‘Saphira’ brings Middle Eastern dance and ‘simian’ past to Boone area

Teresa Dickerson takes her dancing deadly seriously, though she has been known to monkee around.

The Valle Crucis performer and teacher, who is becoming better known to local audiences, the stage name is “Saphira,” which she described as a Middle Eastern name for a blue color of sapphire.

“When you dance you kind of go into nature and blue is found in the sea and the sky and it just works with dancing,” she said of her work.

Teresa Dickerson, who performs as “Saphira,” also teaches belly and Middle Eastern dances. Photo submitted

“When I was living in Greenville when I was still in high school, I took my first belly dancing class,” she said. “I was hooked right away. The teacher cleared out her living room and her dining room and she would put candles around and we would dance with candlelight.”

After pursuing a college education, Dickerson began studying with Irya and dancing professionally, forming Three Graces Entertainment as an international troupe named after Greek mythology and the overseeing of festivals. The troupe also represents fire dancers, Middle Eastern musicians, folkloric dances and belly dancing.

She also had a role in merging classic American rock with Middle Eastern movement. There was a belly dancing segment in the movie “Head,” which featured iconic 1960s pop band The Monkees. Peter Tork, one of the Monkees, became fascinated with the dancing, and this led to Dickerson’s performing at his fortieth birthday party.

“He was getting ready to go on an East Coast tour and asked if we wanted to go along,” Dickerson said. Tork’s new band is named Shoe Psuede Blues, and Dickerson’s troupe performed as part of the stage show.
“It was a lot of hard work,” she said. “And not as much fun as I thought it would be. You’re just on the road a lot, set up and do a sound check, perform, then do a meet-and-greet with the fans. Then you pack up and go to the next set. It was a good experience. I wouldn’t want to have to live like that for long.”

However, the experience was rewarding because she was able to bring Middle Eastern dance styles to new audiences. “The fans were just amazing and that made it worth it,” Dickerson said. “We have performed for the military several times, and have performed Polynesian and belly dance for the troops. They are a receptive and well-deserving audience.”

Three Graces Entertainment has also performed at regional universities and various international festival.

Dickerson said she’d wanted to live in the area since college but her family lived near the coast. She and her husband purchased some land and built a house in Valle Crucis.

“I am just amazed how wonderful it is here,” Dickerson said. “People have just welcomed me with open arts.”
She said arts agencies and the dance community have been excited about her work, and she began teaching four students in her home studio, and also teaches a Monday night bellydancing class at Studio K in Boone.
“That is for beginners, so anybody who wants to come can drop in any time,” she said. “You can be doing figure eights with hips and nothing else on the body moves. It’s about learning to make hip circles while your torso is still and no other dance format has you do that.”

She doesn’t like the name “belly dancing” because she feels it doesn’t totally explain the form. “It’s Oriental dance, and it’s sometimes called Middle Eastern dance, but when you call it that, people have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The first forms of the dance emerged about 5,000 years ago and were passed down through generations of women. “Men didn’t even see the dance until relatively recent times,” Dickerson said. “It was performed in villages, by women and for women, for births and celebrations, often danced in people’s homes.”

It later become more of a performance art than folklore, and Dickerson said exposure through videos and technology has helped spread the dancing form, including moves made famous by the rock singer Shakira.

“Some people want to perform and some just want a fun way to exercise,” Dickerson said. “And that’s perfectly legitimate, too. We’re trying to break stereotypes. We are intelligent women who just love to dance.”
Dickerson is artistic director for The Graces Dance Troupe, based in Winston-Salem, where she still teaches. “We’re known for over-the-top performances because we dance with snakes,” she said. “We’re also getting into dancing with fire fans and we’re adding a samba set. We’ll get an idea and just run with it. I love having a troupe that will let me be as creative as I want to be.”

Dickerson is also director of Khiltay Phool, which performs folkloric dances that serve educational and festival roles. She said if there is interest in other dance forms, she will be happy to start teaching them as well. The Boone class will be making its stage debut in October, Dickerson said.

The troupe is also available for private parties and other professional engagements, with recent performances at ArtCrawl in Boone, the Appalachian State University Diversity Festival and a festival at Wilkes Community College.

More information on Dickerson is at www.threegracesentertainment.com or at (336) 830-3479.