Petite Jamilla
by Cheryl Pierce
Published in Zaghareet Magazine, Jan/Feb 2004 edition
Editor: Shari Wittenberg aka Sharina, Elizabeth City, NC 27906
www.zaghareet.freeservers.com
She’s energetic, beautiful, talented and has a remarkable ability to transfix an audience when she performs. She’s a master of finger cymbals, double veil, and spinning—sometimes for entire songs. She’s as good-natured as she is gifted and she is an amazing mix of the traditional and the modern in her dancing. And, if that isn’t enough, she’s solidly on the professional belly dance track. Her name is Petite Jamilla and she hails from Montevallo, Alabama, a small town situated close to Birmingham.
Perhaps her biggest accomplishment to date is being asked by Miles Copeland of Ark 21 to tour and perform with the Bellydance Superstars. This second tour will begin February 12, 2004, and will last nine weeks with the dancers performing in 52 cities. Petite Jamilla will be performing with dancers such as Ansuya, Jillina, Amar Gamal, Sonia, and others. In addition to performing belly dance on the tour, Petite Jamilla will also display her talent at playing the bagpipes. (For more information on the Superstars tour see www.bellydancesuperstars.com. Also, to read an interview with Miles Copeland, see Miles Copeland Responds, 12-9-03 www.gildedserpent.com).
In addition to living life as a third year college student (she’s a Communication Studies major with a focus in Feminist Rhetorical Criticism), playing the bagpipes, and belly dance, Petite Jamilla also teaches dance and has turned out some very good dancers. She has used her talents as bellydancer and bagpipes player to assist with college expenses. (This earned her a telephone call from The Jay Leno Show after a Birmingham newspaper wrote a feature about her unusual way of working her way through college). She performs regularly at Ali Baba’s restaurant in Hoover, Alabama. She also recently produced and is marketing two instructional DVD’s which have been receiving rave reviews. Additionally, Petite Jamilla is the director of her own troupe called Sirqus of Jreams (pronounced “circus" of dreams). Further, she has been featured in several Birmingham, Alabama newspapers and magazines.
Last summer she visited Paris, France where she performed for an opening of a University of Montevallo professor’s art exhibit. She has also spent time in Nova Scotia on Cape Breton studying at a Gaelic-Scottish camp where she spent her days playing bagpipes and honing her talent.
In addition to her belly dancing, bagpipe playing, and performances, Petite Jamilla also travels within the state of Alabama competing in beauty pageants. Her goal is to win a Miss Alabama title. She placed 4th in the Miss Greater Dothan 2002 pageant as well as winning the talent award. She also won the talent award at the Miss Twin Cities pageant in 2003.
Petite Jamilla is the daughter of Jamilla Rasa, owner of the Bohemian Market (www.bohemianmarket.com). Jamilla Rasa sells a wide variety of belly dance items. Before she switched to vending, she danced, and when Petite Jamilla was very young, Jamilla Rasa taught her how to dance. (Her father is a retired Air Force (SMSGT) and her only brother is also in the Air Force).
Petite Jamilla first danced with her mother in California. She doesn’t remember their first duet but she has seen the video and pictures. “We wore matching red and gold costumes and I had braided pig tales,” she says. She loved the shiny costumes and stayed with the dance throughout her early school years. On weekends she went with her mother to MECDA (Middle Eastern Culture & Dance Association) chapter meetings in Los Angeles. She spent a lot of time in dance studios watching other performers.
What other events does she remember from her early dance days? When asked, here’s what she said, “I still remember the first veil I ever received. Marta Schill was teaching a veil workshop and I wanted to take it, but didn’t have a veil. A student of my mothers gave me a home-made blue lame veil. I still have it and still use it. In fact, at school for my 4th grade talent show I did a veil routine to “I Can Show You the World,” from the movie Aladdin. Every young girl at that time wanted to be Princess Jasmine. Naturally, my mom, being the big hearted person she is, started a children’s Middle Eastern dance troupe. We were called Jamilla’s Jewels. We performed at various events including Cairo Carnivale and the Bellydancer of the Year Competition in San Francisco.”
What happened later? The family moved from California to Oklahoma. Quite a change from liberal California! Said Petite Jamilla, “I had a hard time adjusting and spent my time there very depressed. As a result of having no friends, I had a lot of time to think and analyze things. I felt as though everything I had done in dance was something I was able to do because mom gave me the opportunity. I had convinced myself that this dance couldn’t be “mine,” since I would never have found it without my mom. I didn’t want to be a vicarious reaction, I wanted an individual path. I decided to stop dancing around age 13. Of course, this decision made me even more depressed. I knew that the only reason I felt as though I needed to quit was simply because I was unable to handle the idea of this dance belonging to everyone the same and that it does not pertain to personal attachment as much as a collective attachment. Then, we moved again from Oklahoma to Alabama. I made a decision at this time to make myself happy. You are what you make your experience, I thought, so I began dancing again. There was a local troupe forming at the time and I guest starred with them for a few years. We danced once a month at the 22nd Street Jazz Café and I thought that was the coolest thing since it was a club and I wasn’t even old enough to enter! After that, mom started Bohemian Market and we began traveling to hafla’s and Renaissance Faires. This gave me additional opportunities to dance.”
Petite Jamilla is an accomplished dancer at a very young age. Additionally, she is talented at playing and performing with the bagpipes, and she directs her own troupe. What else does she want to do?
“Well,” she said, “I’d like to be on the bellydance superstars tour as long as I can. I’d like to write a book and have it published. And I also want to be a wife and mom.”
With her track record so far, there is no doubt that she will accomplish all that and more!
