Morocco of New York

One of my all time favouritest teachers, dancers, fount of knowledge on all things pertaining to oriental dance and generally wonderful person! We are so incredibly privileged that this amazing woman is prepared to come and share her wealth of knowledge at Celebrating Dance - the event really would not be the same without her!

Read all about Morocco in this excellent article that recently appeared in Al-Ahram Weekly

Visit Morocco's web site to read some fascinating and highly informative articles. You can also buy copies of her wonderful videos.

Morocco (Carolina Varga Dinicu) is considered the leading performer & authority in her field in the U.S., Canada and abroad, evidenced by frequent invitations to teach master seminars and perform in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Australia, Israel, Egypt, England, Morocco, Brazil and Italy.

Born into a Romanian Rom family she moved to America after WWII. In 1958, shortly before she got a BA in Modern Languages and Education, Morocco started studying Flamenco and continued to do so while pursuing an MA, turning professional in 1960, when she took the opportunity to go on tour with the Ballet Espanol Ximenez-Vargas. To do this she gave up a good job as a commercial translator, much to her family’s horror!

In 1960 a friend offered the starving dancer the chance to earn much needed extra cash through working as a dancer in a restaurant. It wasn't until they produced a bedlah for her wear that she realised that it was not Flamenco she had been hired to perform! She immediately fell in love with the music and would watch the Middle Eastern patrons; the aunties, the grannies, who came with their families and got up and danced, and also the other dancers who worked in the restaurant, so that she could learn how they 'really' did it. She also made a point of going to watch other Oriental dancers in the neighbourhood on her days off to learn as much as possible.

Greektown during the 60’s NYC was a bustling hive of restaurants, café’s and clubs, rather like parts of London were for Middle Eastern culture at the same time. This was the heyday for New York dancers and Morocco in particular. Between 1960 and 1969 she worked in all the top clubs and also made appearances in productions both on and off-Broadway to rave reviews. All the time she was soaking up as much as she could learn from the musicians and the patrons of the clubs and restaurants, often asking people on the spot if they could teach her a movement she had just seen them doing.

In her early 20’s she started to teach privately to pass on her hard won dance skills, at the same time realising that what she really needed to do next was to see the dance in its’ native setting. She was the first American (and probably European) to organise regular trips to venues in the Middle East to witness the dance first-hand. It was primarily thanks to these trips that vendors in Egypt and Turkey started to recognise and fulfil the costuming and music needs of the flourishing interest in the dance, which still holds true today. Her first trip however, was to Morocco in 1963, where she was completely bowled over by the beauty of the dance she saw there and became eager to learn more. Today Morocco is acknowledged as a leading expert on dances and rituals like Schikkat and Guedra. When she is not traveling to teach workshops she is touring the Middle East with parties of dancers experiencing local dancing first-hand. She has been leading these tours for over 30 years.

Back in America Morocco started teaching official classes in 1970. She opened her own dance school in the 1976 and began to teach master classes and workshops regularly to the growing number of dancers who wanted to learn more. During this time Morocco was briefly married to a Russian ("most interesting mistake of my life"). Her marriage opened up a whole new vista of interest in the dances of the Caucus and the Central Asian & Islamic Soviet Republics, but she was saddened to find that the dance was mainly performed by grandmothers at home.

Morocco is one of a small band of unique teachers who is capable of inspiring worship in her followers. However, she is so down-to-earth and friendly that ‘worship’ seems silly, but you cannot help but find yourself in awe of her impressive dance skills and knowledge. A few years ago an American friend described Morocco (or Aunt Rocky as we all tend to call her) as an international ‘dance treasure’ and a ‘living archive’ of the dance, sentiments I would certainly agree with. Aunt Rocky is the person I often turn to when I am researching a particular dance area as her knowledge is almost encyclopaedic. It was from Morocco that I learned the phrase ‘dance makes the music visible’, which, as students of mine will know, has become an oft-repeated mantra of mine over the years.

So what is Morocco’s style of teaching like? Personal experience has shown me that Morocco believes that each dancer should be true to her self, putting her own personality and spirit into a performance, and not be a copy of someone else. After all Fifi doesn't’t dance like Dina, and Dina doesn't’t dance like Soheir Zaki or Shu Shu Amin, or Aza Sharif or Naima Akif. . . They are all individuals and we should be striving to be the same. Morocco firmly believes that standards in Oriental dance have improved enormously in the 40 years she has been involved. She says that many of the early 1960’s dancers would not be able to hold a candle to some of today’s dancers.

Morocco appreciates the seriousness and dedication of today’s dancers, but her workshops and classes are not all serious and solemn. On the contrary, she makes them fun and the subject matter is often peppered with useful cultural references and snippets about people and places, all mixed in with a large dose of her wonderful earthy New Yorker’s humour. Humour is something she’s needed a lot of more recently as her dance studios are going through difficult times. They are situated in downtown Manhattan not that far from where the World Trade Centre used to stand. Understandably, many people in NYC are still reluctant to travel into that part of the city after September 11th, so her classes and studio rentals have dropped off steeply, causing anxiety that she may have to close altogether! Somehow though she still manages to be cheerful about the future saying that she not ready for retirement yet and will still be dancing "till six weeks after I’m dead!’

If you would like to take the opportunity study with Morocco in the UK, you can do so at the Celebrating Dance Festival which is held each autumn in Torquay. Click here for more information.