U Street Caravan.
Yillah founded the U Street Caravan dance company in 2005 at the behest of her private students who wanted to present her choreography at Rakkasah East, an annual Middle Eastern dance festival in Somerset, New Jersey. Later that same year, they appeared in a show at the Jack Guidone Theatre with the legendary Delilah.
In 2006, the group returned to the Rakkasah stage for two performances and danced at a cultural arts celebration at American University and a halftime show for the Washington Freedom women's soccer team.
U Street Caravan performed its first full repertoire revue - titled Farashah, the Arabic transliteration for "butterfly" - at the Jack Guidone Theatre in August 2007 to two sold-out crowds. Following the success of that show, the Caravanas brought the house down as the finale to opening day of the citywide Dance DC Festival with West African dance troupe Kankouran.
The company is currently working on its 2008 revue, which will take place in October (date TBA).
The 12 members of U Street Caravan are renowned for their mixed repertoire of dances that puts a modern spin on the art of Raqs Sharqi - from spicy Spanish-Arabic fusion to emotive veil routines to hip-hop fusion and more. Please contact Yillah for booking information.
photo by Enoch Chan © 2007