Oh my Goddess

Abbi Irena Perakh – AKA “The Kosher Goddess” – shows belly dancing isn’t just for Arabs.
By Judd Handler

  I’m at a recent Rosh Hashanah party in Cardiff where several young Israelis are celebrating the New Year in their own style: drumming, playing guitars, drinking beers and wine.

   One woman catches my eye. She speaks Hebrew, but she doesn’t look Israeli from far away. She has long-flowing blond hair, piercing blue eyes and a full-bodied figure.

   I recognize her from past Middle Eastern-themed parties I’ve attended. She goes by the alias of “The Kosher Goddess.”

   Her real name is Abhi-Irena Perakh (Abhi is pronounced like “Abbey” and Perakh is Hebrew for “flower”). As I approach her, she gives a few hip-shaking pointers to two young girls, both of whom are open-mouthed, fixed with a cat-like attentive gaze.

   “American dancers focus too much on moving the hips,” says Perakh, shaking her midsection with what seems as much vibrational frequency as a hummingbird flapping its wings. “The dance shouldn’t be focused on sex and moving the booty; authentic Egyptian belly dancers never move their hips too much – it’s too hot to move around so much in the desert.”

   The belly-dancing lesson continues. Perakh demonstrates the proper way to lean backwards while not excessively protruding the chest.

   “Don’t try to conquer the audience,” she says. “Rather, embrace and win them over with mystery, not overt sexuality.”

   According to Perakh, a belly dancer should be immersed and knowledgeable in Middle Eastern culture. Adopt that region’s style of dance, she says, rather than the parody of belly dancing anchored by a lower body spread as wide as the Nile river valley, suggestive more of a Point Loma stripper than a dancer practicing this revered ancient oriental art.

   “That’s not a good idea for a successful dancer in Egypt,” says Perakh. “A choreographer in Egypt I heard of tied the knees of his dancers together.”

   On a good month, Perakh, who lives in Bonsall, is hired for a handful of private parties. In a perfect world, she would pay the bills exclusively from dancing. “If Madonna hired me as a full-time belly dancer, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” she says.

   Perakh supplements her income as a graphic designer. Her clients include Middle Eastern dancers throughout Southern California, who use Perakh’s service, Hamsa Productions (a hamsa, in the Jewish and Muslim tradition, is an amulet protecting one from the evil), for video editing, designing CD, DVD and video covers as well as promotional flyers, such as September’s Bedouin Bazaar, held at the Greek Palace in Kearny Mesa.

   In addition to graphic design, she also designs Arabian costumes and high-end fashion items, including French couture dresses.

   Perakh was born in Siberia, near the Ural Mountains, the topographic division separating Europe and Asia. Her family had no choice about settling there. Her father was jailed for eight years for “disseminating American and Zionist propaganda.”