Jewels of the Casbah is comprised of up to five professional dancers
performing primarily in the Egyptian Style. They also incorporate
Turkish, Gypsy, Greek and other styles into their repertoire.
From improvisational dances to complete choreographed routines
that feature; veils, candles, candelabras, swords, and canes,
they are ready to take your guests on a magic carpet ride to the
heart of the Casbah. They can provide a single belly dancer or
a full length Arabian extravaganza that includes dances, poetry
and story telling & audience participation.
In addition to dancers they also provide costumed characters to greet & interact with guests to help create an authentic atmosphere; merchants selling their wares, acrobats, jugglers, drummers and musicians, and a beautiful snake dancer/contortionist. Nomad robes are available to be used for caterers, casino dealers, or clients. Other give-a-way ideas include fezzes and finger cymbals
Yasmeenah
(Virginia King)
Artistic director, & choreographer.
Yasmeenah (a.k.a. Virginia King ) began her early dance training
in Atlanta with Ruth Mitchell, appearing with the Company starting
at age 12. Despite being certain that she would never pursue a
classical Ballet career, She attended Th North Carolina School
of the Arts as a ballet major where she also studied modern dance,
character dance, tap and voice. After this, 6 years were spent
in New York pursuing roles in Musical Theater and continuing her
dance education at numerous prestigious schools. As' Ginny King',
she has appeared on Broadway in the original cast of "42nd
Street", and worked in national tours, dinner theater, cruise
ships and cabarets.
Her love of Danse Orientale began in 1983 as a student of Anahid
Sofian. She has also studied with Bert Balladine, Morocco,Dahlena,
and Aegela. For 7 years she was a featured entertainer at Atlanta's
Imperial Fez restaurant, where she had the privilege to perform
for such celebrities as Mick Jagger, Ted Turner and Jimmy Carter.
Her specialties are the Sword Dance and abdominal coin flipping,
a skill that took years to perfect. She also performed as a representative
of Egypt at Atlanta's Festival of Africa 1996, and at the Birmingham
Musuem's Morocco festival in 1998.Yasmeenah believes that Danse
Orientale, or Raks Sharqui, Or Belly Dance, or whatever you'd
like to call it, is the perfect blending of safe exercise and
soulful feminine expression and would love to share her knowledge
with you in an atmosphere of energized non-judgmental conviviality