“A Mad May Day”

A review of Zafira Workshops, Cambridge & Banet El Raqs Hafla – Sat 10^th May

It finally feels like summer is here! Ahhh that’s the life, glorious sunshine, punting down the river, church garden parties, and relaxing on the lawn with a glass of Pimms… oh and sweating like a pig whilst trying to perfect a gypsy spin in a village hall.

 All of the above were applicable for Barb, Di and I when we attended the Zafira workshop in Cambridge at the weekend arranged by Bellynut Tribal. Zafira are troupe of 4 based in Pittsburgh USA that combine Belly dance with contemporary and ethnic dance forms. Gypsy and tribal moves feature highly in their choreography, as do (surprisingly) some jazz moves. The result is that their performances are ornate, earthy, and elegant and blur the boundaries between performers and the audience. Voted troupe of the year 2007, we jumped at the chance to go.

 With chauffeur appointed (aka Nigel) and his assistant for the day (Pooh) we decided to opt for the Gypsy spins and styling workshop and the supha (no that’s not a spelling error) saucy workshop. This would just about give us enough time to get back for the Banet el raqs Hafla in the evening.

 Olivia Kisset from Zafira was our instructor for both workshops, and, in typical US teacher style, started the workshop with a lengthy and precise yoga based warm up. Now, I’m not a fan of spins (then why did you go to this workshop Claire?!) but after about half an hour of barrel turns I think I can safely say I can attempt a spin now without feeling sick! Olivia had a wonderful cheery nature to her teaching style that put you at ease and ensured you had fun by giving good visualizations and practicing tips to do with partners. But, (heres a handy hint for any of you ladies who ever attend a workshop by an American instructor) they do like to drill drill drill and they will make sure you do it properly!! This may not be to everyone’s taste, but you do get incredibly good value for money and come away feeling like you have learned something (even if you cant remember a step when you’ve walked through the door) and had a good workout.

 After a picnic and a Pimms on the grass at lunchtime (thanks to the Church fete that was happening at the venue at the same time) we heard how Nigel had reserved a place for Pooh at Kings college (get em in young!) before returning for “Supha saucy”. Olivia mixed some jazz moves with tribal to come up with some really versatile combos that could quite easily be adapted into any fusion dance.

 We left with Zafira T shirts in hand, exhausted and thankful of the air conditioning in the car, but glad we made the effort to go.

 Which leads me on to the evening….

 Why is it that buses come at once? We are mad women who love all things belly so when we were asked to perform at Banet-el-raqs Hafla of course we said yes!!

The venue this time was Nettleham village hall. Local for us, and a suitable venue with room to accommodate everyone in the hall, and providing an area to house the souks. Unfortunately, the first set was just finishing when we arrived so I missed the Banet-el-raqs group performance, which I was eager to catch. However, if it was anything else like the rest of the evening I'm sure it was a great delight.

 Gails candle dance to “You’re beautiful” was lovely and Shimea’s Arabic/flamenco fusion was Nigel’s favorite of the night. Kathie performed a sword / veil dance with a dramatic reveal (Our dancers of this area just go on and on with their creativity which is brilliant!). Tatiana from Nottingham amazed us with some fabulous layering going on in her drum solo and Sammera (aka Karen) performed a traditional stick dance (again, I take my hat off to anyone who can dance with a prop). We saw Pauline’s riveting sword dance again to live drumming provided by the lovely Asif (big up to all the Belly dance widowers out there who have come into the fold!) Live drumming was great to free dance to, even though I had a slightly odd costume by then, trying to keep my trousers away from my fab henna tattoo on my foot….

 Now then, Angela has decided to hang up her dancing shoes…this is a shame!! I hope she will continue to be around on the belly dance circuit (You’re not allowed to abandon us now!!) However, she did make one really good point…. Ladies, we aren’t getting any younger, even though we should (and will) carry on dancing in our care homes, we need to encourage some young blood…This is now your mission!!

To quote from Mary Poppins, “our daughters daughters will adore us” so lets dance in grateful chorus and shimmy on with the next generation.