Habiba Dance is on the Move!

Goodbye purple website.  We were together two and a half years, but sadly now we must part.

It's out with the old and in with the new at Habiba Dance HQ, as my new, even shinier website is being built as we speak.  I'm really excited about it and I can't wait for the big reveal, coming soon to a computer screen near you!

Contact me...

Meanwhile, my blog will be my home for a few short weeks, and if you do need to get in touch there are still lots of ways to contact me:

• through Facebook 
• by tweeting @habibadance 
• or email me: habibadance AT ymail.com

Oh yes, and it's business as usual on YouTube as well (now with over 60,000 video views). 

As part of the transition to the new site, I'm in the middle of working through a few techy type things.  This means that right now my www.habibadance.com domain is showing a 404 error when you tap it into your computer.

However, everything else remains business as usual.  If you want to browse through the content of my old website, you should still be able to have a nosey at it, it's just being held in stasis on the servers of my previous host.  If you want to enquire about teaching, performances or hire, please get in touch directly with me.  If you have already accepted a quote or received a contract, all arrangements remain in place - naturally - and you will still be able to get in touch direct using the email and phone number that you have.

And finally, please do come back here very soon, to read my latest news, and check on the launch date for unveiling my new site. 

Thank you for the music!

Thank you Northern Arabic Dance Association for last night's fantastic live music event in Edinburgh with the Baladi Blues Ensemble!

Thanks to your support: 8 people got to dance in the evening show; another 8 led the musicians in the workshop; 21 in total enjoyed a workshop with live musicians; 1 person had her first experience teaching a live music workshop; 10 people went to their very first bellydance class; and over 115 people enjoyed our party and performances to fantastic live Egyptian music from the Baladi Blues Ensemble!

For many that were there this was their first experience of hearing or dancing to live Arabic music, for others this was the first time they had ever seen Arabic dance or belly dance. For all of us, this was a very special occasion, with a beautiful warm atmosphere and a fantastic finale for a whole weekend of amazing events like this around the country.

Thank you to everyone at NADA, all of its members, committee, to Coordinator Anna Bisco, to Elspeth SwishandHips, all the volunteers and helpers, the staff at the David Lloyd Newhaven, and to the incredible Baladi Blues Ensemble - Guy Schalom, Sheik Taha, Ahmed El Saidi and Adam Warne!

Thank you to all of you for spreading the Baladi Love!

Baladi Blues Band - Live Arabic Music in Edinburgh

On Sunday 5th February 2012, I am hosting the Baladi Blues Ensemble, live in Edinburgh, for a day of Egyptian Dance.

Day of Dance Flyer

All the details, including bookings information, venue, directions and accommodation info are on my website.

The aim of this event is to bring live music and Egyptian Dance to communities that might not otherwise get the chance to experience it.  That’s why we have arranged a free taster workshop as part of the day.  And that’s also why we’ve kept the cost of participation very low – thanks to the generous sponsorship of NADA, the Northern Arabic Dance Association.

Baladi Blues Ensemble

The Baladi Blues Ensemble plays the urban Egyptian dance music known as Baladi. Skillful accordion and saxophone improvisations, energised by powerful Egyptian rhythms give the Baladi Blues Ensemble its distinctive sound. Their music reflects the sophisticated and fast paced, urban lifestyle of 1950’s Cairo - all offered with a charming and enigmatic stage presence.

Baladi Blues Ensemble

The group is led by renowned percussionist, Guy Schalom, and features legendary quarter-tone accordionist Sheik Taha (Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Ahmed Adaweya, Fifi Abdou, and Tahia Cariocca), saxophonist Ahmed El Saidi (Ali Hassan Kuban, Shams Hussein, Salamat) and master percussionist Hassan Reevis (Abdel Halim Hafez, Ahmed Adaweya).  The band also features frame drum wizard Adam Warne.

Venue 

The venue is the Forth View Suite at the David Lloyd Club, Edinburgh Newhaven Harbour, EH6 4LX.   Venue details, map, transport etc. information is available here.

Day

The day will feature:

• FREE Egyptian Belly Dance taster workshop (2:00pm till 3:00pm)
• Live music workshop for Dancers (3:15pm till 5:15pm)
• EVENING CONCERT and party with live music (starts 7:30pm)

Evening concert and party with the Baladi Blues Ensemble
Starts 7:30, cost: £5! (LAST FEW TICKETS)

This unmissable concert and party will feature authentic live music from the fabulous Baladi Blues Ensemble, along with dance performances and lots of time to boogie with the band!

A fantastic evening of live music, featuring performances from me, Lorne, Espeth, Kerimeh, Anna and Edinburgh's longest established Egyptian Dance troupe Daughters of Isis.

Tickets are selling very quickly for this event, advanced booking is advised. 

FREE Egyptian Belly Dance taster workshop for Beginners
2:00 till 3:00, cost: FREE

A fun, free, accessible dance workshop suitable for all ages and abilities.  This will be a fun filled introduction to Egyptian Dance for complete Beginners, brought to you by Dance Base's Elspeth SwishandHips.

To join the FREE workshop, either reserve your place in advance or simply turn up on the day, 

The Spirit of Baladi - Live music workshop for Dancers
3:00 till 5:00 (SOLD OUT)

I am teaching a workshop for dancers on "the Spirit of Baladi", accompanied by Baladi Blues band leader Guy Schalom on Egyptian Tabla and master accordion player Sheikh Taha - an opportunity to learn to connect with and dance to traditional Egyptian music, melody and rhythm, and to explore moving the soulful sound of Baladi accordion - played by one of the leading musicians of this incredible art form.  

Bookings

To book, go to bookings page on my website and follow the instructions.

For evening tickets, all reservations will only be held if secured by full payment (you can pay via PayPal) and the last date for Advanced Bookings and Payment is Friday 3rd February.

If any evening tickets remain after 3rd February than these will be sold on the day on a first come, first served basis.

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 bit of something sweet

Today I had a go at whipping up a batch of traditional Arabic sugaring wax.

Sugaring is a traditional method of hair removal using a sticky toffee like mixture. This is a common beauty treatment in Arab countries like Egypt and Lebanon and featured in the movie Caramel. This helps to ensure that Arab women have no unwanted body hair.  This perfect clean look is also seen as very important quality in a dancer.   

I've used hot wax with fabric strips as a home treatment in the past, but always went for a non sugar based hot wax.  The results are very good, although admittedly a bit messy and time consuming.  However, a good quality home wax is hard to find in the UK and can also be expensive.  A while ago, I therefore switched to epilators.  These are pretty convenient but on my skin type I find that these machines tend to become less effective over time.

My YouTube Arabic teacher Maha posted a video of her recipe for Arabic sugaring wax.  I've never tried this before and thought I would give it a go.  I knew it probably wouldn't be quite as easy as it looked in the video but at least the ingredients are pretty cheap and simple - sugar plus a small quantity of water, lemon juice and salt.

Here is the clip:



One of the comments under the video suggests the recipe is:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt

 You could probably do some research of your own if you wanted to look up alternate recipes.  It looks like the acidity in the lemon juice is the important ingredient as that that helps to get the mixture to go to that sticky and stretchy consistency.  I'm not sure why the salt is there, perhaps someone can tell me?  Maybe that's something that you just wouldn't leave out of Arabic cooking?

It took me 3 tries to get the mixture and the cooking method right.  It was caster sugar I had in the larder, so this might have affected the quantities and the outcome.  It turned out I had too much liquid in my mixture so although I could pick up the paste to knead and stretch it out, it ended up a little bit too soft and sticky to use, especially when it took on the heat from the body.  The result were sticky clumps of toffee that refused to budge from my legs - I then had to improvise with hastily cut fabric strips in order to get this off.  I reckon this kind of consistency would probably still work okay with the heated wax and fabric strip method - but this wasn't what I was going for. 

In the third try, I reduced the liquid quantity down a touch from what I've given you above.  I guess this is something that needed to work with my own cups and spoons.  I don't have any marble in my kitchen - as used in the video - so I used a glass/Pyrex heat proof bowl to pour out the liquid.  To get the cooling effect that marble would have provided, I sunk the bottom of my dish into another bowl of cold water.  When I had something cool enough to touch and solid enough to pick up in my hands, I started to work it between my fingers to stretch it out.  I ended up with the caramel coloured mixture you can see on the left of my photo below.  This wasn't quite sticky enough to work, so I experimented with a small piece and stretched this between my fingers until it became stickier and lighter in colour - shown on the right.

Sugaring wax

I ended up with a small and pliable piece of toffee that could be pushed onto the skin and stay in one piece when I ripped it off.  The same piece could then be pushed into the next bit of skin.  It took quite a bit of effort to work it onto the skin into a thinnish layer and also to try and get a good pace to complete an area of the body.

My verdict?  Well it does work and it doesn't risk burning the skin on application, like hot wax can (although does need caution when preparing it).  It's also natural, cheap to make, and surprisingly clean to use - certainly once I got the third batch right - and any wax left e.g. on the bowl and work surface can be easily cleaned up with hot water.  However, it does take time to get the preparation method right and to get the hang of an effective technique for quick hair removal.  Perhaps I need to watch an expert at work.  I also found I didn't always manage to pick up all the hair with the wax and frequently had to go over the same area again.  I've still got some fresh balls of wax left over and I've popped them in the fridge to use next time.  In my view it's definitely worth another try and I plan to continue to work on that technique.