to 2019. In 2015,
2016, 2017 Lions also performed in One World Day on the main stage
and in the Lebanese and British Gardens. Lions of the Desert
Productions provided the belly dancers Safiya Nawaar of Lexington,
KT and Shakira Fanninah of Columbus, OH to preform for Lebanon Day
at City Hall. In 2016 we decided to produce and film the first
season of Raqs for Joy TV Show so that we had film to pitch the show
to get picked up by a network her or overseas and that’s what we did
in Sept 2016, we started to filming season 1 in 3 cities. In 2016 we
also did Vintage Glamour of the Desert Part II in Cleveland, 2018
Part III in Columbus, 2020 Part IV in Cleveland and our pride and
joy was an amazing play in Columbus 2019 called “One Arabian Night”
a beautiful love story set in the Middle East 1300’s to modern day
Columbus. The entire story was told by music and dance with very
little narration. Dance is the language every culture can
understand.
We have not given up on finding a buyer for Raqs for Joy TV Show
because it is such a wonderful show and format about health, wealth
and the art of belly dance around the world. We are a company that
loves to entertain no matter how big or small and promote the
continued vitality art and community. Kasey, Dahmia and I love this
company we have developed over the years and plan to continue our
journey of celebration. So come, follow me.....it’s going to be an
adventure of a lifetime......
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