I've never before decided to share a video clip that i have had taken of myself before today... Ever my own worst critic, I am never content with what i have done. So I have decided that this is not a healthy way to be and trying to change that!
I performed on Saturday night at a Sudanese Wedding,at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, here in Cairo. It was a fabulous event... with a very warm and welcoming crowds from Cairo, Sudan and Canada... amoungst other countries!
The zeffa started with the bagpipes- i tried to get a photo, but it didn't come out very well...
in fact the video clip i have uploaded onto youtube hasn't the best image quality either- and i will try to get that rectified if i can.... but in the meantime here you go- hot off the press- a performance not even 2 days old!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YkPvKXQInE
So......... considering i had never before even met those particular backing dancers, and despite my band forgetting my stick, the one thing I asked them to bring for me, and despite having a small girl with mobile in my face all the time, who I quite frankly lost my affection for throughout the course of my performance and wanted to have cross words with her parents.....
i think it looks ok......
Showing posts with label Folklorique dance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Folklorique dance. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Luxor, Egypt dance festival - sept 2010
I have mentioned this one before- but just wanted to bring it to your attention again!!!
especially since the festival now has a facebook page- for those of you who are into that!
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/group.php?gid=290707709950&ref=mf
The website is www.faridaadventures.com
So if you are interested in Learning from 3 of Cairo's top teachers ... Eman Zaki (amazing graceful 'vintage' style), Mohamed Kazafy (Reda technique) and me, Lorna Gow (Modern Cairo) then get your booking in now!
I am really looking forward to spending a week with dancers in a fabulous city... we are going to have a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!
especially since the festival now has a facebook page- for those of you who are into that!
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/group.php?gid=290707709950&ref=mf
The website is www.faridaadventures.com
So if you are interested in Learning from 3 of Cairo's top teachers ... Eman Zaki (amazing graceful 'vintage' style), Mohamed Kazafy (Reda technique) and me, Lorna Gow (Modern Cairo) then get your booking in now!
I am really looking forward to spending a week with dancers in a fabulous city... we are going to have a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Workshop with Aida Nour . 25/11/07
Aida's workshop was on the last morning of the festival. I arrived slightly late- so if she explained any of the info about the fellahi dance she was going to teach I unfortunately missed it. The dance was simple enough… the type of simple that after a short while you stop thinking about what comes next because it seems to easy and therefore you make mistakes (well that’s what was happing to me- but perhaps that has more to do with the fact that the fact started at 10am- ungodly hour that!)
She taught in a strange manner- which worked. She taught us one combo which we did for the entire song. Then another combo which slotted in at the choruses and so on… with the ending and the intro being added on last. A different approach from starting at the beginning and working though which on the up side meant you could dance the entire song each time- rather than just the 1st 20 seconds over and over and then the 1st 40 seconds etc etc. But It confused me slightly and I know, since I stupidly forgot my camcorder that there would be no way I could reproduce that dance- simple and lovely as it was!
The Fellahi are the peasants, farmers from the delta region in Egypt. For the dance you wear a large, very flarey, multi coloured (usually with bold huge flowers in the print) galabeya's and the pom pom style head dress one usually associates with melaya dance. As it is a folklorique dance it doesn't have a great deal of complicated moves and involves a lot of skirt swishing. Very pretty.
Aida also did another dance with us- more her usual style- shaabi music and strong, uncompromising movements, mixing grace and elegance with earthy rawness. Fabulous- loved it!
She taught in a strange manner- which worked. She taught us one combo which we did for the entire song. Then another combo which slotted in at the choruses and so on… with the ending and the intro being added on last. A different approach from starting at the beginning and working though which on the up side meant you could dance the entire song each time- rather than just the 1st 20 seconds over and over and then the 1st 40 seconds etc etc. But It confused me slightly and I know, since I stupidly forgot my camcorder that there would be no way I could reproduce that dance- simple and lovely as it was!
The Fellahi are the peasants, farmers from the delta region in Egypt. For the dance you wear a large, very flarey, multi coloured (usually with bold huge flowers in the print) galabeya's and the pom pom style head dress one usually associates with melaya dance. As it is a folklorique dance it doesn't have a great deal of complicated moves and involves a lot of skirt swishing. Very pretty.
Aida also did another dance with us- more her usual style- shaabi music and strong, uncompromising movements, mixing grace and elegance with earthy rawness. Fabulous- loved it!
Workshop with Olfat Hassan. 24/11/07
Me and morning workshops……. Hmmmmmm. 20 mins late for this one. But I rushed in and caught up and was really proud and scared when Olfat pulled me through to the front of the class after 10 minutes to demonstrate!!! I guess it was because I loved the music but I really enjoyed putting lots of feeling and attitude in to the dance and I guessed that’s why she picked on me. The when she found I could speak Arabic – that was it. All classes supposedly directed to the entire class were said to me. I got embarrassed and tried to hide off to one side. She even gave a prize to the 2 best dancers in the class- me and another girl. As much as I didn't approve of this method of teaching- I did really enjoy both the choreographies with her and the 1st which was an eskandarani piece of music would have been wonderful for a private class- so I think I will go get some lessons with her. She was a dancer for the Reda troupe and has performed and worked all over the world. I liked how she gave space in the dance for you to show emotion and she encouraged that. I felt sorry for her cos the air con wasn't working, then was too string etc etc then the music would work, then it wouldn't. She lost a lot of people from the class simply die to technical hitches.
Workshop with Zeina. 23/11/07
I loved the last workshops I had done with Zeina so was excited about this workshop. I wasn't disappointed.
Her teaching skills really so far have been second to none I have found. I just love the way she teaches nothing but combos, without asking you to memorise them, but over and over, so when they 'appear' in the choreography they feel so natural as though you would have danced that move in that way even if she hadn't taught it. She taught a baladi oriental routine… i.e. baladi music and dance designer for a solo stage performer. I didn't much like the idea of doing a choreography to a style of music I feel should always be improvised- but it worked… and since then I have already added bits and ideas from her routine into my own show, which I guess is the sign of a successful workshop!
Her teaching skills really so far have been second to none I have found. I just love the way she teaches nothing but combos, without asking you to memorise them, but over and over, so when they 'appear' in the choreography they feel so natural as though you would have danced that move in that way even if she hadn't taught it. She taught a baladi oriental routine… i.e. baladi music and dance designer for a solo stage performer. I didn't much like the idea of doing a choreography to a style of music I feel should always be improvised- but it worked… and since then I have already added bits and ideas from her routine into my own show, which I guess is the sign of a successful workshop!
Workshop with Ahmet Refaat. 22/11/07
This workshop just intrigued me. I had no idea who the teacher was, turns out he has been a celebrated folklorique dancer all over the world and most recently performed with the Reda troupe. Anyway- I was taken with the idea of 2 hour workshop which would cover 3 different styles, saaidi with cane, Eskandarani with melaya laf and Bambuti with spoons. It was as fast paced and frantic as I thought it might be!!!! 3 hours were defiantly needed to give each style the time they deserved. Ahmet is a fabulous choreographer and I loved the routines he did in each of the styles…. But I felt I had time to grasp the steps only and not enough time to get into the feel of each one. The stick dance was great, lots of nice touches, turns, ideas and very fast! Very balletic, and elegant although without much heavy earthy stuff. But lots of usable ideas! A dance I really wish I had videoed! The melaya (my favourite of the 3) was very swooshy- and oh my god did my arms and shoulders ache by the end with all the throwing the melaya up onto my arms then spreading it out again………. Ouch! Not much wrapping yourself up in the melaya – more using it a bit more like a veil- but some lovely turns. Bambuti I knew NOTHING about before the workshop and I would have loved a bit of a story behind it all… but basically we had spoons where the handles where joined together to they looked a bit like castanets, which you had to tap out the rhythms by hitting various parts of your anatomy in time with the music. The music was great- often with empty pauses in it to give the dancer time to fill the gap with the spoon sound, and it all reminded me a bit of Morris dancing to be honest.
Since then I have done a little research on the Bambuti and found that they are the most famous type of Pygmies and come from the ituri forest in Africa. According to the Encyclopedia Britannia ' Their music, complex in rhythm and harmony, is often accompanied by dance or mime'
The knowledge about the existence of the Pygmies dates back to 2150 B.C. They were present in the court of the Egyptian King Pepi II Neferkare and were depicted on Egyptian pottery. The Bambuti were used as the court jesters and entertainers in pharonic times. Hence an entertaining dance form evolved which involves spoons and fun and acrobatics and clowning around.
In Egyptian culture now, people see Bambuti as the fishermen from the Delta region in the north of Egypt.
When I did a search on 'spoon dance' I came up with this! 'There are representations (in Ancient Greek texts) of men and women dancing with spoon-like objects. These objects and the way the dancers hold them remind very much of the spoons, in the spoon dance people from the area of Capadoccia (Asia Minor) still do today. Also Spoons are used as rhythm instruments in Turkey and Greece and there are several versions of spoon dances there.
So it seems.... although I am open to learning more should anyone out there know more! I am only guessing since I can't seem to find the information anywhere......, that
The Egyptian Bambuti Spoon dance is a mongrel- a mix of all these difference influences over the centuries. A fun dance, reminisce of the old pygmy court jesters, done by fishermen from the Delta who had been influenced by the culture of spoon music and dance from Greece and Turkey and of course represented and brought to the modern stage by folklorique troupes such as the Reda troupe.
Since then I have done a little research on the Bambuti and found that they are the most famous type of Pygmies and come from the ituri forest in Africa. According to the Encyclopedia Britannia ' Their music, complex in rhythm and harmony, is often accompanied by dance or mime'
The knowledge about the existence of the Pygmies dates back to 2150 B.C. They were present in the court of the Egyptian King Pepi II Neferkare and were depicted on Egyptian pottery. The Bambuti were used as the court jesters and entertainers in pharonic times. Hence an entertaining dance form evolved which involves spoons and fun and acrobatics and clowning around.
In Egyptian culture now, people see Bambuti as the fishermen from the Delta region in the north of Egypt.
When I did a search on 'spoon dance' I came up with this! 'There are representations (in Ancient Greek texts) of men and women dancing with spoon-like objects. These objects and the way the dancers hold them remind very much of the spoons, in the spoon dance people from the area of Capadoccia (Asia Minor) still do today. Also Spoons are used as rhythm instruments in Turkey and Greece and there are several versions of spoon dances there.
So it seems.... although I am open to learning more should anyone out there know more! I am only guessing since I can't seem to find the information anywhere......, that
The Egyptian Bambuti Spoon dance is a mongrel- a mix of all these difference influences over the centuries. A fun dance, reminisce of the old pygmy court jesters, done by fishermen from the Delta who had been influenced by the culture of spoon music and dance from Greece and Turkey and of course represented and brought to the modern stage by folklorique troupes such as the Reda troupe.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Egyptian Dance Holiday- Siwa/Marsa Matrouh/Cairo!
Anyone interested in a bellydance holiday with a difference to Egypt should consider the following!!!! I am not organising it- but I will be attending the Siwa/Marsa Matrouh part of the trip and really looking fwd to it! Sara is a great teacher and no one knows more about arabic music then Emad- so together they should be an outstanding team! And its an amazing price too! Hope to see some faces I know on the trip- I really recommend it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Luxury coach to Marsa Matrouh
2 nights by the sea in the home of Hagalla [half board]
Luxury coach, via lunch in Alexandria, to Cairo
3 nights in central Cairo [B&B]
Classes on folkloric and oriental dance and music with Emad el Rashidi and Sara….. and more in Cairo
Only 14 places available
All flights and transfers to and from hotels.
Half board accommodation outside Cairo, B&B in Odeon Hotel central Cairo
All lessons and performances outside Cairo [+ a surprise lesson in Cairo…]
Cost 800 sterling
100 non-refundable deposit payable on booking
350 payable on 1st February 2008 350 payable on arrival in Cairo
To book contact Tracey Gibbs : bellydancer@btconnect.com
For more information contact Sara: sarasherif2000@yahoo.co.uk
SUN SEA CITY AND SHOPPING
Egyptian dance holiday in Siwa, Marsa Matrouh and Cairo
with Sara Farouk and Emad El Rashidi
10 – 18 May 2008
Arrive Cairo
Overnight luxury coach to Siwa
2 nights in eco-friendly Siwa Oasis with Bedouin dancing [half board]
Egyptian dance holiday in Siwa, Marsa Matrouh and Cairo
with Sara Farouk and Emad El Rashidi
10 – 18 May 2008
Arrive Cairo
Overnight luxury coach to Siwa
2 nights in eco-friendly Siwa Oasis with Bedouin dancing [half board]
Luxury coach to Marsa Matrouh
2 nights by the sea in the home of Hagalla [half board]
Luxury coach, via lunch in Alexandria, to Cairo
3 nights in central Cairo [B&B]
Classes on folkloric and oriental dance and music with Emad el Rashidi and Sara….. and more in Cairo
Only 14 places available
All flights and transfers to and from hotels.
Half board accommodation outside Cairo, B&B in Odeon Hotel central Cairo
All lessons and performances outside Cairo [+ a surprise lesson in Cairo…]
Cost 800 sterling
100 non-refundable deposit payable on booking
350 payable on 1st February 2008 350 payable on arrival in Cairo
To book contact Tracey Gibbs : bellydancer@btconnect.com
For more information contact Sara: sarasherif2000@yahoo.co.uk
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