Amel Tafsout in Peebles, Scotland!

A few years back, I was lucky enough to learn North African dance in Scotland, direct from master teacher Amel Tafsout.  Amel is originally from Algeria and teaches North African dance.  She is a very special, warm and spiritual person and I was lucky enough to have attended her Stirling workshops on a couple of occasions.  I really loved Amel's teaching style and her insightful teaching.

Amel Tafsout

Well the good news is she's coming back to Scotland.  Thanks again to Celia Buchan of Borders Arabic Dance, Amel will be teaching 2 days of workshops in Peebles, on 13th to 14th April 2013, and there will also be a Hafla. 

On Saturday 13th April there are 2 workshops on the Dance of the Ouled Nayl and Algerian Rai, followed by the Hafla in the evening.  Then on Sunday 14th April, there is a very special workshop in Sufi spinning.  I've taken the Sufi workshop before and can thoroughly recommend it. 

For all the details and to book, go to Borders Arabic Dance.  And don't miss the excellent early bird deal for all bookings made by 18th March (£65 for all 3 workshops). 

If you don't know Amel already, here's a wee excerpt from her official bio:

Amel Tafsout inspirational master dance artist, choreographer and one of the finest exponents of contemporary and traditional Magreb dance of our time.  Raised in Algeria she has been fascinated by dance and music since childhood.  She holds 2 M.A .degrees in sociolinguistics and romance languages a research in dance ethnology and a long training in healing practises. Her knowledge and experience make her completely unique.  Now resident in the United States she is a voyager between countries, languages and cultures.

I hope to see you there!

Dancing down the farm

I had a gig with a difference on Saturday night.

A real first for me, teaching a taster hen party class in a farm shed.  The party was meant to be held in a gazebo outside - but the terrible rain at the weekend caused the roof to collapse - so the owners lent us these fine surroundings:

Where's the strangest place you've ever danced?

2011 - 12 months in 12 sentences

I've risen to the challenge to summarize my 2011 year in just 12 sentences, one per month. Thanks go to Claire (@StAndrewsLynx) for the inspiration to blog on the "12 in 12" theme. And to those reading this - Happy New Year!  I hope that 2012 brings good things to you, and everyone. 

In January, I found some mezze (I also survived my worst costume malfunction but quickly destroyed all evidence).

I had a Fifi February, dancing with melaya and white galabeya. 

In March, I fed my fabric shopping habit during a trip to Paris, and Walked the Walk with a little bit of Aziza. 

April was a JoY, and workshops with Eman Zaki had me dancing Samia style. 

Jewel of Yorkshire with Khaled Mahmoud and Eman Zaki

In May, I had a Dorothy moment in the wrong dancers holiday in Marrakesh; and later danced the Zarr with Suraya accompanied by drumming from the father and son El Minyawis.  

Marrakesh

In June, I taught and guest starred at the second Glasgow Festival of Arabic Dance. 

Dancing at GFAD, by Milla

July was the Raqs Sharqi Society fundraiser in London, and the Foundation for Community Dance summer school - where I completed their certificate in Age Inclusive Practice.

August brought injury, which caused me to miss my guest star spot at Planet Egypt in London.

September, I had a really good time watching other dancers while I gradually got my body moving again.

October had me up, dancing again and joining Beatrice Grognard's workshops as part of the Songe d'une nuit en Egypte weekend.

November brought a thankfully snow free drive home from Northern Lights at Newport on Tay.

December meant lots of hours planning the Baladi Blues live Egyptian music event in Edinburgh next year - on 5th February 2012 - and I even sold out the live music dancers workshop that I'll be teaching then. 

Baladi Blues day of dance

A little corner of Egypt comes to Dorset

Early October, did not just bring an unseasonal return of summery weather to the South of England, the warm wind also brought with it a little bit of Egypt, in the form of Béatrice Grognard, one of the foremost European teachers of contemporary Egyptian Dance.

Béatrice Grognard is a Belgian dancer who originally trained with Suraya Hilal’s Raqs Sharqi School in the early 1990s and subsequently went on to found her own school of Egyptian dance, Tarab of Egypt, primarily based in Brussels. Through Tarab, Béatrice promotes what she defines as the Theatrical Dances of Egypt and has choreographed and produced several full shows, often resulting from groundbreaking collaborations with traditional Egyptian musicians. Inspired by her original training as an archaeologist, she is an artist who has developed a unique and new translation of Egyptian dance, both modern and expressive but connected to centuries old Egyptian music dance tradition. You can read Béatrice’s own carefully crafted description of her art on her website.

I first discovered Béatrice’s classes when I worked in Brussels for a spell in 2006. Attending her classes twice a week was a wonderful escape from what was a very busy but exciting period in my life. And since returning to the UK, I have continued to train, attending Béatrice’s occasional UK workshops and participating in two of her study trips to Egypt to work with live musicians. When Diane and Ellie of Raqs Sharqi Dorset said they were arranging for Béatrice to come to their corner of England to teach, I jumped at the chance. And after over 7 hours of travel from Edinburgh, by planes trains and automobiles, we arrived at the sleepy Dorset village of Broadmayne for two intense days of workshops. And what an amazing weekend it was.

The first workshop on the Saturday morning was Baladi. As we worked with a Mawaal (vocal improvisation) sung by Ahmed Adeweia, the focus of the workshop wasn’t about learning sequences or technique, but explored tapping into the essence of Baladi, the Egyptian spirit; where the singer, musicians and dancer melt together like hot chocolate into a single melody. We were challenged to confront and break the boundaries or perceived rules of Baladi. To use placement of feet, fingers, changes in height and leans. To forget the single move to the music, the vertical eight, the camel…, but instead improvise through isolation focused on different parts of the body, the sacrum, the back, the neck to express the melody. And to intersperse all of this with elements of surprise. 

Ghawazee-Sha'abi Workshop

Saturday afternoon, brought a change of pace, with an incredibly energetic and enjoyable afternoon focused on the Ghawazee style of the Sha’abi dance, an earthy yet feminine dance made famous by performer families like the “Banat Maazin”. This workshop was focused on feeling like a Ghawazee, the strength, femininity and most of all fun. We worked with some fantastic music to interpret the sound of the Sai’idi instruments, Sibs, Mizmar and drum. We learnt the signature moves like throwing hips, twists, walks and back leans. We also practised the dynamic movements, wide shimmies, and rhythmic footwork, all contrasted with stops and poses.

Classical Workshop

An early start, the following morning brought with it the third workshop of the weekend, classical. The classical form, sometimes known as Sharqi, is the most modern of the three main types of Raqs Sharqi Egyptian Dance that I study, and can even be considered contemporary in its interpretation. And wow, what a workshop. We introduced a new perspective on classical technique, revisiting the previous day’s focus on introducing flexibility in the sacrum, back, and neck. We used our fingers, hands and arms to pick up melody and add a touch of Egyptian humour. But most of all, during this final workshop, Béatrice opened our eyes to challenging all our assumptions about how to interpret the music, unpicking many years of learning the “correct” way to dance. Why should we be intent to always shimmy with the sound of the qanoun, to be expansive with the violin and to travel to the dynamic passages? Is this indeed the correct interpretation, or is this the predictable one, or could it even be considered comfortable in its interpretation? And when the tempo changes, do we have to suddenly react, or can we respond instead with subtlety, to explore an alternative layer in the music, to pause for breath before embracing the new rhythm?

In fact, this is the part of the weekend of learning that I have been mulling over in my mind ever since my return home. So many questions that I am now compelled to consider. How can I apply this to my own dance? What are my assumptions? What are my goals as a dancer? How can I learn to perfect my dance and find a place in this wider art? Can I continue to teach what I teach? How can I apply this to my own teaching? What an amazing lesson to be part of.

Thanks to Diane and Ellie for their fantastic organisation, help and support over the months leading up to the weekend and throughout the weekend itself.

www.habibadance.com

A spring in my step - inspired dancing to live musicians

I'm just come back from Spring school, feeling inspired by the music and stars of the Golden Age.

Spring School is a course for Professional and Advanced dancers, run by Juliana Brustik and Judy Hammond, two of the senior teachers of the Raqs Sharqi Society.

This was set in the grounds of Haileybury College, a Hertfordshire boarding school with an uncanny resemblance to Hogwarts.  I joined a group of 24 women for four days of intense training including body work, improvisation, performance skills, video, tabla and dancing to live music.

This year we explored classical Egyptian Dance, drawing heavy influence from the stars of Egypt; Samia Gamal, Tahia Carioca and Naima Akif, from 1940s and 1950s era of Egyptian cinema. 

I arrived on the Wednesday evening, just in time for dinner in the College's vast dining room, and this was followed by a welcome and relaxation session led by Judy.  This helped me to get into my body and spine, preparing it for the work to come.

Thursday morning was an early start. Thankfully after a cooked breakfast the first part of the warm up was mostly lying down - some relaxation followed by gentle movement to awaken mobility in the torso, joints and limbs.  Following this, we broke into twos for a quick standing massage, which to helped me to feel tall whilst still connected to the earth.  And after this we started to dance. 

Juliana and Judy made an efficient teaching tag team with seamless handovers to take us through the morning workshop. We worked on steps to create flow in the classical dance, we moved around the room, weaving and allowing the spine to lead the movement in the upper body and arms.  Samia Gamal leg lifts and turns were Incorporated to add drama to the dance, and then we focused on a single piece, the first part of Nebtedi Menen el Hakaya - a beautiful Abdel Halim Hafiz song by Mohammed Adel Wahab.  The music was taken from the new live recording "Hommage a Mohamed Abdel Wahab".  

In the afternoon, we were split into two groups.  I went along for the workshop with Judy which was all about the spine.  This is always the central theme in Judy's classes, a teacher with training both in Raqs Sharqi and Alexander Technique, with over 20 years experience.  It was good to explore the movement coming from the centre, as we worked with the support of a partner to find the dance and express the music with upper body.  The addition of small balloons, held in the palm of our hands for part of the workshop, made an interesting prop that reflects a somewhat experimental approach to teaching. 

After dinner,  I took the chance to go to a tabla (darabuka) class with Tim Garside, one of the foremost Arabic style percussionists in the UK.  Tim taught with a great deal of patience and a touch of deadpan humour.  With the din that we created, I couldn't even hear what I was playing (probably a good thing), but it was certainly amazing fun.  After this, there were videos to watch in the common room and a chance to relax and have fun with the rest of the girls - and I even came away with some really handy tips from some of the other teachers on the course.

Friday took the same format as the previous day, but in the afternoon I attended Juliana's workshop.  We started in the common room in small groups analysing and interpreting video footage of Samia, Tahia and Naima.  Then inspired by the greats, we put on some more glamorous attire and went through to the dance hall to work on the playful and sensual side of the dance.

Friday night was party night, but before that was our second tabla class where we put together a short group performance for later on, we made quite a sound.  Tim played Tabla for us at the party, and and a few of us took a turn to perform a piece.  Highlights included a lovely duet between Kim Hall dancing to her 12 year old daughter Poppy playing tabla and a beautiful duet from Italian dancers Federica and Paolo.  I also really enjoyed Lise Szwann's stick dance, Pauline Blackwood's classical piece, and a hilarious character piece by Maggie.  I performed too and with no chance to practice beforehand, chose to improvise to Tahtill Shibbak - one of my favourite songs.  I really enjoyed dancing to such a supportive audience. 

Saturday morning we awoke in eager anticipation for the arrival of our musicians, Emile Bassili on violin, Gamal Awadi on keyboard, Abdul Sahklam on oud and Tim Garside on tabla and reqq.  And with a bit of persuasion Gamal's son and Poppy also joined in the percussion.  A six piece ensemble, playing just for us!  The musician's played Nebtedi for us and we practiced the moves we learnt earlier in the week, with Juliana leading us through the dancing.  We also danced to some out of this world violin and oud taqsims. 

In the afternoon there were some solo opportunities and I took the chance to improvise a small solo.  As I've never had the experience of dancing to live oud before, I selected to dance an oud taqsim.  I let the gentle tones of the oud music inhabit my body and experienced the interaction between dancer and musician.  Wow, what an incredible and exhilarating experience! 

This video of Juliana leading the dancing shows a small window into the day:

www.habibadance.com

Shimmying with old and new

I was really excited to start my new term of classes in Egyptian Dance tonight at The Salisbury Centre.

After a long wait for a slot to teach regular classes in the Centre, I've been offered a regular Thursday night slot for the summer term.  It's my favourite venue to come and teach a class.  The room is beautiful - it's a first floor drawing room with a smooth clean wooden floor and a lovely view over the Centre's organic garden.  And I'm looking forward to teaching on warm summer evenings when it will be possible to relax in the garden before class. 

It is a small group, but really nice to be teaching a combination of students who had been to my previous workshops and classes, those who were already familiar with the dance, and a few students who were entirely new to the dance.

We started with some walks, attitude and posture and then went through some basic moves including fluids, figures of 8, sharps, hits and of course some shimmies and variations - quite exciting as always when the students showed some real shimmy potential.  In the last part of the class we put these moves together to explore a piece of Baladi music, "Jalilah's Balady", from Amar 14:

Places are still available on the course which runs on Thursday evenings from 8.00-9.15 at The Salisbury Centre, 2 Salisbury Road, Edinburgh, EH16 5AB.  Cost for the full 10 week term is £60 full price and £50 for concessions.  To book, call 0131 667 5438, or email office@salisburycentre.org

Image is from Piranha Musik.

www.habibadance.com

Imman Mussa - a workshop review

Imman Mussa is still somewhat an enigma. A new dancer appears from nowhere in last 6 months in the Scottish, well UK, dance scene and people are talking about her. So I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. I have heard some positive things about her dancing and seen little snippets on You Tube and Facebook, but would she have something interesting to teach?

Imman originally comes from United Arab Emirates and has been dancing for many years. She moved to the UK a few years back and has recently been teaching some community belly dance classes, in Glasgow. She also had a popular You Tube presence for a while with her "Imman Bellysylin" brand (and although many of these videos were unfortunately taken down, the clips posted by her fans still get considerable traffic). However, in all this time, Imman and has never made any contact with the Scottish dance scene up until she performed at Belly Dance Congress in the South of England a few months back - a performance which was received well.

Since then, Imman has set up a new dance business, the Imman Mussa Middle Eastern Dance Academy (IMMEDA) to expand her work beyond her local belly dance classes in Glasgow. Today's workshop, in Edinburgh, was marketed specifically to Advanced or Professional level. There is something quite appealing about the idea of trying out a new dance teacher, especially one who comes from outside of the UK so I went along to give it a try.

It was a small class. There were only 5 other students - unfortunately the price of the workshop meant that a number of others who would have liked to have joined us were unable to come. For me, the workshop didn't start all that well. First there was improvised dancing before any warming up, and then the body conditioning billed as integral to the workshop turned out to be about 15 minutes of untutored stretching left to our own devices. An unusual opening.

Once this was over with, we got on with learning some different areas of technique. Interesting stuff. Some shimmies, focusing on the backs of the thighs and hamstrings, which we then layered into some travelling movements. A few fast spins. And there was an interesting version of a hagallah walk - a little bit soheir zaki with a little bit of a maya. Then in the final part of the workshop we learnt a short combination (about 16 bars).

The overall workshop, however, was a little bit disappointing for me. Probably more so, because Imman does have a lot of potential as a performer. And to her credit, as a teacher she is attentive and very observant, and able to see and correct, and she has some understanding of how to break down the movements. She is also a nice, sweet girl and wants to give what she can to all of her students.

My personal block to learning is a disconnected approach between move and music - the moves were demonstrated, practiced and delivered without the music they belonged to. As a result I was frustrated, I didn't feel I was really dancing, and had no sense of achievement of a new piece of technique first absorbed and then performed. Although a technical element is an important discipline, the whole picture - the dance to a piece of music, the art that we are all striving to achieve - was absent. I needed the energy, the beauty, the physical exhaustion and the joy that accompanies.

Despite limited experience, Imman is a skillful dancer and has an encouraging teaching manner. As a teacher, she would most likely benefit from some formal teacher training and I really hope that she pursues this at some point. She describes the way she teaches, as a little bit like how she practises in her front room, with friends. Meeting to dance, trying to get the hang of a few moves. I can see how this might work in the setting of a weekly class, but I'm not sure Imman is quite really to translate this approach to an advanced or professional level workshop. Would I go back? Well perhaps not, I guess I can probably stay at home and practise in my front room.

www.habibadance.com