Theatres and Tents

Saturday 9th October was a hafla in Peebles organised by Borders Arabic Dance. They were celebrating a visit from Bellydance Superstar Samantha Emmanuel, who was teaching and performing. So there was a quality line-up for the hafla!

I admit my heart sank a little when I saw the programme featuring 25 - count 'em, 25! - performances. Ah well, at least the Eastgate Theatre has comfy seats! But the evening flew by - the dances were well-programmed to accentuate the variety of groups and soloists, tribal and oriental and everything in between. It was a really enjoyable night.

The Helwa Hurdies performed their latest routine, featuring veils and solos. We only started working on it 5 weeks ago, and I feel it was their best performance so far - what a great group of dancers they are!

The Hurdies also helped me out with the balady tableau I was performing - coming on-stage with me to act as my girlfriends, encouraging me to dance and cheering me on. Although I'd planned it for 'authenticity' and to give my dance more of a balady feel (balaldy being a style dance that egyptian women might do at a social occasion), it was a real treat to have the girls on stage with me! The Eastgate Theatre has proper stage lighting, so you can't see the audience at all when you're dancing, which I find quite nerve-wracking - so it was brilliant to have five cheerleaders in full view!

I enjoyed a lot of the other performances. Of the dances I didn't like so much, I really appreciated their technical merits and the standard of the dance! I liked watching Kate, who learned bellydance with Lorne McCall at the same time as I did (although Kate was in the improvers when I was a beginner!) Kate did a lovely traditional balady piece which I really liked. Celia and Cat did an amazing disco number with isis wings, which lit up the whole theatre, with the shimmering wings and the joyful dancing!

It seems like it's either feast or famine with performing, and the next day, we were dancing again at the East Lothian Multi Cultural Day at Prestongrange Industrial Museum. This time the venue was a marquee, with an audience of about 400! Thankfully it wasn't the coldest day of the year, and the reception was warm too.

The Hurdies gave 2 lovely performances, of their veil routine and their Spanish number

I repeated last night's balady dance (on my own this time, as they girls were off getting changed),

and then Laura, Lucy and I performed our sha'abi routine to El Enab by Saad, which is great fun!

Another busy bellydance weekend then, and now I'm off to have the cold in peace!!