Drumdude Bill's photostream  

I'm an analytical chemist by profession (July 2011 update - I'm now retired!! Yahoo!!!), but I enjoy life by playing mid-eastern drum for the belly dance classes of Mona N'wal, a wonderful instructor/performer here in Madison, Wisconsin, and for her young protege, Arielle Juliette.

Mona is a "Bobby Doll", having studied with the late, great Ibrahim Farrah for almost 2 decades before his death. Needless to say, I consider myself fortunate to be associated with one of the great ladies of the dance, who constantly keeps both her students and me striving to attain the highest standards of this beautiful art form.

Arielle Juliette began lessons with Mona in 2004, just about the same time as I started drumming for her. Arielle turned out to have majorly serious talent for the dance. Officially acknowledged by Mona as her "legacy", Arielle started teaching Mona's lower level courses a few years back, and I started drumming for her as well.

Today, Arielle now owns and runs Dance Life Studio and Fitness, where Mona and she now each teach their own belly dance classes from beginning to advanced levels.

And I'm the studio drummer.

I have also drummed in performance in clubs, restaurants and ren faires with a number of local dancers, many of whom are or have been students of Mona and Arielle.

My own drum history began with the beautiful Delilah of Visionary Dance in Seattle, Washington. Her kind and gracious email correspondence back in 2003 pulled me as an active participant into the world of belly dance. I attended two of her workshops during her East Coast Tour in late '03 (Pittsburgh and Hollywood, FL), and her 10-day retreat in Maui the following April '04. The drum workshops conducted by Uncle Mafufo (of the group Sirocco) started me on the drum journey I continue to this day. As belly dancers have "dance mothers" (the women who taught them) and "dance daughters" (the women they have taught), I consider Uncle Mafufo my "drum father".

Thank you, Armando! The love of the drum you kindled in me is a life's gift that I can never repay, other than, perhaps, my performing and passing on my love of the instrument to others, as you did to me.

I attended the Hearland Seminar of Arabic Music, held in Racine, Wisconsin, in 2007. This was a week-long seminar taught by various luminaries in the world of Middle Eastern music. Although held for a number of years, this was the FIRST year that any drummers actually participated in this event. (As it happened, I belong to a local ME group that calls itself Al Khemia, and we 4 drummers decided we would go AS A GROUP to this seminar. Actually, we were 5, as our oudist also attended. It seemed like the thing to do; we had no idea we would cause such a stir. They weren't sure exactly what to do with us!)

Our "drum teacher" was the renowned Karim Nagi of Turbo Tabla fame. It was not easy. It was demanding, exhausting and soul-searching. By Tuesday night a number of us were wondering if we had made a mistake in attending.

And two days later? What a turn-around!

My most treasured memory as a drummer came that following Thursday night. We had just finished a public performance in which we played both as a large orchestra and in smaller tahkt ensembles. Karim walked up to me, a big smile on his face, and shaking my hand, he said, "Bill, you're a GREAT drummer!" Thank you, Karim, but it goes without saying, you certainly made me work for that compliment!!

In November, 2008, I moved to "the other side of the drum" as an instructor, giving my first drum workshop as an instructor for the Northern Lights workshop in Baraboo, Wisconsin. I now teach drum in various ad hoc situations.

My other passion is photography. If you have looked at this site, it is obvious I've combined my love of photography with my love of belly dance. I feature local dancers whom I photograph on a regular basis, usually in performance, although I am now getting into studio work as well. My favorite "models" are Ayperi, Arielle and Phaedra, three young, talented dancers who also love to be in front of the camera.

Today I shoot under my own name or that of my studio "Doum Tek Photography". I am the official photographer of Dance Life Studio, the Mediterranean Hookah Lounge and Cafe,the Madison Belly Dance Alliance, and the Annual Belly Dance UW Spring Shows.

It all works for me.

Other interests include miniatures painting, some examples of which are posted on this page, but not to the extent of my BD sets.

I also love animals and had pet rabbits for many years, although today I am currently companionless. I am still the listowner of the petbunny mailing list, a position I've held since 1995.

All in all, I'm a single, 60+ y.o. male (born in 1947), having the best time of my life since I started drumming in 2003! :-)

addendum (07/21/10): I have received enough contact and groups requests that I need to post the following rules:

1) If you make me a contact and your icon is the "anonymous face" and you have no photostream to show, don't expect me to reciprocate.

2) If you make me a friend or family, do understand that all my photos are already visible at the contact level. I have no "hidden" exotic photos at the moderated or restricted level. Some day I may do so, but if and when that happens, that will be under a separate flickr account. There are two reasons for this:

1) Although I would love to start shooting (semi) nude glamour shots, posting them in the same photostream as my "bellydancing portrait and photojournalist" images would give too many people the wrong idea about my bellydancing friends. I don't want any unwarranted conclusions to be drawn between the two different types of photography should they be grouped into one photostream.

2) Given the history of flickr to delete outright certain photostreams due to certain content or the mislabeling of said content, I would keep the more possibly controversial images in a separate account so that my extensive family friendly bellydance site remain isolated and safe from any potential site controversy.

Finally a word about group invitations I have received for my pics. If your group is private and I can't see what kinds of pics are the norm for your group, I WON'T ADD my pic to your group.

If I can see the group photos, I may or may not add my photo, depending on the nature of the group.

If the group allows tasteful nudity, mostly of a topless nature, depending on the overall impression it makes on me (if I find the photography to be of an exceptionally high professional level quality, for example) I may add a photo request if I feel it's justified.

If the group allows full nudity and I find myself looking at in-your-face vaginal shots or I see penises playing a game of "reach for the stars", I shall reject all invitations.

Just remember before you invite: my photos are of my friends who happen to be bellydancers and are wearing their "work clothes". Some people may find such costuming to represent an Arabian Nights fantasy setting. They hardly qualify for anything more exotic than that.

As I said, you may invite my photos to exotic groups if you think they fit in, but I will decide if they truly do. (There have been a few cases where I have said yes.)