Belly dancers tell stories as they dance

For Moquette Volante, eating fire wasn’t exotic enough, so they decided to shake up their firey… For Moquette Volante, eating fire wasn’t exotic enough, so they decided to shake up their firey act with belly dancing and Middle Eastern story telling. The company thrills audiences with stories from the Middle East, accompanying them with enchanting Middle Eastern dance. It will be previewing its show on Dec. 6 at Your Inner Vagabond Coffee House ‘amp; World Lounge. Moquette Volante, which means ‘magic carpet’ in French, previewed for the first time this past June. Originally, the group was a duo made up of dancer Kristi Ward and storyteller Sean Miller. The pair started out eating fire together, but Kristi was interested in doing more work in her first love: dance. However, her flame-gulping partner would not be able to dance because of degenerative nerve disorder in his legs. ‘He had taught me how to eat fire … and basically I wanted a way to bring him into my world,’ explained Ward about her search for a way to incorporate Miller. ‘He’s actually a storyteller … and I thought, ‘Story and dance: Now that’s something we can put together.” After performing, they gained such an enthusiastic response that the pair realized they needed to expand. ‘It needed to be bigger than two people. It needed more dance to it, more live music, and also it needed to be bigger because there are just so many stories out there that the Western world doesn’t know or has never heard of. And to really bring those out, [it needs] to be a full-fledged company,’ said Ward. Since then, the group has acquired three more dancers: Darcy Mahaffey, Norm Papernick and Justine Sumrock. The group has also gained two musicians: Emay and Nick Ragheb. All five additions are from Pittsburgh. Belly dancing is unique from the precise movements of European dance. ‘The best way I’ve heard it described is that European dances are very step-oriented, while Middle Eastern dance and Latin dance and African dance are muscle-oriented. And it’s defined mostly by the isolation of stomach muscles, hips and shoulders; there’s a lot of core work involved. It ranges from really peppy-like hip movements to more snake-like arm movements and hip movements,’ said Ward. The show itself involves the Maharaja enchanting the Sultan by her stories. She tells him stories, intermittently with the main storyteller, and inevitably brings him into the stories. Four dancers play the different parts and change character roles by using the suggestion of small costume pieces. In the future the group hopes to expand further. ‘I think as it grows, we may even need to make two companies,’ said Ward. The group would also like to establish itself as a traveling troupe and go around to universities, offering workshops and Q’amp;A sessions about being a professional performer.