Thread: Raqs B. . .

ah, I KNEW you bought a costume! The moment I read your two posts on the swapboard ..g.: Too bad about the weather and the sleeping accomodations, it sounds like the workshops were a big hit.

I had a fabo time. Loved meeting Liz, Mandy and everyone.

Poor BDSS's all had the Moroccan flu. Jilina tld me that she couldn't even talk during her workshop Friday! Adore just looked at me and said, We're all so sick.

But it didn't show in either the wrkshops or the show! everyone was incredibly impressed! The three girls I hooked up with on the train there were completely blown away by the weekend.

I was taking classes fom the UK teacers - Jacqui Jamal, khalad, Anne White (who is a doll!) Afra and Caroline Afifi. alot of beledi and Shaabi (which seem to be the prevailing styles inthe UK) Afra's Wings workshop was great!

I do have to say, though, that I may have been a bad influence in a few f the workshops. A couple of hte instructors said, things such as "We'll drag you Brits into the 21st Centrury!" and "Stop daning so very British" with a wink and nod towards me! Eeek!

Another Eek was my performance. It went fine. I danced to a piece by Azam Ali and Vas. Wore a Costless coin bedlah with a lavendar3 panel skirt and veil (Jes. the skirt was madefrom 2 saris. I'll get you phtos.) It was a very emotive piece. I was being self indulgent. Then I looked up in the balcony and saw Jil and Miles! EEEK!!!! Jilina later complimented me on my music choice. . . Should I be worried about my dancing?

Sunday I was so sore I couldn't do my first workshop. I sat in back and stretched. Completely my fault. I had taken 3 workshops and performed. Danced my backsire off Friday night after the show (Tamra Henna cornered me on the dance floor!) then went to the show, slept in three different beds in 4 days, drug bags through airports, subway and train stations. Why would I ever hurt? I don't need pain kilers, muscle relaxants and a hot shower! Bah! That teaches me to put aside my arrogance and my laziness and take care of myself!

I stayed in a B&B called the Feathers. It was cheap, clean and close to the venue. And had an ensuite bathroom. Those were the upside. The down were that the room was small, my mttress was a bit lumpy and there was no view. But I was barely there, so overall, not a big deal.

the Winter Gardens was overal functional. It is a faded beauty, an elderly Grand Dame in a '50's Chanel Suit. Still somewhat fashionable but a little frayed at the edges.

I most likely wont' be able to come next year (although the girls from the train have asked) as Justin is graduating the next wekend and there will be much to do in relation to his graduation and regarding our relocation.

{{{HUGS}}}

Another Eek was my performance. It went fine. I danced to a piece by Azam Ali and Vas. Wore a Costless coin bedlah with a lavendar3 panel skirt and veil (Jes. the skirt was madefrom 2 saris. I'll get you phtos.) It was a very emotive piece. I was being self indulgent. Then I looked up in the balcony and saw Jil and Miles! EEEK!!!! Jilina later complimented me on my music choice. . . Should I be worried about my dancing?

I hardly think so..it was beautiful..so very moving and everyone around me was loving it!
This is one stylish lady folks. Shame you never came back with that bottle to my lumpy futon..
mind you , we never got up to get back early enough for workshops. Maybe it was something to do with drinking that Guniness and doing a cyber-sha'abi fusion on the carpet with Michelle

I'll be hitting that futon as soon as I can Liz!

I can't sumpt up for the lovely Turkish jobbie, cash flow hell at the moment. I'm going to have to resort updating old ones for now until we get through the summer. Gawd it is sooo gorgeous - haven't looked at the swap meet board (daren't) but if you have that one up, then girls, go for it. I've seen it in the flesh and it's luvverly.

It was just as well I was only at Raks B for the Friday as I would have ended up crying what with not beign flush enough for a new costume. Business with the photos and performance was OK but not incredible, but we will improve the game for next year. We covered our costs, but that's all. Tough going for Barry and Alex doing those very long hours with no breaks but I think they enjoyed it and Barry now knows it all about the dance, apparently!! His faves of the whole weekend were a tribal trio (probably the ones you mentioned above) - Uzume is it? From Holland? Anyway he was blown away.

The photos will all be uploaded onto our website, which is ikonography dot net, over the next 24 hrs hopefully - need a lotta bandwidth for that lot and I have the wedding I did on Saturday to upload first. So while you lot were watching gorgeous fabulous dancers do their stuff at the Superstars Ball I was trying to get great shots of inebriated wedding guests. Did it though! Despite the rain! Thank god we weren't all flooded out or had jeeps rammed into the side of the building eh?

Kathy x

hurrah, the Dutchies made a good impression! I'll pass the compliment to them.

Originally Posted by lizajuk

Another Eek was my performance. It went fine. I danced to a piece by Azam Ali and Vas. Wore a Costless coin bedlah with a lavendar3 panel skirt and veil (Jes. the skirt was madefrom 2 saris. I'll get you phtos.) It was a very emotive piece. I was being self indulgent. Then I looked up in the balcony and saw Jil and Miles! EEEK!!!! Jilina later complimented me on my music choice. . . Should I be worried about my dancing?

I hardly think so..it was beautiful..so very moving and everyone around me was loving it!

Yes I agree - your solo was beautiful!

Originally Posted by mekyria

hurrah, the Dutchies made a good impression! I'll pass the compliment to them.

OK just as well I'm not the jealous type! Just walked into his office and there he is watching them on youtube. Says it's because he needed to get the spelling of their name right.

Seriously, can't wait until I get a spare minute to watch some footage of them myself. I have to say that the tribalists do tend to photograph very well - their costume to skin contrast is high, which is good in that sort of lighting, and they tend to move more slowly so the shutter speed can be slow to let lotsa light in.

The lovely Barry stayed up very late for you all last night and now all the pictures have been uploaded to the gallery. The website is www dot ikonography dot net. Go to the clients galleries menu tab, then type in "raqsb" and hit enter. The gallery should pop up in a new window.

Please please bear in mind that the number of pictures of each dancer bear absolutely no relation to what Barry thought of the performance. It is all purely down to other things that he had to do, and the way we had to change our approach to the whole job as the event wore on - it was our first time at Raqs B and next year it will be a hoe different story. On Friday we had the studio set up and then (duh!) realised that most of you wouldn't be in full costume until the evening and the part of the building we were situated closed at 6pm. So on Saturday Barry switched to shooting on the fly, but had workshops to photograph and other stuff to do, so he couldn't concentrate on the performances (that was the video guy, Alex's responsibility). There are more photos from Sunday than Saturday as Barry was more able to concentrate on the stage work than the rest of the event. We're very lucky that he and Alex were able to be there on the Saturday evening, that wasn't part of the original plan.

Hope you like them, any queries please email Barry directly at barry at ikonography dot net.

Tra for now x

My feet are still throbbing. I never sat down the whole event. We finally got out of there at around 9pm. Try doing that whole weekend, teaching, performing and loading up a huge bazaar into two vans. I slept for 10 hours.

If anyone is on tribe.net bellydanceuk..you might be interested in some of the comments..mmmmmm..c:: ,r:;

Looks like people were unhappy with their personal comfort (hotel and food) and pretty satisfied with the dancing. I'm surprised that many seem to love the Bellynesian - interesting. Oh and it reads as though you've got a full on ATS thing going on in the UK.

Originally Posted by danidance

Looks like people were unhappy with their personal comfort (hotel and food) and pretty satisfied with the dancing. I'm surprised that many seem to love the Bellynesian - interesting. Oh and it reads as though you've got a full on ATS thing going on in the UK.

Very little...we have a lot of fusion especially "Rachel Brice" wannabees and funky fusion.

oops...actually I was thinking RB but it came out ATS - I get the tribal and tribalish mixed up.

Originally Posted by lizajuk

Very little...we have a lot of fusion especially "Rachel Brice" wannabees and funky fusion.

There was one woman at the Hafla who did fusion who I had difficulty watching. As Carolynn says so well, if you are going to fuse, be good at what you are fusing.

The other complaint I had was the traders. Now there were some which were great - Khais and Mandy's things were beautiful and the pricing was fair. There were a few who were selling at astronomical prices - Sim or Sim knock offs for the equivalent of $1,300, or the Cairo Airport specials which were selling for about $190 each! The girls I met up with - Selma, Sophia and Christabel - were discouraged from buying anything like that and intorduced to Mandy!

Afra, Liz - Thank you for your kind words about my performance. I finally was able to see my DVD on Tuesday. Overall, I am pleased. Now, if my webmistress can get them up on Youtube for me!

{{{HUGS}}}

Originally Posted by tahiradancer

There was one woman at the Hafla who did fusion who I had difficulty watching. As Carolynn says so well, if you are going to fuse, be good at what you are fusing.

The other complaint I had was the traders. Now there were some which were great - Khais and Mandy's things were beautiful and the pricing was fair. There were a few who were selling at astronomical prices - Sim or Sim knock offs for the equivalent of $1,300, or the Cairo Airport specials which were selling for about $190 each! The girls I met up with - Selma, Sophia and Christabel - were discouraged from buying anything like that and intorduced to Mandy!

Afra, Liz - Thank you for your kind words about my performance. I finally was able to see my DVD on Tuesday. Overall, I am pleased. Now, if my webmistress can get them up on Youtube for me!

{{{HUGS}}}

Yes, I agree about some of the things on sale - there were some traders I had never seen before and I was staggered by their prices for what was basically cheap tat! I stick with people I know who price fairly and give good service - Michelle, Kay and Mandy!

You should be pleased with your performance - it was lovely! I am dying to see my open stage DVD because I don't know anyone who saw it. I don't know if Friday night was filmed but if it was I'd love to have a copy even if it was just my number. It's always useful to see what worked and what didn't.

I enjoyed meeting up with lots of people over the weekend - I was nursing an injury so I didn't take any workshops which was a shame but I made some new friends, met lots of Bhuzzers in person and saw some wonderful dancing too.

One thing that really cheered me up was the amount of young talent I saw over the weekend - it bodes well for the future of dance in the UK. As I said to Mr Copeland himself - my only complaint is 'why didn't this all happen 15 years ago when I was young enough and fit enough to keep up!'

Originally Posted by afra14

I don't know if Friday night was filmed but if it was I'd love to have a copy even if it was just my number. It's always useful to see what worked and what didn't.

You looked great. The wings worked really well, considering the lighting was poorly placed. That stage was a nightmare...all that gaffa tape! As soon as anyone stepped out of the lights, they disappeared! Hence, I tootled from side to side in an effort for my diamante to work. I found the stage underfoot really uneven. I'd been asked to stand in at the last moment and had to busk it with the band. From what I saw of the performances everyone did really well, and I enjoyed their work.

Originally Posted by afra14

Yes, I agree about some of the things on sale - there were some traders I had never seen before and I was staggered by their prices for what was basically cheap tat! I stick with people I know who price fairly and give good service - Michelle, Kay and Mandy!

You should be pleased with your performance - it was lovely! I am dying to see my open stage DVD because I don't know anyone who saw it. I don't know if Friday night was filmed but if it was I'd love to have a copy even if it was just my number. It's always useful to see what worked and what didn't.

I enjoyed meeting up with lots of people over the weekend - I was nursing an injury so I didn't take any workshops which was a shame but I made some new friends, met lots of Bhuzzers in person and saw some wonderful dancing too.

One thing that really cheered me up was the amount of young talent I saw over the weekend - it bodes well for the future of dance in the UK. As I said to Mr Copeland himself - my only complaint is 'why didn't this all happen 15 years ago when I was young enough and fit enough to keep up!'

Your fan-dance was beautiful Afra and very very effective and I heard little gasps of surprise when out they flowed. It was very well appreciated and a first I do believe.

I didn't really look at the other bazaars selling cab other than Mandy,Michelle and Kay ( where I bought the beauteous Madam Abla). I do have a bargain Sim now thanks to Bhuzzer Nila so I felt no reason to go near those stalls.I also spent time and money with Irene .I just love the Sharifwear and bought another pair of pants and another gypsy top. They are so good for class yet good enough for performance and to party in.I did go to some tribal bazaars and they seemed sensible enough prices but frankly I feel that tribal is something you build up yourself. I was approached by another teacher who feels herself inspired to "do" tribal and she asked me about the outfit but my answer is anything goes, you can copy the current look or go your own way.

When it comes to tribal, I wish I could have seen some good old fashioned big skirts and bloomers ala FCBD..g.: I am getting a little tired of the tribal look-a-likes. There were some excellent dances but I wish folks would evolve their own costuming or at least vary from the norm.

Originally Posted by lizajuk

Your fan-dance was beautiful Afra and very very effective and I heard little gasps of surprise when out they flowed. It was very well appreciated and a first I do believe.

Oooh thank you for that! It's definitely my favourite piece of fusion music right now, although I'm still addicted to Outi's CD for all my oriental!

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this on Bhuz but I didn't buy a single thing - I can't believe that I had such will power in the face of so many gorgeous sparklies! Mind you it probably had something to do with having hubby in tow!

Originally Posted by kharis_UK

You looked great. The wings worked really well, considering the lighting was poorly placed. That stage was a nightmare...all that gaffa tape! As soon as anyone stepped out of the lights, they disappeared! Hence, I tootled from side to side in an effort for my diamante to work. I found the stage underfoot really uneven. I'd been asked to stand in at the last moment and had to busk it with the band. From what I saw of the performances everyone did really well, and I enjoyed their work.

Thank you! I think the wings gave me an advantage over the rest of you because they were big enough to catch the lights if I stayed far enough back. You made the right choice to stay near the band as it really showed off your bling - that costume is lovely!

Originally Posted by afra14

Oooh thank you for that! It's definitely my favourite piece of fusion music right now, although I'm still addicted to Outi's CD for all my oriental!

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this on Bhuz but I didn't buy a single thing - I can't believe that I had such will power in the face of so many gorgeous sparklies! Mind you it probably had something to do with having hubby in tow!

All I bought was the very wrinkled purple veil I used Saturday!

And your Wings performance was great! I was surrounded by baby dancers and they were alll, I didn't know you could do that! ..g.:

Very impressed!

{{{HUGS}}}