Posted on 13/11/2024 by Kay Taylor

Meet Josephine Wise: founder of Fantasia and JWAAD

Meet Josephine Wise

by Kay Taylor

Josephine Wise entered my life in the 1980’s. I had already started bellydancing, started falling in love with it but had no direction. Jo changed all that. I loved her style, her approach and her ability to bring out the best in dancers. She cared about our little dance community in Leeds and gave us projects to work on. When Jo started her annual summer school, I was there – at every one for the last 30 years!!! For me, each year I felt I came away having progressed. You know when you feel that your dance has stuck in the same place forever? Each year Summer school moved me on a level. I have a lot to be grateful to Jo for. She invited me to teach on the teacher training courses – I got so involved I ended up getting our courses externally accredited. When Jo felt the need to do less admin and hand over events, I and a group of dancers created ‘Bellydance Now’ to keep the events going, continue Jo’s legacy, develop them and meet the challenges posed by the modern bellydance world.

Josephine Wise is a part of the ‘Bellydance Now’ team along with myself, Yasmina of Cairo, Abeer Will, Dorte Evelyn and Carmen Tormo. Jo and Dorte take the lead on developing the teacher training courses.

Jo founded the Fantasia festival over 20 years ago. It was the first festival of its kind in the UK. When she moved to Bristol, Jo felt she couldn’t run it any more so I took it over and when Bellydance Now was formed, it came under that umbrella.  Read on to find more about Jo

Kay: How did you start bellydancing? What drew you to your first class?
Jo: I had finished a full-time training in Contemporary Dance and was making a living performing onstage and teaching dance classes. I had a strange ability to isolate different parts of my torso and move them in different directions, and a couple of my fellow dancers said “You should be a Bellydancer!”. So I went to an evening class, and was immediately hooked. I fell in love with the music as well as the feel and look of the dance moves. And I could already isolate!

Kay: What are the top 3 biggest influences on your dance journey – and why?
Jo: My first influence was my main teacher, Selwa Rajaa (later Suraya Hilal), who taught me the basics but at a certain point couldn’t take me any further. Then I went out into the big wide world of Bellydance and discovered Fifi Abdou, who was the biggest influence on my dance style. I took my Baladi style from her and Suheir Zaki. I took my Oriental style from a mixture of several dancers including Samia Gamal and Mona Said.

Kay: Bellydance has been your life and your full time job for over 40 years. You have performed and taught workshops in many countries as well as your regular classes in London.  You have developed bellydance events and a week-long summer school and much more.  How have you kept yourself motivated through that time?
Jo:  It’s hard to believe my career has stretched out behind me for 45 years! One of the best things about it has been the sheer variety. I could be dancing at a wedding or party for Arab royalty on a Saturday and teaching a local evening class the following Tuesday. I could be teaching workshops in Germany one month and running the Fantasia the next. I have also run three different dance companies and enjoyed choreographing all their dances and shows. I have a low boredom threshold, which is why I kept starting new things – as soon as something got too easy and repetitive, I would add a new event or rearrange the Teacher Training courses or choreograph a new show.
As far as the teaching is concerned, years ago someone asked me how I could teach the same moves year after year without getting bored, but they missed the point. I teach women, not moves, and every woman is different. Every class is an adventure, and when someone ‘gets’ a move, style or concept, it is thrilling for me as well as for them.

 Kay: What advice would you give to other dancers hoping to make a career of bellydance?
Jo: It is very hard to make a living as a Bellydancer. You either need to be very adaptable and be prepared to keep adding strings to your bow, which is what I did, or you need a second, backup career. It could be another style of dance, or something else you can offer to people that would complement or be a contrast to your dancing. You could become a massage therapist, a Pilates teacher or an accountant, it just needs to be something you can do part-time

Kay: In order to keep the events going that you established, you took the decision to hand them over to BDN to manage and develop.  Was this a difficult decision and how did you cope with the transition?
Jo: It was easy handing over the Fantasia, even after 20 years of running it, because I needed to move on and it was the right time. I was happy to see it thriving under new management. The Summer School was different because although I had run it for 30 years, I still really loved it. I have had some of the best times with my closest friends at Summer School, and I have wonderful memories of it. I am still there every year of course, still involved in hosting it, but there is a relief to find that someone else is doing all the admin! It broke my heart to let go of it, but I needed to for health reasons.

Kay: You have maintained an interest in the teaching diploma and are now becoming actively involved in developing it again.  What can dancers considering working towards the BDN/JWAAD teaching diploma hope to gain from it?
Jo: Maggie Caffrey and I started the Teacher Training Diploma in 1990 and she retired from it around fifteen years later. I took a couple of years off and then got a group of six teachers with the Diploma together to develop and restart it in a different form. When BDN took over the admin and development I was still there, working on the music course, as that was my favourite area of expertise. Now I am starting to develop a new, updated version of the final part, Teaching Methods, which is the section needed to gain the diploma.
Teachers with the diploma know they have a high level of training, plenty of material to teach, and they understand about the styles and techniques of the dance. But they gain more than this. They gain a community of dancers, the support of one another and our Master Teachers, and CPD (Continued Professional Development) in the form of workshops and online events.

Kay: As a performer you have had a fascinating solo career as well as choreographing and producing shows for your dance company ‘Johara’.  What are you working on presently with them?
 Jo: I love choreographing authentic, tradition al dances, but also east/west fusion and humorous dances. Johara’s latest dance is showcasing at Fantasia. It’s a sort of anti-love song, about a young woman who has dumped her boyfriend and deleted him on Facebook. Expect some comedy and mobile phones!

Kay: You are a very creative and artistic person, tell us how you have channelled that energy since changing your focus.
Jo: I choreograph dances, write songs and have written a memoir, which should be out in 2025 (it has taken a long time!). I have also gone back to another interest of mine. I used to run Dance Therapy sessions in psychiatric hospitals, and have redeveloped them to run as ‘Body & Soul’ workshops – therapeutic dance for anyone to do for their mental health. I have gained a diploma in the Psychology of Dance, Movement and Learning in order to do this. Lastly, I’m now training to be a psychotherapist. I tried to retire, but I failed!

Jo tells us about her Fantasia workshop:
‘The Art of Taqasim’ is a workshop designed to enable dancers to create visually stunning and emotionally connected taqasim dances. I started developing my way of teaching it years ago, after I had been performing a dance with four different taqasims in it – so four different instruments each took a solo. I found I couldn’t just do my same favourite moves to each one, because they needed to look different, so I started playing with the options and shaping each one, even though I didn’t choreograph them. I worked with the qualities of each instrument and the expressions of each player, alongside the feeling each solo gave me. Rather than make each dancer do this for herself, I have created a workshop that structures it for them so they can just use a few key principles and voila! they have beautifully expressive and heartfelt taqasims that don’t look like anyone else’s. Ha!