Written portion of Suzanna's interview on 12/20/18.
What type of business are you in?
Belly dance arts, fitness, and global community. My RakasaFit core fitness belly dance program provides workout classes, in-person and online, offered by me as well as certified instructors throughout my region. Soon this will expand to additional cities. I also perform and produce shows featuring belly dance and its intersections with other styles. I'm a global citizen in constant awareness of how we are all interdependent and connected. And belly dance is a powerful medium that brings us together. It ignites feminine strength and expression, which has tremendous potential to bring about a more peaceful way of existing.
What do you like most about what you do?
I love helping a broad spectrum of people experience the gift of belly dance as a movement practice, both dancers and those trying for the first time. And I love empowering other instructors do the same. So I guess I really love teaching, which makes sense, because I have a lifelong passion for learning. I'm also passionate about collaboration and community, especially across cultures and socio-economic sectors. I truly believe this is our means to a more peaceful, sustainable, and happy existence, and I believe belly dance is a fundamental medium that can bring this about.
What are your hobbies?
Haha! Gosh, anything that might be considered a hobby is now integrated within my business. For example, I love video editing, but that's a job task too. ...I love travelling. I love reading a book under the sun. I like making cookies. These things might be considered outside of the scope of my business.
How do you serve people in your business? How does it make you feel?
I have experienced profound, healing, life-changing benefits with belly dance -- personally, physically, psychologically, and socially. By focusing on the health and fitness context of belly dance, and with a method that hopefully makes it more widely accessible to people from all walks of life, I hope to help others experience these benefits too. Yoga is now a widespread global movement practice recognized for its holistic benefits, but there was a time when it was a niche activity practiced by relatively few. This is true of hip hop as well. The benefits of belly dance are holistic, and profoundly feminine. It is the most powerful and positive expression of feminine strength that I know of. It is a way for us to be connected globally as we move away from patriarchy and toward a more balanced and sustainable system. How does this make me feel? Like there's a reason for my existence! Like I belong.
What are you working on at the moment?
- Video making.
- Taking RakasaFit instructor training into different cities.
- Possibly bringing a group to Senegal next Spring.
- And bringing a magnificent belly dance artist from Hungary to perform in the US.
Where can people get a hold of you? (social media, etc)
Websites - www.RakasaFit.com and www.PlanetSuzanna.com
Facebook profile - www.facebook.com/suzanna.davis.71
Facebook page - www.facebook.com/suzannaandfriends/
Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn - @ or /planetsuzanna
Email - planetsuzanna@gmail.com
Thank you for your time. Any last minute comments or info you'd like to add?
Yes, I would like to acknowledge and thank the African and Middle Eastern cultures that have cultivated this dance and movement art form, because within it are the roots of their wisdom and a pathway to more holistic ways of being. Also I would like to thank you, Sohaila, for interviewing me and so many others. You spotlight the beauty of the human spirit and remind us to be grateful to be alive. And you capture such an authentic and honest representation of American people. Your work also demonstrates the power of collaboration. When you bring others up, you bring yourself up. What you do is the very essence of our future and survival as humans.