Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan
Northern Advocate
Charlene Bosiak has performed and taught rhus sharki, more commonly called Belly Dancing, in La Ronge for close to 20 years.
She has studied with Yasmina Ramzy, of Toronto, for 20 years. In January 2023, she and eight others formed the Ishraq Dance Troupe in La Ronge.
Bosiak planned to teach casually … but so began extending her teaching hours.
“I just got a real committed group of girls and they worked extremely hard and they’ve just been getting booked,” Bosiak said.
Bosiak did a performance in La Ronge and a woman introduced herself, saying her husband was from Syria and he’s a musician. Tammam Alshoofi has since become the group’s musician.
“He plays the Oud and he plays for us in class … we invite him to our performances; we dance with his music,” Bosiak explained.
Alshoofi also named the Troupe, Ishraq, which “means to illuminate or shine bright,” Bosiak said.
Since its inception, Ushraq performed for Pride in 2023, the Children’s Festival, Napatak Ramble, the Winter Festival, a Christmas party, and more.
In October they had Ramzy come to La Ronge for four or five days did a workshop. Ramzy has also choreographed dances for the Troupe to perform.
Tammam composed a piece of music, with plans to have Ramzy choreograph the music for dance in the future.
One of the dancers got a grant and went to Saskatoon, did a workshop there and performed from what she learned at the event.
Ishraq hosted a Year-End Gala at Kikinahk June 1, which involved 45 people, dancers from James Smith Cree Nation (JSCN), Tri-Community Dance Club, a Filipino Canadian group, who performed a Salsa dance, Ricky Hallett from Hall Lake, who does tap and contemporary dance and two nine-year-old children performing solos.
The performances involved many outfit changes, including one worn by Bosiak.
The outfit was designed and created by a costume designer in Cairo, she said.
Ishraq “commissioned Tammam for a piece he composed, but we’re just trying to get more grant money to bring her (Ramzy) back to choreograph it just for the girls. So what he did is, he did the notations and the composition and then sent it to Syria and it was recorded professionally by a Syrian musicians and it came back to Canada. So, Syria, Toronto, La Ronge. So that’s our next project we’re going to choreograph one of his pieces,” Bosiak said.
