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JOHANNA WHITE: VERSATILE AMERICAN DANCE STAR WHOSE LIFE WAS BITTERSWEET, DEAD AT 84

Johanna White was born in WV in 1927 to James and Lee White. From an early age her home was filled with music as her father was a dancer, singer and musician, along with his brother Roscoe, in the "White Family String Band." From her father she learned Appalachian and "soft shoe" type dance, plus waltzes, polkas, and "The Charleston." As a child of the "great depression," she was enchanted with images from Hollywood and found inspiration in Shirley Temple. Formal training in tap and acrobatic began at age seven with Alma Ellison Britt in Charleston. WV. A favorite dance she did in recital was a recreation of Shirley Temple's "In Our Little Wooden Shoes." (Johanna also suspected, but was not sure about her Roma Gypsy heritage, as her father also had a repertoire of Gypsy songs from a few different regions and her Aunt was passionate about and learned a tradition of fortune telling with cards from their Grandmother. Roma male

"The Mystery of Aris San": A Brief Memory of the "Sirocco" and it's Remarkable Owner

When I was twelve or thirteen years old we were hired by Aris San to perform at his club "Sirocco" which was literally straight across town from the now defunct "Greektown 8th Avenue" district which was on West 29th St. The old Armenian Quarter was also not far from there on the East Side. My mother was already having woes with the NYC school board over the right to home school me and we were thinking of leaving town at the time. Our joint shows at the time involved "Laziko" with fire on our heads as an opening-if I'm not mistaken-we opened with that at his place. I remember my mother saying this nightclub was oft a hangout for the actor Anthony Quinn (I've since heard that Telly Savalas also frequented the place). I also remembered a musician with what seemed to almost be what they refer to now as a "Jewfro." I remember the audience was great and we were treated well by the management even though I was not fully aware what a huge

With a "Thong" in my Heart: 1980's High Cut Turkish Belly Dance Costumes

"With a thong in my heart!"....well...not really. I was a young teenager belly dancing in the 80's and 90's but for some reason this style never made it my way. Maybe because my mother Johanna was from the 1960's scene in New York and you just did not wear that "hi-cut" a costume. But, in some ways, I admit that this later trend did happen to flatter the "gams" if you had any to "show off" and gave the legs a longer appearance. One dancer that I really admire is Zinnur Karaca. She seemed to come along when this was in vogue. She's a great dancer, with or without a "hi-cut" costume belt and skirt. Zinnur Karaca Tukay Karaca

Aziza Al-Tawil's World

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