Oojam

Oojam is a wonderful group of belly dancers who made their debut at the Santa Fe Dam Renaissance faire. OOJAM! is Arabic for "Enthusiasm", and I could see the enthusiasm in each and every one of these performers. During the 2006 faire, I made a point to see their show one or two times each visit,, and each time was a delightful experience.

The following is from an interview with Tamara, a member of Oojam.

How did Oojam get started?

Oojam really began a couple years ago, when Darioush and his group could no longer entertain at the RPFS. Karima and I still wanted to have a stage show in Trader's Market, so we enlisted a bunch of drummers and dancers who already worked Faire, one of the most prominent being Marjhani. We ended up bringing in more drummers from Village Mandala, and inviting guest dancers from other troupes, Including Lorraine from Tribal Feat, Tribe Roman Morga, and my old student troupe, the Roses of Shalimar.

We continued on this way until last Faire season, when Marjhani and I approached Susan Fry, Faire's entertainment director, about becoming hired entertainment for Faire and having a legit show, as the last two years involved throwing a show together whenever there was a spare moment on stage. At that point, we didn't really have a 'troupe' or an organized band, but we knew that we could put one together at a moment's notice, with the connections we had within the community. Susan gave us two weeks to get everything together and audition for her and the rest of the heads of the entertainment department.

What were the reasons behind why it got started?

We started Oojam because, first and foremost, we just wanted to dance. This really was the only reason, but smaller, more underlying ones developed as we grew. We wanted a place within Faire to call Home. We wanted to carve out a niche for ourselves to ensure that there would be belly dancers at Faire in the future. We wanted to create a friendly, entertaining environment for audiences to feel like they were part of the family. We wanted to get the audience involved in ways that stage shows at Faire have yet done.

How difficult was it to start Oojam and how did you overcome those difficulties?

Creating Oojam wasn't difficult. It was keeping everything together and organized that was an issue. It's never hard to start something, but keeping it going always will be. The most important thing for the life of our troupe is dividing up the workload, and always reinforcing that strong sense of family that we share.

What is the "story" behind the Oojam characters, if any?

Each Oojam member has their own story. Some of us were born into the family, some were found and brought in. Some of us are cousins, sisters, and brothers, and others are random people who wandered through our encampment. We have members who were brought into this world by Marjhani's hands, others who were married in. Some of us just came back from the wars in Morocco and Algiers, and some have been there since we began our yearly route along the Silk Road.

What are your goals (what is Oojam trying to achieve)?

I don't know if Oojam has any immediate goals, aside from continuing to dance at Faire and to maintain our strong sense of family. Each individual member has their own ideas as to where they'd like to see our troupe go, but for now, we're all in this to have as much fun as possible and share our love of Middle Eastern culture with everyone, whether they like it or not :P

Oojam is very different from most belly dancing troupes that I've seen, what do you feel is different and why?

I think what separates Oojam from most troupes is that we are all one huge, ever-growing family, we are also ready to greet anyone into our tribe with open arms. We have received many compliments and Thank-yous for being such an open and friendly troupe. We always make sure that our guests are well taken care of and included in everything we do that day. We have honorary members, members at large, and many guest dancers and drummers that are always going to be welcomed back to the tribe anytime they want to visit. I think that this strong sense of family shows when we perform, from the way we interact with each other and the audience.

What is your favorite show and why?

I don't personally have a favorite show, as it changes each time we perform. There's always something new going on onstage, which is one of things I love most about our performances.

What was the funniest moment?

I can't think of a particular moment, but I always love watching Marjhani and Azir interact. The rest of us can't even come close to those two.

I've noticed you have much more audience participation. Why? What brought that about? What is the best moment of audience participation?

We never wanted a show that left audience members free to stand up and walk away whenever they felt like it. This meant pulling audience members in by their nosehairs, and making them want to stay, want to be a part of what we were doing, and maybe even want to be pulled up onstage. It makes it fun for us as a troupe, and fun for the onlooker. Engaging the audience has always been a big part of our shows.

Are there any special markings or tattoos or such for Oojam?

Each tribe member has their own special tattoos, but we also have one tattoo that all the women in the tribe wear on their chins.

What faires and locations do you expect to be performing in the near future (the next six months)?

In the next six months, we should be dancing at Cal Ren Faire, in Lake Elsinore, from September 2 to October 8.  The weekend after that, we will be guest performers at the Faire in Las Vegas, and Tribal Fusion Faire I think is our next official gig in December.

When you think of Oojam, what makes you proud?

I don't think I can stress enough how much I love our group and our family. Oojam's absence of cliques will never cease to amaze me.

I've noticed a bit of a punk/gothic focus in non-faire shows - what's that about?

Our troupe has some old punk rockers, a couple Goths, and a lot of people who enjoy doing a more fusion/ATS style of dancing, so it's only natural that this should come out in our dance.

How did the marriage proposal come about? Who knew in advance? What's the story with it?

Marjhani is the real person to ask about Mercy's marriage proposal, as she was the co-conspirator in that operation. However, I think we (the troupe) knew about the proposal about two or three weeks in advance. That was one of the hardest secrets I've ever had to keep.

Is there a historical basis for the troupe? Is there any attempt to be tied to history?

Our troupe story is that we are a merchant family from Istanbul that does a yearly migration through the trade route, ending up in England in the spring, and heading back home to Turkey in the fall. We try to tie everything we do into the history of the Middle East and England, but we also try to keep it as loose as possible, in order to keep everything relatively nondescript. One of our biggest things that we are constantly working out is whether or not a certain routine, attitude, or even gesture will offend members of our audience. Our concern is to entertain the audience, first and foremost.

Was there much interaction with other characters and such at the faire (I remember one "incident" with the puritans)? What was your favorite of those? Funniest?

Our individual troupe members played with other people at Faire every day. Whether it was asking an inventor to create an anti-spitting device for our camels, or teaching a boy how to properly roll a rug and carry it, there was always something going on.

I noticed quite a few children on stage during faire. How did they get involved? Why?

Every child on stage is one of our own. As we are a family, it's only natural to have our children up there with us. After all, if we are all performing, who would watch our kids? A bonus to this is that having our children onstage increases the sense of family for the audience and puts them at ease, as we are a family-oriented show. One of our concerns was to reinforce the idea that bellydancers are not hoochi-koochi dancers out at Faire to entice the men away from their wives and children or dance in any sexually-oriented way. Our dance is that of people and friends and families, not something that belongs in the local 'gentleman's club'. Bellydance has had a long history of ignorance tagging along behind it, and one of our goals is to educate as many people as we can.

I am not familiar with the "world" of belly dancing. What is there for Oojam to accomplish? There are golden globes and Oscars - what is there in belly dancing? In other words, what would it mean for "Oojam to have made it big"?

Oojam had 'made it' if its members walk away from every show feeling happy and accomplished. We've 'hit the big time' if our audience walks away smiling. There is no award for what we do. We do it because we love it.

Why was the name chosen? What's the story behind that?

Oojam means "enthusiasm", and I think that this fits our troupe to a T. There is no gig that we have not undertaken in which we were not excited and happy to be there. What can I say? We love what we do, and we love doing it together.

What is the meaning of each character's name?

Each character's name has a meaning, the same way that "Melanie" means "black" or that "peter" is named for a saint. Aside from those meanings, there is no real underlying story for our names. Some of us were named by a teacher or a friend, others of us chose our own name. And yet others still, like Mercy and I, go by our given names.