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Hello dear dancin’ readers! I really don’t know what time zone I’m in… and it’s been that way since early June, when I embarked upon The Royal European Tour. In the space of just over three weeks, I taught fifteen workshops and did seven shows in Portugal and all over the UK!
First stop: Lisbon. My sponsor Ana Chora whisked me off to Setubal, a lovely port village outside of Lisbon. Not only is Ana incredibly intelligent - she’s working on her PhD thesis in Arthurian Legends and published a definitive book on Sir Lancelot- she’s a great dancer and event promoter-before I arrived, she had just sponsored Aziza. She also took me to see some of the castles and monuments that literally litter Portugal. We visited Pousada San Phillippe and Palmela Pousada, both ancient mountaintop forts with sweeping views of the countryside, and the San Jeronimo Monastery’s incredible Iberian/Moorish architecture. Then it was show time!
 Telma Nurr in Lisbon
"Orientalesque" was held at Lisbon’s Auditorio do IPJ, a state-of-the-art theater in a youth center. Along with performances by Ana and myself, the show featured performances by top Portuguese "danca orientale" performers, including cabaret by Nur Amar and Telma Nurr, Tribal-inspired duo Mayr Kadif and Gothic dancer Agata.
 Princess and Agata
Though the oriental dance "scene" is still developing in Portugal, the dancers who performed as well as those attending my classes were very well trained in both Egyptian and Turkish style cabaret. I spent the weekend teaching oriental dance as well as Portugal’s first burlesque workshop…though the gals started off a little shy, by the end of the class, they were vamping up a storm and the floor of the studio was covered in feathers- and the windows of the studio were packed with curious on-lookers and gym-rats!
Then it was off to the UK, and the pastoral Northamptonshire countryside. My hostesses Lynne "Fulya" Chapman and
her sister Julie are dancers, show promoters, and vendors –check out theirsite: www.kookiekaftan.co.uk. With eleven years of dance experience, Lynne is also a writer for the UK belly dance publication Mosaic www.mosaicdance.org and somehow finds the time to teach many classes a week. We met last year when I taught at the Majma Festival www.majmadance.org.uk in Glastonbury, and this year, she sponsored four of my workshops, the first of which was held in The Church of The Holy Sepulchre, which was built in 1100 AD! Lynne also hosted my first English performance of this year, which was groundbreaking as it was the UK’s very first belly dance/burlesque hybrid show at Northampton’s Black Cat Jazz Club. I am proud to say it sold out almost immediately after it was announced! The line of glamorously dressed patrons wound around the block, and all had a great time. Burlesque is becoming huge in the UK, and many belly dancers, both cabaret and Tribal are seriously interested in the genre. In the UK, possibly because of Great Britain’s long-time love of music-hall, variety and vaudeville-style entertainment, there is no "stigma" attached to burlesque, and everyone just seems to want to have a great time whether learning, watching or performing.
My next week was spent with my sponsor Heike Humphreys,
who is a tribal, fusion and cabaret performer based in Southampton. She is a member of WADA, Wessex Arabic Dance Association, and leader of the troupe Daughters Of Lilith. Heike’s home, which she shares with two cats, a snake and four pet chinchillas (including a pair named Rachel Brice and Issam- what an honor!) Is on Southampton’s waterfront, just around the corner from the gorgeous, painstakingly restored Southwestern House Hotel, which is where the crew and passengers of the Titanic stayed just before embarking on their fateful voyage. The rest of Southampton is amazing too- much of the city is surrounded by medieval stonewalls called "The Arcades" and is full of history and green parks.
Heike set up a string of teaching and performance dates for me, including a show at another ancient cathedral, featuring many performers, vendors and live Arabic percussion courtesy of the legendary Lebanese musician John Sleiman ( www.nikkibellydance.co.uk) who had stitches in his right hand, but still sounded amazing. The show featured everything from fusion, cabaret and tribal troupes as well as soloists. We also did an event at a working livestock market in Salisbury! Talk about crazy venues- the workshops and hafla were housed in a beautiful, parquet-floored conference room, but I bonded backstage with Rachel Bennett posing for silly pictures in front of the cattle pens. Rachel is a teacher and performer with lovely stage presence and soft Egyptian flair.
 Rachel & Princess
I then departed to Leicester, where I was a special guest performer at Gothla UK, the country’s first Gothic belly dance festival, held at the multi-story Quebec Club. Performers came from all over Great Britain, as well as from Germany, Belgium and Finland.
Leicester was taken over by dark dancers sweeping through the streets in velvet capes and rainbow dreads. Newcastle’s biggest belly dance mascot Paul was on hand to give festival participants joyrides around Leicester in his tricked out Voxhaul hearse…and he scared the hell out of the Days Inn desk clerks by showing up for his chauffer duties in a dapper top-hat, black lace bustier, fishnet stockings and a pink tutu!
The featured instructor/performers were all American, our very own Sashi,
 Sashi, Princess, Ariellah
Ariellah, and the "goth-mutha" herself, Tempest. Though those poor gals all just arrived in the UK that morning, and were wiped out from jet lag as well as a hair-raising journey through the Midlands in a raging thunderstorm, they all rose to the occasion spectacularly! The show itself featured a variety of dancing; including English ATS pioneers Khalgani
 Khalgani
(who performed as devil girls complete with horns and pitchforks) Raqs Macabre- a trio of quaking zombies attired in blood-soaked hospital scrubs, and Heike doing "The Wings Of Dracula" to Nine Inch Nails! Ariellah turned in such a great performance that night, she even converted onlookers… an elderly gent who accidentally wandered into Gothla, catching her show and said to me in a hoarse, tipsy slur:
" …’Ere…I’m no Goth, see? But this gal, she’s BLEEDIN’ GORGEOUS!"
The American gals’. workshops, ranging from Yoga drills to "dark presence" were all sold out, and this event will definitely be repeated next year! For info, visit www.gothla.co.uk.
My next workshops in South London- Croyden to be exact- were a lot less "spooky" but wonderfully well organized by Charlotte Desorgher www.bellydanceclasses.co.uk.
I was having such a blast in the UK that I actually started crying on my way to Heathrow Airport… but as "The Terminator" said, "I WILL BE BACK!" I am already booked for Josephine Wise’s 2008 International Belly Dance Congress (www.bellydancecongress.com) and will be doing a short UK tour in April ’08 as well.
Two days after I arrived back in the States, I began traveling again… but I will save the details for next time!
Happy dancing,
Princess Farhana
www.princessfarhana.com
Www.MySpace.com/pleasant_princessfarhana
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