Thursday, November 29, 2007

Nile Group closing party. Part 2- Hanadi

The band changed relatively quickly after Liza and soon Hanadi was up on the stage. Her 1st costume I have to admit to liking… it was a Spanish inspired number, black with black and white polka dot panels and frilly round the edge- with LOTS of leg showing and big red flowers- one on the belt, one on the bra. Unfortunately when she walked from the door, through the crowd to the stage, she looked miserable, and I found it hard to shake that image off when I watched her dance. Don’t get me wrong, she smiled throughout the show, but my impression from those 1st few second stuck for me (good lesson to learn- smile before you even leave the changing room!!!!) Her dance was not much different from other times I have seen her. Lots of very good moves and tight techniques and power in them, but for me I feel she puts so much into even just one second of music that I can't focus on anything… It's just too busy. She did however dance to An Om Kalthoum number, Lissa Faker I think if I remember rightly, or maybe Alf Leila we Leila (it was a long night!), and because it is a very slow piece she HAD to slow down- it was the best I have ever seen her dance.

After her 1st set, she too came on with a saaidi number for her 2nd set. However she was in full bedlam- i.e. A peach coloured, 2 piece costume, no saaidi influence at all. She did something which I felt was very generous of her…. She got Aida Nour up on the stage with her and gave her the stick. It was great for the audience because Aida is all power and personality on stage with a stick, but unfortuanatly it took all eyes away from Hanadi.

The other thing which did not go well for Hanadi was her costume. It was a very pretty flesh coloured mesh short underneath the skirt- with lovely sequined work on the part of the short that was showing. However……… when she came down from the stage to encourage the teachers up to dance, she flicked her skirt to one side- fully exposing the whole of the shorts…. Both sides, which were only mesh material and did not hide the fact that she had nothing on underneath it! Centre stage, fully stage lighting and full frontal exposure…. A gasp went up form the girls around me (and probably from me too!) (Another lesson learned- never flash your all at the audience- and make sure you wear knickers!!!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

lorna, i love your blog. i read it almost every day. you have a lot of great insight and observations about egypt and the dance. a lot of dancers i know read your blog and we all enjoy it tremendously. its book marked as one of my favorites! do you have photos of fatima's and hanady's costumes that you can post?

Lorna (aka BellyLorna!) said...

Thank you Christina- so glad ou enjoy my blog!Where are you from? I have met so many lovely dancers from all over the world via this blog, its been one of the most wonderful reasons to start it up!!!

unfortunalty my head was mince that whole week of the festival and I forgot my camera- so hopefully if any of my readers were there and took some shots they will let me know so I can add them!!!!!