My Experience in 'ONE DAY WITH... Sara Naadirah'

by Sara Naadirah

Poster of the event ‘Um Dia Com… Sara Naadirah’, in 2019.

‘In almost 20 years, every job I’ve completed as a dancer and teacher contributed to what I am today. Many of these jobs where very important but few of them marked me deeply. This one, in which Catarina generously invited me, was one of them. It wasn’t only visceral, it "ressurected" me.

I didn’t hide from anyone that I came from a complicated period of my life. Few people know what I’ve been through, no one knows what I’ve suffered and what you could imagine… it was even worse. Well, when Catarina invited me I thought: I’ll accept and I’ll go with everything I’ve got! I hadn’t organized an event, or performed live for three years. But I felt that, in Catarina’s studio, with her students who chose to be there with me, would be the perfect environment to share eveything I wanted. I accepted to put myself to the test. To understand if I was still able to do it. And yes, I was.

I think Catarina and the beautiful women that shared the day with me hadn’t the notion of the impact this event had on me. I was shaking with insecurity… but they calmed me down and welcomed me in their nest, all of this in an environment of pure sharing just like I think Oriental Dance should be lived. They filled me with strenght, and as the day went by, I felt reborning.

Circle with the participants in the beginning of the workshop.

What impressed me the most was the thirst for learning of these women. They wanted to know more. Listen more. Ask more. Watch more. To surrender more. And Catarina’s clever vision allied to her well limed security made her understand the potential that an event like this can have in her student’s lives. Expanding horizons makes better human beings and, of course, better dancers. Oriental Dance is learned with a little of eveyone and an event like this reinforces the multipurpose that dance offers and it’s in Catarina who the students trust to find that pallete of diversity and drink what fits them.

I loved it. To watch all the work Catarina developed, by her own merit, filled me with pride but, what made me more emotional, was to watch her work already reflected on her students. I saw the matrix of Oriental Dance. I saw my legacy. In that day, I saw the result of all my efforts, dedication and conviction. And how proud did I also feel of myself.’

Sara Naadirah also has a blog! Read her ‘Thoughts of a Dancer’. And if you want to know more about her work, follow her on Facebook, Instagram e Youtube.

“ONE DAY WITH…” is a quarterly event that wants to bring a national Oriental Dance professional to our school dando-o a conhecer to our students. The event is composed by three elements: a workshop, to learn with the dancer, a talk to know his career path and receive some of his tips, and a hafla to watch to his art live.

Our purpose with this event is providing an opportunity to our students to know different techniques and perspectives of this dance, opening their horizons and having the opportunity of knowing a national Oriental Dance artist.