Chapter 21

Weird Adventures

May I speak with Farida?” There was a sense of urgency in the woman’s voice. “She is not here, may I take a message?”

After a few seconds hesitation, the woman said, “I am afraid her husband just died of a heart attack.”

While I went to deliver the most unpleasant news of my life, I thought of a thousand ways to tell her.

Farida Fahmy had been the principal dancer at the National Folkloric Troupe of Egypt and was an authority on the subject of Egyptian folklore. She was a good-looking woman with the typical proud posture of a dancer and that certain distinction people have who are born into good families.

That morning in early June, 1993, I found her preparing a cane dance in front of the mirror. She was scheduled to teach a workshop at our Berlin studio that afternoon…