Masha with Balloon / Eilat Festival

My officemate, Masha (who is still in my room and hasn’t been moved upstairs yet), is blowing up a balloon for Martine’s (our AA) birthday. Masha is one of my favourite subjects because she is always willing to let me photograph her. I can’t think of many women who would let me post a photo of themselves, slightly cross-eyed, with a balloon in her face.

On the bulletin board behind her you can see a notice for the Eilat belly-dancing festival (there’s also an English site for the festival). OK, they actually call it Arabic dancing, but it’s a belly-dancing festival. She and her mother, both of whom have studied belly-dancing for a few years, plan to go this coming weekend, if the roads aren’t washed out by the Negev floods.

I didn’t realise that there were male belly-dancers, until Mashi told me about Mayodi, a French dancer who teaches at the festival. His site has a video.