OMAR KHARIM BELLY DANCE GUILD

Regarding Omar Kharim Belly Dance Guild. This item is of concern to our local guild specifically but several of our core members feel strongly that this needs to be posted. For the past 7 years we have been operating a Belly Dance class for free in the Clark County Library, with teaching services provided by Ya Shara. The class was originally set up to recruit members, particularly dancers, to participate with us at our other events. In all these years we have not managed to sign up one of the participants at the free classes. This last year we put together one of the best Belly Dance camps ever, particularily as a lot of interest was presented to us by the class participants, but at the end of it there was no membership support forthcoming from the dancers. We found this to be quite a disappointment. Further more a collection taken after to help ofset the hundreds of dollars the Guild spent in transport and insurance for the event yielded $12.00.

This past November, due to finacial difficulties we found ourselves behind in payment to the State of Nevada for a short time. It was not a big concern as we had till April 2005 to catch up, however this threatened our continued use of the free theater we had for the classes, as they insisted we were current. Rather than support the Guild by paying membership, a decision was made to form a new group, a new guild now run by our teacher Ya Shara. In a strange quirk of Library rules, we were not allowed time to catch up, yet a new group had a year to get papers established. So the end result is Omar Kharim Guild was suddenly without a place to hold class, without participants, without a teacher. Even if we wanted to rebook a class in the location we originaly had, namely the Jewel Box Theater,  the Library would not consider two groups with the same function.

We will form a new group in the near future, and shall try different tactics to recruit some loyal members for the Belly Dance Guild. If there is anyone out there looking to find a home for a troupe, contact us, as most of you know we have quite a support encampment. This coming year we will be back at the Faire with the Isle of Standauffish. If you are seriously interested in participating, drop us a line. We are also seeking a teacher and a new venue to hold classes in. Perhaps this will take us some time to achieve, only time will tell.

This past year we made a serious attempt to put on a Faire of our own. Due to the Casino's adjacent the spot where we were going to hold it speaking out against us over parking issues, we were denied permits. The intent of the first portion of the event was to bring a world class Belly Dance competition to Vegas. Though we had sponsors and celebrities lined up, and judges both local and from out of state, and though there was buzz and talk about wanting to participate the end result was that by the deadline, {and this was before the denial of permits} we had a total of 7 actual entries, 1 in the star categorie, 2 in troupe and the rest in novice.

There may be several reasons for this, conflicting dates, not getting the word out fast enough and far enough, but we were really surprised and disappointed by the lack of interest from local groups. We have found a new venue and are seeking a better date to hold a competition, so we will post info on this as soon as we pick a non conflicting date. We certainly hope for a better response this time.

Despite our disappointment and shock over how this was handled, I wish Ya Shara and her new Guild best of luck and hope she has better support than we had when it comes time to pay those insurance bills for Rennaisance Faire participation.

Omar Kharim

PS  Due to a rather heated discourse a few months ago on the subject of Belly Dancing at Faire I have put to gether several editorials dealing with the matter. They will remain posted on my website so people can refer to them should this come up again {and it will} The two of concern to Belly Dancers are "Recreation vs Reenactment" and "Belly Dance at Renaissance Faire" For anyone attending or wishing to attend Faire I strongly suggest you read them. "Guild at Renaissance Faire" covers the requirement of a Guild to be allowed to participate at Faire, something many take for granted.

Two others are general points on Renaissance Faires in general. "Renaissance Faires" and "A Note on Period"

As always, in keeping with our goals and ideas we welcome any additions, ideas and comments on this editorial. You can mail them to editorial@standauffish.net. As we have sent this document to many web mailing lists PLEASE RESPOND DIRECTLY TO US and not to the board where you came across this topic.

Omar Kharim Ali Allah Akbar
aka Baron Sir Zoron of Shalott
Viceroy of the isle of Standauffish
Knight of the Order of the Red Dragon

Live the Dream
 

The opinions expressed here are those of the management but do reflect the views of the majority of our membership.