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May. 13th, 2004 04:18 pm
Hootchee Kootchee!
With Umm Atā'ullāh away for an audition, my Middle Eastern dance class featured a guest instructor last night. I'd actually met her once before at the little storefront she runs in Lincoln Square. When she introduced herself as "Tipsuda", I remarked, "There's used to be a Thai restaurant in Hyde Park by that name." "That's me!" she replied, smiling; her parents ran the place until they retired.
She was gentler than Umm Atā'ullāh--our arms were not in agony by the end of the night--and even hungrier for feedback. Previously, we'd had 26 other students; last night, only 6 (midterms?), but they were every bit as closedmouthed. Finally, one girl did ask for instruction in body undulation, which I eventually figured out how to do without wrecking my lumbar.
Tipsuda was pimping all sorts of opportunities for further involvement in Middle Eastern dance and culture generally. At one point, she was fishing for reassurance that we'd keep up our interest and I joked, "We're all going to take Arab names." We laughed, but then she pointed out that her Tunisian husband had rechristened (that's so not the proper word!) all of his Anglo bandmates.
On the way home, I was trying to think up a good Arabic name for myself. I've got a solid Old Testament forename which carries over virtually unchanged, but the nasab thing doesn't work because both my parents' names are hopelessly Germanic. In terms of a kunya, I was thinking of something that foregrounded my language geekery, but Abū'l Alsun ("father of tongues")or Dhū'l Lughāt ("master of languages") sound more than a wee bit pretentious, particularly someone who can't even speak Arabic. I'll leave those for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aadroma.
But I did hit upon a kickass nisba. In trying to come up with a gentilic, I thought What about The Missourian? What would that be?al-Misūrāwī? No! al-Musayrī! Formally, this is a dimunitive of al-Misr, which literally means "metropolis" but is a nickname for Cairo and, thus, Egypt. I've always thought "the Midwest's Largest Small Town" was a fitting description of my hometown; "Little Metropolis" is sort of the inverse equivalent. And what's the region just across the river from Mound City, dominated by the largest pyramid north of Mexico, popularly known as...LITTLE EGYPT! Which was also the name of...an exotic dancer! Who got her start in Chicago! It's just too perfect!
She was gentler than Umm Atā'ullāh--our arms were not in agony by the end of the night--and even hungrier for feedback. Previously, we'd had 26 other students; last night, only 6 (midterms?), but they were every bit as closedmouthed. Finally, one girl did ask for instruction in body undulation, which I eventually figured out how to do without wrecking my lumbar.
Tipsuda was pimping all sorts of opportunities for further involvement in Middle Eastern dance and culture generally. At one point, she was fishing for reassurance that we'd keep up our interest and I joked, "We're all going to take Arab names." We laughed, but then she pointed out that her Tunisian husband had rechristened (that's so not the proper word!) all of his Anglo bandmates.
On the way home, I was trying to think up a good Arabic name for myself. I've got a solid Old Testament forename which carries over virtually unchanged, but the nasab thing doesn't work because both my parents' names are hopelessly Germanic. In terms of a kunya, I was thinking of something that foregrounded my language geekery, but Abū'l Alsun ("father of tongues")or Dhū'l Lughāt ("master of languages") sound more than a wee bit pretentious, particularly someone who can't even speak Arabic. I'll leave those for
aadroma.But I did hit upon a kickass nisba. In trying to come up with a gentilic, I thought What about The Missourian? What would that be?al-Misūrāwī? No! al-Musayrī! Formally, this is a dimunitive of al-Misr, which literally means "metropolis" but is a nickname for Cairo and, thus, Egypt. I've always thought "the Midwest's Largest Small Town" was a fitting description of my hometown; "Little Metropolis" is sort of the inverse equivalent. And what's the region just across the river from Mound City, dominated by the largest pyramid north of Mexico, popularly known as...LITTLE EGYPT! Which was also the name of...an exotic dancer! Who got her start in Chicago! It's just too perfect!