Jensuya

About Jensuya & Bob

After swapping engineering and graphic design careers in Washington, D.C.  to spend nearly half a decade traveling the world by bicycle, Jensuya and Bob settled in what they affectionately call the "Middle Eastern Panhandle" of West Virginia.  Inspired by the local artistic community and their worldwide travels, they pursue their love of the Near Eastern arts in Berkeley Springs, in spite of residing half a world away from the roots of the art.
    Bob and Jensuya first felt the sparks of interest in Middle Eastern music in Tunisia in 1994. While being hosted for an afternoon by a village family, Jensuya was adorned in traditional costume, then she and Bob were paraded through the neighborhood by the family.  They paused in front of a music shop, mesmerized by the mysterious sounds of "Amina" blaring from the speakers.
    The intricacies of the melodies and the complexities of the rhythms lingered with Bob, who since childhood had wanted to be a drummer.  "I was in 3rd grade, and we had to pick an instrument to learn.  They didn't have drums, so at my dad's suggestion, I took up the trumpet."
    Bob went on to become a whiz kid on the horn, and turned semi-pro by the age of 16.  But adventuring and his budding career in design, lured him away from the nightlife of a musician, and it wasn't until 1998, that the musical spark was re-ignited.
    Remembering the sounds of North Africa, and in particular, the pervasive drumming in Morocco, Bob got his hands on the goblet-shaped hand drum called the tabla in Arabic or doumbek.  By the time Bob and Jensuya's second son, Lhasa, was born in 2001, Bob had learned to play the rhythm called "beledi" and was teaching himself more eastern rhythms from CD's.
    Jensuya, feeling rotund after having Lhasa, took a "life-altering" weekend workshop in belly dance.  "From the moment I first swirled the veil to the melody of the music, I knew this dance was for me."  Jensuya went on to a self-guided study of belly dance and the accompanying music, languages, history and politics of the dance with the same rigor she applied to engineering…and to fulfilling the prophecy of her own newborn pediatrician that she would become an athlete or a dancer.
    Within three years, Bob and Jensuya formed TarabRaqs.  Half a decade of on-the-job training in performances and multiple trips to the Middle East and North Africa have broadened the original scope of the group from gigging at restaurants and parties to performances at educational, concert and festival venues.
    Though some of the original members of the group have moved on, some remain as guest performers and two have grown into the group.  Teenaged Dakota, Bob and Jensuya's oldest son,  brings to the group both the freshness of youth and musical wisdom far beyond his years.  Lhasa, since infancy being lulled to sleep by the beat of the drum and nursed to sleep at belly dance class, has the rhythm in his blood and brings to the group a palpable authenticity.