By Vanessa Lee
A Centretown resident who spends her days as a civil servant and her evenings as a Middle Eastern dancer is adding another activity to her resumé — creator of a new national magazine on Middle Eastern dance entitled Aie-wa!
“I said to myself when the time is right, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and start a magazine,” says the publishing editor and dancer known by her stage name Aziza.
“My goal is to get dancers from east to west to connect, for them to discover that there is more out there than what’s in their little sphere, and for everyone to learn a little something.”
The magazine’s inaugural issue is to be released this month, and is only the second of its kind in the country.
Aie-wa! is an arabic term that translates to “bravo!”
It’s a specialty magazine about the Middle Eastern culture and its dance community.
While the dance is also commonly known as belly dancing, that’s a term Aziza prefers not to use.
“I guess it gives off a ‘hot little tart’, sleazy connotation,” says Aziza, who also teaches the dance. “It’s funny, because belly has almost nothing to do with the dance.”
The quarterly magazine is headed by Aziza and is put together with the help of volunteers across the country. She came up with the idea a few years ago when she noticed that the newsletters that did exist were geared towards specific regions.
“For a country the size of Canada, there wasn’t any national magazine that tried to cover and educate about the industry as whole,” says Aziza.
She started networking with other Middle Eastern dancers she met through the Internet, and has since made contacts all over the world, including a number of Canadians. It’s the issues raised by many of these dancers that Aziza hope can be addressed in Aie-wa!
The 28-page magazine features five articles written by dancers. It also features regular columns, including question and answer pieces written by chiropractors and physiotherapists. (Many, such as Aziza, start dancing because of its aerobic and therapeutic benefits.)
The press run for the first issue is 500 copies.
So far, Aziza says the response has been very encouraging.
Thirty dance enthusiasts have made subscription commitments solely on the basis of Aziza’s vision.
Those pre-subscription fees will help fund the magazine, in addition to advertising and Aziza’s own contribution.
No one working for the magazine will be paid, including associate editor Bonnie Demoline, whose love of the dance has made her spend at least 30-40 hours on the magazine in the last two weeks.
“This is strictly a pleasure thing for me,” says Demoline, who met Aziza three years ago as a student in one of her classes.
“This magazine is unique in that there is only one other belly dance magazine versus the numerous newsletters.”