
A recently released short dance film highlights the talents of Saskatchewan dance artist, Charlene Bosiak, who has studied, taught and performed Raqs Sharqi (Middle Eastern Dance), of La Ronge, and musician/ composer Peter Albonyi, who hails from Toronto, but has made Saskatchewan his home for many years.
Bosiak held a dream of having music from a song, composed for her by Albonyi, several years ago.
“It kind of goes back to 2010 actually,” Albonyi said, although he met Bosiak earlier through some friends, when working with the youth he encouraged them to write a song.
“I had the kids write a song and then perform it … and then they were asking me about writing a song, so I decided to write a song about Charlene and her Belly Dancing. I’d seen her show a few months prior and I said, okay, it’s good subject matter. So, I wrote the song.”
He wrote the song and “it seemed appropriate to have the music with a sort of Arabic flavour.”
And years later, “I ended up recording that song with one of my bands, the Whiskey Jack, on an album, Baba was a Bootlegger.
Albonyi gave Bosiak the original music and lyrics and “I was – someday I’d like to have this choreographed. It’ was always in the back of my mind.”
And time passed. Albonyi continued playing and writing music, making his home in Saskatoon, and Bosiak has studied dance, with internationally renowned choreographer, Yasmina Ramzy, of Toronto, who was also interested in making a film.
Bosiak explored the idea of a film and had applied for a Dance Saskatchewan grant. Challenges got in the way until 2024, when she had the opportunity of going to Toronto.
When she applied for the grant, Bosiak said, who better to choreograph this than Yasmina, who I’ve been studying under for years, who is a world renown choreographer. So while we utilized her talent, in a way, it highlights mas as a Saskatchewan Artist, but it also highlights Saskatchewan musicians, which I thought was great.”
After waiting out some challenges, including COVID Ramzy said they were doing the film this year and asked her to come to Toronto.
The film, which is just over six minutes long, is not traditional Raqs Sharqi (Middle Easter Dance) so, “it’s very wild, it’s spiritual, so the costume is more flowing than what you would see a Middle Eastern Dancer in.”
And while the music is more western “the music is very beautiful … we went with feel of the music,” Bosiak said.
The dance is “a mystical type of mesmerising type … so there’s a lot of whirling and a lot of turning, a lot of drama, swing back and forth,” Bosiak said.
Ramzy choregraphed the music, designed the costume and produced the film. The film, features Bosiak, and Albonyi’s song. Manuel Garcia is the videographer/Editor of the film, and Nancy Balthazar provided the costume construction.
While the film is just over six minutes long, “it took three hours to film and I had to repeat the choreography over and over and over,” Bosiak said.
Albonyi spent some time at the end of 2024 and early 2025 working with the Community Arts Mentorship Program (CAMP) in Stanley Mission, one of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) communities.