Thread: Farha festival

On to the Saturday night show and what a show it was. I only really saw the performances in the first half as I was performing in the second half but it was lovely to see what a boost dancing to live music, and live music by brilliant musicians, gave to everyone that danced. I can't wait for the DVD to see the performances that I missed in the second half. Of course the obvious highlights of the show were Yasmina and Kazafy. It certainly gave us all something to aspire to.

I was on such a high from the Saturday night that I didn't get to sleep until quite late, stayed up chatting with me Mum, so we decided to have a lazy morning on the Sunday and duck out of the ballet warm up. I did, however, go to the Ballet Arms and Arabesques workshop that was very useful. Arms are one of my biggest weaknesses so it was good to work on these, but I also got some useful balance exercises out of the workshop and the teacher was genuinely interested in our form of dance. The only down side was that there was a tabla workshop going on next door and hearing the tabla made me really wish I was in that workshop as well!

Final workshop of the weekend was with Yasmina and the band. I was really flagging at this point and probably didn't get much out of this workshop dance wise, but it was still very worthwhile. Yasmina was full of information about the joys and responsibilities of dancing with an orchestra in Cairo. I love getting this insider information, and when I was tired I could just sit down and let the music wash over me and enjoy watching Yasmina and the other participants dancing.

And then it was all over, but what an absolutely magical weekend it was. I can't believe that the weekend didn't get the support that I think it deserved. I hope that if Kay finds herself in the financial situation that she is able to give us another festival like this people flock to it. It was a truly unique event and I feel privileged to have attended.

Thanks for the review of the weekend, I bet your performance was fabulous as always!!

I too was at the Farha Festival, it was such an amazing experience.
The opportunity to spend an entire weekend taking workshops and performing with a live Egyptian Band was not to be missed.
Kay Taylor and her helpers did a marvelous job throughout the weekend, they were very welcoming and helpful.

Highlights for me were;
Yasmina's "Flying Solo" w/s - gave us the opportunity to practice our solo's with the band for that nights show. It was interesting to hear how the band played everyone's favourite songs/pieces. Plus watching Yasmina interacting with the band, making sure that everyone was happy with their solo's.

Kay's workshop "Dancing with a singer" w/s - a whole new experience for me, I have danced with live bands before but a singer was completely new. Kay chose one song to concentrate on (Safaa and Kay translated the song phrase by phrase) gradually Kay encouraged each of us to dance next to Safaa.

The Show - was incredible. Thankfully I was on in the first half so I could watch the majority of the performances. I had a brilliant time, I loved every single second, as soon as I had finished I wanted to go back out again. Everyone was fantastic and clearly enjoyed performing with the band I am really looking forward to the DVD.

The Band - They worked so hard over the weekend, performing on Friday and Saturday evening, as well as within the workshops. It was a nice surprise to see Hillary Thacker as a guest Duf player for the band too.

Fingers crossed Kay will organise another weekend like this, it was so much fun and hard work:-D