Suhaila Salimpour

Suhaila Salimpour is a genius! She is also an ass-kicker. When I traveled to Washington DC last weekend to take her 3-day workshop, hosted by DC Tribal, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Of course, I knew that she is the daughter of Jamila Salimpour, the woman who taught women all over the West coast to belly dance in the '60s and '70s, and founded the Tribal dance company Bal Anat. Other than that, all I knew about Suhaila is that she had done some fitness videos. On the first day of class, she started off by asking how many people did not know what to expect from the class. Me and two others out of the 20 or so students raised our hands. A wicked grin spread across her lovely face, and she said "Good! You'll be suprised then."

I thought - how bad could it be? It's a beginner course! 7 minutes later, in the middle of the warm-up, I thought I was going to collapse. She had us pulsing in a squat position, bent at the waist with our backs shooting straight out, arms reaching to the wall in front of us. My thighs were on fire and just when I thought it was almost over, she counted down to 1 from 8, then screamed "Arms out to the sides!" I was like - is this woman serious? She was, and is, very serious about dancing.

Suhaila Salimpour is on a mission. With one hand in the past and one in the future, this electrically intelligent woman stands in the middle, fusing them together to create a new form of dance. To prepare the masses to perform, she has developed a rigorous training program resting on the foundation of...glute squeezes. Yes, I basically spent 5 hours a day, for 3 days straight, squeezing my ass. This class was all work and, quite honestly, little fun. But that was alright, because in place of fun there was purpose. Suhaila did an excellent job of communicating her vision in such a way that made the hard work seem worth it. Even when she has us walking forward in quarter time, feet en relève, arms held up in 5th position, knees bent, making a box with our hips in half time, while she shouted out the count "1-2-3-4! Lock-lock-lock-lock-lock-lock-lock-lock! Breath! No tension! RELAX!"

What vision could possibly motivate such torture? Nothing lass than the evolution of belly dance into a modern dance form. Suhaila trains belly dancers in the spirit of ballet or jazz dancers. She shows dancers how to develop in an athletic sense, providing a foundation to prepare them to dance at the highest artistic level. She also trains dancers musically. She sat us all down on the floor then wrote on the mirror with a marker for a little lesson in basic music theory. And she expected every exercise in the class to be done on time. If you were off beat, she would stop you and make you start again, first finding the right foot pattern, then the hips. The ability to perform the hip and foot work on time, with any variation between the two that she throws at you, is required in order to pass the test. Yes! Really, there is a test. For me this was all a little shocking, but at the same time, I knew I found someone who could really help me.

Suhaila's system addresses so many needs that I have as someone with absolutely no formal dance training. And to me her approach makes sense. She provides dancers with tools that they can use to create their vision of dance. Up until I took Suhaila's course I had learned moves and choreographies. I felt like I was learning with blinders on, but I didn't know why. With a lot of focus on style very early in almost all belly dance training, many dancers end up looking the same. I always knew that I wanted to create my own style, but I did not know how to approach that. Suhaila breaks the dance down to the minutest level, creating something like the DNA of belly dance, to be recombined in the infinite patterns of a dancer's imagination. In order to participate in this upward spiral I suffered for 3 days, and on the trip home I was so happy that I cried.

More Suhaila!
Suhaila shares her life story with Root Magazine.
A 1996 interview with Suhaila, originally published in Jareeda Magazine.
Suhaila video biography on YouTube.
Suhaila squeezes her glutes for Ellen Degeneres.
Suhaila on Tribe.net.

An Amazing Performance by Suhaila