Market at the Casbah 2009 recap

The 11th annual Market at the Casbah, organized by local belly dancer and instructor Deborah Peterson and Wanda Lee Sundberg at the Fullerton Senior Community Center on Saturday, was an incredible event with lots of vendors, great workshops by Angelika Nemeth, Middle Eastern food, and nearly continous performances throughout the day.

It was fun seeing Angelika (who ran out to see a student's performance before the first of her two workshops began), as well as Serena, Laura and Veronica -- whom I haven't seen in months because being pregnant has kept me out of dance class. I also got to visit with Najma, Mara and Shauna Roberts (a writing friend who is now taking belly dance classes in the Inland Empire!)

My good friend Enala and I also spent a lot of time at the O.C. Bellydance Connection table (generously donated by Deborah) to say hi to Rachel (who gets the credit for starting what has become a really robust local meetup group for belly dancers), as well as meetup members Gigi Lenker and Elena Wise.

We also had a great chat with belly dance costumer extraordinaire Doyne, who told us a terrific story about how he turned the tables on some Internet scammers (you have to ask him about it -- it's a great story!) and I had the opportunity to say thank you in person to Mher of Hollywood Music Center, and its sister company http://www.bellydance.com/, for his generous donation of raffle prizes, which I'll be giving away at my July 25 Book Release Party & Benefit (more info on that later, or you can check here). He also helped me replace my outdated VHS version of Fat Chance Belly Dance's Tribal Basics tape with a brand new DVD version.

Here are some pics:

Ana

Westside Belly Dance Project

Tribe Roman Morga

The view of the floor

Taji and the Johara Dancers

If you're interested in dancing next year, reservation forms will be available in January. You can find out more at http://www.marketatthecasbah.com/.