This was a big day for me; my first day waking up on board
the ship, from a deep sleep in a very comfy bed, and my first day of ‘work’.
The days schedule (that was put in the little box outside
everybody’s room on a daily basis) told us all that today would be an Arabic class,
two bellydance classes and a bellydance performance. Busy Lorna!
So half an hour before the Arabic class was due to start I
sat down to work out what I was going to teach. Not exactly a lot of preparation,
but I already had a fair idea of what basics we would get through in the half
hour I was allocated. If we got past ‘hello’,’ thank you’ and ‘yes and no’ I’d
be lucky! I was pretty nervous though- I had a fear that someone who spoke Arabic
would come along just to pick me up on something or make fun of my pronunciation.
So the beginning of the lesson was a huge disclaimer that I was not a native
speaker, but that I had lived there for seven years and had ‘got by’!
My fears
were justified. I had a woman from Iraq come along with her American husband (I
presume for him to learn?). Every time I said something I would give a sideways
look towards her, which she always caught, but thankfully she would also nod in
approval! At the end she said I had done very well. Phew! Our half hour
actually stretched to an hour because everyone was so interested and asking
questions. There were at least 50 in the class! They liked it so much they all
wanted handouts so they could practise. There was yet another thing to add into
my day- I did type them up and I actually posted the lesson in this blog in
case you missed it... http://bellylorna.blogspot.com/2013/06/basic-egyptian-words-to-use-on-your.html
Then, the bellydance class. I decided since there were only
about 15 or so ladies I wouldn’t use the head mic, however, by the time we had
finished the introduction I realised I probably should have, since I had nearly
60 people in the class! Great hilarity ensued and we were all shaking it to our
hearts delight by the time the lesson was over. After nearly 17 years of
teaching experience I still love that first class that people do. Their facial
expressions when they are concentrating hard to move their hips in a figure of
eight, their joy when they ‘get it’. It is a small scale version of having
children for me- experiencing elements within the dance anew through their fresh
eyes. I should do more teaching. I get so much out of it for me. When I moved
to Cairo I decided to do very little teaching and focus on the performance. My
thinking was that I could teach when I am 60 – but by then I wouldn’t be able
to be performing on a stage in Cairo! Now however, looking back over my over 7
years here, I realise that actually teaching is important to me. To my own
dance and development, but also on a psychological level, that interaction with
women who want to learn. I plan to teach more from now on....
In the second dance class of the day I was impressed that
yet again we had fairly high numbers and that many from the morning had come back
for more! So I had to teach a class that was suitable for complete beginners,
but also not a repeat of the one earlier- in fact that was the experience for
the rest of the cruise. I taught 8 classes over the course of the 2 weeks, and
in everyone I had the die hards that come to every class, and I also had total
first time beginners too. I don’t know who people who plan their lessons allow
for these things? I teach almost every class as I perform every show.
Improvised. When I perform it allows me to gauge the audience reaction, to do
more of this, less of that, depending on their response. In teaching, exactly
the same. If I plan something too much then a lot of the joy goes out of the
class for me, the interaction is lost, or at least greatly reduced. It becomes
(read with a robot voice)’must teach x,y then z....’ rather than (normal voice!) ‘Oh let’s do x...
oh that works well.. but maybe since that was hard we will do j and k, oh and
then z and then c and ... ‘ well you get the idea. I end up doing a lot more
usually, but it flows, there is reason to it. Not a logical one that I could
have planned in advance. But one that organically grows within the class
between my students and me. Whether it is a taster session beginner’s class or
an advanced professional private one to one class.
Anyway- back to the ship.
My 3 classes of the day over with I had 45 minutes to get to
my cabin, shower, dress, make up – AND sync my playlist onto my iPod. This last
bit was my downfall. It always is. I can never decide which songs to dance to until
the very last minute- which is why working with a talented band in Cairo is my
ideal situation since almost always I turn to them after one song and say- oh
do you guys know..... and usually they do and we perform it without any rehearsal.
I guess I am addicted to the adrenaline! So- the iPod, of course, decides it doesn’t
want to sync. No reason (ok, maybe in my time related stress there was a
logical reason but I sure as heck couldn’t see it!). What to do?
Ah. IPhone... phew- thank god I have that. Ok- sync done
tick... get to the crow’s nest (the bar I was to perform in at the very top of
the ship, which is now FULL of people, literally a couple of hundred – let’s just
say, most were standing because all the seats were taken!) 5 minutes before I
was due to go on. Phew.
Now all I had to worry about was how much they would laugh
at my bright pink skin that was clashing beautifully with my lime green
costume. Yes I know- stupid stupid me!
Or at least that is all I ‘thought I had to worry about.
I haven’t had an iphone for long. I didn’t even know it had
a shuffle option....
Oh yes, I found out the hard way. Tell me I am not the first
bellydancer this has ever happened to please?
I spent the entire show (30 minutes and 7 tracks) praying
that the next song wasn’t going to the ‘outro’ music!!!! The gods were on my
side... every thing else was completely mixed up, but somehow worked anyway,
and the outro was the outro! Yippee. My relief was tangible!
It went very well. I had people up dancing and everyone was
very receptive and complimentary! A good job well done. Pat on the back for me,
Ouch, No... Too much sunburn for that!
I am kicking myself now that I don’t have a single photo of any
of the classes or the shows. I was too busy doing them. I am sure there will be
photos kicking around facebook and YouTube... and if they ever appear I will
attach them!
After I had finished I called Margo about something and she
said, 'oh, I am up at the captains champagne meet and greet, come and join us....!' So I threw on a little black dress, as one does, and headed there. 3 glasses of
free champagne later I still hadn’t met the captain who was too busy shaking
hands with everyone but I had met and chatted with a great number of Dutch
guests, who were a lot of fun!
After having responsible for the entertainment so far that
day, I then decided to see what the ship had to offer in its own entertainment!
After a huge dinner of course. I am lethal at a buffet. Maybe it’s my
Scottishness but I want to try everything and end up with way too much food. Everytime.
Ah well- to be honest- the food was so good, every meal, every single thing I
tried, that it was impossible not to put on weight during this trip! It just
had to be done!
That evening I watch Jodie and the Halcats in the ocean bar,
Ben and the Halcats (a different band!) do the British Invasion night in the Queens
lounge and the amazing full show, Aces High in the vista lounge. Lounge is the
wrong word for the last of those venues. It is a full blown theatre. The Show
was fabulous. Far better than anything I expected to see on a ship and far
better than many things I have seen in actual theatres over the years! The
voices were superb and the dancing was wonderfully choreographed and professionally
performed. The stage setting and backdrops were impressive. The whole thing
beautiful.
Everything on ship seemed to go to sleep about 11pm. I
suspect due to the average age of the guests....! The staff bar however partied
until 1am. I didn’t go there very often in my time aboard, mainly because you
had to go through the bowels of the ship to get there and I could never
remember how!
That day I received some wonderful news and did some organising
to arrange a special treat. You however, will have to wait until my next blog
entry to find out what that was!
Apologies for lack of photos in this entry- more tomorrow I
promise!
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