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!!

An Autobiography

Dancebase asked me to provide them with a 100-150 word autobiography for their website (the beginners bellydance class I'm teaching at Dancebase begins on 1st October). After a few hours of sweating  (in front of the computer!) I managed to come up with a leviathan of 85 words. Well, 86 if you count the blog address. Thought I'd share it here... all that work deserves a wider audience.

Elspeth SwishandHips has been teaching modern Egyptian Bellydance since 2006 and is a regular performer on the Scottish Bellydance scene. Her enthusiasm is for the expressive, less-is-more, contemporary Cairo style of Middle Eastern dance, using controlled, precise technique, passion, and a bit of humour. She also loves modern sha’abi, Egyptian pop music, and Saiidi style dance. Elspeth is an encouraging and enthusiastic teacher. In recent years Elspeth has taken workshops with Khaled Mahmoud, Aziza, and Yasmina of Cairo, and studies regularly with Lorna of Cairo.   

If you fancy dancing with me at the Thomas Morton Halls, the term of classes is bookable through Dancebase. It'd be great to see you!

Beautiful dancer and/or beautiful dance

I was at a workshop a few weeks ago where I was lucky enough to be in the company of some very talented dancers, who were also beautiful and curvy.

I say 'lucky', but after 6 hours in front of the mirrors beside beautiful women, I didn't feel very lucky. In comparison, I felt curve-less and scruffy, in need of some new gel bras and a wig. In fact, just a makeover, please.

Later we had a discussion about a famous Cairo dancer, who was a judge in a recent UK bellydance competition, who said that the most important thing about a competitor was that she was 'clean' - that she looked as if she'd been in the beauty salon all day, nails and hair all perfect and no extra body hair. For her, this was more important that presence, costume, and technique.

I know 'the look' is important. I want to see well-presented dancers too. But for me, it's about making something beautiful, not only being something beautiful.

I am not implying for a second that any of the dancers I was with are not great dancers!! They are all brilliant!! It's only really my own insecurities talking, and I guess they're just shouting at me pretty loudly at the moment.

Which is why I thought I'd share with you a photo of myself that I like. Mainly to cheer myself up. Thanks to the smashing Kelly Archibald at Kalidescope Studios for taking it.