This blog is likely to be a long one! I returned from my 10 day trip to San Francisco on Friday with very mixed feelings. I’ve come home feeling inspired, reassured and motivated to work harder on my dancing. However this is somewhat overwhelmed by the sadness of having to leave SF at all.

The first few days we were there we devoted to sightseeing – the bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz – you know the drill. SF is such an amazing place. It may not be the most visually beautiful like Rome or Amsterdam, but there is certainly something about it that got our hearts racing.

On the eve of SF Mecca I attended Jamila Salimpour’s masterclass – we wore zills for 2 hours straight…my fingers have never looked so blue! I learned so much from this workshop – how they dance with finger cymbals in the Salimpour format, the different rhythms they use and some steps from the Salimpour format that I didn’t already know. It was a brilliant start to the immersion – hard work, challenging and exhausting! Particularly when you’re still jetlagged and your brain’s not ready to function at a high level!

Day 1 of SF Mecca involved Yoga with Deb Rubin, ATS with Carolena and Tribal Fusion with Jill Parker. Both dance classes reminded me why I love Tribal! Elbows up! I love it. The Fat Chance stuff is just so much fun to dance and Carolena’s an excellent teacher – I can’t wait for General Skills in March. And Jill, oh my God, she is so ooey gooey! I absolutely love her style and her teaching was superb. If I’d been in SF longer I would have definitely gone to her classes as well. After that we went out for a delicious dinner with Manca at a restaurant called Yamo in the Mission – this place was hilarious to me. It was almost literally a corridor.

The previous day I had been for a fitting of my costume with Medina Maitreya at her studio. As she’d needed to make some alterations to the fitting we agreed I’d go and pick up the costume from an art show she was doing in Oakland, on the evening of day 1, called Conception. Wow, the costume looked amazing, it was even more beautiful than I had imagined. About four months ago I had sent Medina a sketch of what I wanted – something she told me no one had ever done before (I always draw what I want first when I make costumes so that seemed pretty surprising for me!), she had produced the sketch down to the last stripe! It was amazing!! Conception was a pretty cool art show. Medina displayed some of her costumes and we got to see all sorts of treasures from Burning Man – like a snail car that shoots fire. Yes…fire!

The following day we headed to the beautiful Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park, what a stunningly gorgeous place! Then I headed off for workshops with Deb and Kami Liddle. Deb’s workshop was all about conveying decadence in your dancing and we learned some cute combos to go with it. Kami’s workshop was one I had actually done before at Raqs Britannia, but she had changed the choreography so much that it felt mostly like a different workshop anyway, and it was fun!

That evening was the SF Mecca Revue. We were sat on the very front row and the performances were incredible. Fat Chance Belly Dance, oh my gosh, so much joy and fun in their dancing; Jill Parker’s energy and beauty made me cry, and Zoe Jakes’ performance also made me cry. So beautiful and touching – I could see a lot of audience members wiping their eyes during her performance! There were also marvellous performances from Deb, Kami, Cera Byer, L’Anonyme Collective and Sister Kate. And it wasn’t just the bellydancing which was impressive – Tobias of the Yard Dogs Road Show was present swallowing sword, chair legs and balloons.... he was so funny! And Kerri Kresinski wowed us all with her aerialist act, while Calamity Foo had us in stitches with her ‘clownge’ act. Then there was partying to be done with music from MWE and Rupa & The April Fishes, complete with more dancing from Zoe, Deb, Jill and Tobias’s magic tricks!

Day 3 was a fun Musicality/Drum Solo workshop with Zoe and Faisal – we learned the most common rhythms drummers tend to use in a drum solo and Zoe taught us how to interpret them. Then we all got in a big circle and each had a chance to interact with Faisal as he played. One by one we had to stand next him and dance to whatever he threw at us – pretty hard when you don’t know what’s coming! Faisal’s a great drummer and a lovely person too – they were both very encouraging of our dancing. That morning we had met my fiance’s old pen friend from when he was a teenager for the first time, and we went to the famous Dottie’s for breakfast, which had been recommended on the Mecca website by Rachel Brice – though she did say not to go on Sundays (which we did!). Dottie’s had amazing pancakes made with cinnamon and ginger, the best I’ve ever tasted, which made the 50 minute queue to get in worth it. However, had I known they were the size of UFO’s I may have just ordered one instead of two. It’s a wonder I managed to dance at all after that incredible feast.

After Zoe and Faisal’s awesome workshop, it was off to the SF Mecca Bazaar, where I indulged in some very expensive shopping! I got myself some Sam Pants – finally – and a waistcoat made by Medina as previously modelled by Kami! It will go perfectly with my black and white striped costume. Actually, Dan bought me that so I probably could have splurged a little more. There were some amazing goodies by FoolProof and Kathleen Crowley that I would have loved but were just a little out of my price range right now. Maybe one day... no.... DEFINTELY one day! It is nice to feel that I have made a contribution to supporting the community of artists that create these wonderful goodies for us dancers. Lee’s creations in particular look like little works of art worthy of being hung in a gallery or something – they create this stuff and put in all the hard work of not only making them but also sourcing the materials for them, all for us. I’m delighted to have helped somewhat in supporting them and will tale great pleasure in wearing the stuff.

I had some of the most bizarre and interesting experiences in SF – seeing a dog run down the street with a traffic cone in its mouth, looking at my fiance’s photo of a woman walking a television like it was a dog; and some more pleasurable experiences such as sitting around the same table for dinner as many of the dancers and people I admire. Best of all was probably getting ready to perform in the bathroom of a woman I’d just met (it’s ok, she was a friend of Medina’s, I didn’t just walk into a random woman’s bathroom! Thanks Rachel!) All these things are acceptable in SF!!

So it was onward to the Decompression night, the evening of performances by SF Mecca students at Amnesia bar, where most of the dancers of SF have graced the stage at some point in their careers. I have to say it was pretty damn nerve-wracking! I was grateful to have Medina’s wise words before taking to the stage, which quelled my nerves a little. I doubt anybody could not feel nervous when they could clearly see Zoe Jakes and Deb Rubin watching from the back of the room. And then there was Manca – I didn’t want to screw up in front of the lovely lady I’m sponsoring next year!

Many of you will know how much I admire Kami Liddle, and I was grateful that I couldn’t see her while I was dancing – I knew she was there in the audience but I couldn’t see her so I wasn’t likely to throw up my dinner or trip on the carpet on the stage! That is until the very end – I spotted her sitting right at the front of the stage – thankfully I managed to stay upright. To be fair, my nerves were unjustified. All these ladies are so supportive, as Medina told me, and were the best audience I could have danced for. Right after my performance Kami came and gave me a huge hug, followed by Medina, and that made me feel really good. And wearing my beautiful custom costume I felt like a superstar.

I saw some pretty damn good performances that night too. Manca is just such a beautiful dancer, I can’t wait to have the UK see her perform in April, and Ashley Lopez was awesomely cheeky, among other beautiful performers. So many talented ladies and gents from all over the world. I can’t say I was overly satisfied with my performance, but it is very rare that I am! At least I got some nice feedback from people, and from some who I know wouldn’t say good things unless they meant them.

The only problems with Amnesia were the splinters I got from the stage and the nail that we all trod on while dancing – but as Deb keeps telling me, that is an ‘authentic’ SF experience!! After the high of performing, listening to Zoe’s stories about Lady Gaga and taking lots of silly faced group shots, we were treated to music from the Paper Dolls and Brass Menazeri.

The next day it was back to workshops. The location moved to the legendary Fat Chance Belly Dance studio, and I started each of the next few days with Deb’s yoga class. It felt good to do yoga every day. I’m not used to it – my practice of yoga is occasional at best. I can never seem to find the motivation to practice yoga – usually I do it intently for a week before a performance, and only if I need it for a particular move. I feel more motivated to work with yoga on a more regular basis now, and I understand what I’m missing by not doing it regularly.

Day 4 consisted of Intention and Theatricality with Dena Martinez and Zoe. Dena is a professional actress and we spent all morning playing games! We made ‘inappropriate’ machines, made weird noises, and generally played about! And the fun didn’t stop after Dena left, since Zoe had us doing even more silly things, my favourite of which was pretending to be an alien who had given a fellow alien the wrong instructions about saving the home planet! All this may sound a bit strange... but it was incredibly useful. The whole point was to think about how we express ourselves in dance without using our voices – dancing with intention and being theatrical in our dance. I’d woken up that day with a lot of pain in my foot where the splinter had embedded into the ball of my left foot. Having spent an hour in the morning trying, without success, to remove the damn thing, Deb operated on me during the break armed with tweezers! There really is nothing more surreal than sitting in the Fat Chance studio having Deb Rubin remove a splinter from your foot. Later we had stage make up lesson with Medina, who used Kami as her model for achieving the smokey eye look which is wearable on stage. She looked fab! Hopefully I can recreate the look myself! After that a whole bunch of us went for some fantastic Mexican food on Valencia – highly recommended by Medina so we could experience true Mexican food as opposed to the Chiquitos we’re used to!

Day 5 was my personal favourite day of the whole week. By that time I didn’t think I could have more new stuff thrown at me. I’d learned so many new things to take home and practice by this time that I was beyond satisfied with my experience. Then I met Cera Byer. Cera made quite a few of us cry – in a good way. When I think of her first workshop I still fill up with tears. And all it took were four small words – ‘I am a dancer’. It is surprisingly hard to look yourself in the eye and say that when you criticise yourself so much. I learned so much from Cera about choreography, staging and story and emotion. Wow. She was so good that I would love to bring her to the UK one day so you all have the opportunity to experience her brilliance. Everything she taught has inspired me and my next choreography will be dedicated to her since she is the reason it will exist.

The afternoon of Day 5 was devoted to creative process for creating a look, costuming, developing ideas and so forth, and we were mentored through activities for being creative by Lee Kobus of FoolProof – she makes the most incredible pieces of costuming. Sadly they are also very expensive and so I was not able to buy a piece, but they are rightfully expensive with the beautiful materials, components and not least the time she must spend on creating them. A Mecca participant bought the beautiful green skirt I had been drooling over for two days. I can’t say I wasn’t envious that she was the new owner of the skirt, but when she said that she’d tried it and it fit her perfectly I realised it was definitely not made for me, since she was tiny! I would have probably just about fit one of my thighs. ;)

Tuesday night we went to see Wicked at the Orpheum Theatre. This is such an amazing musical!! I’ve never seen anything like it, and I spotted a few of the staging tricks that Cera had told us about that day, so they must be true! I’m not a huge musicals fan, but this was simply divine – one I would recommend to everyone. We had been to a restaurant called Blue for the best Mac & Cheese I have tasted in a while (a little indulgent and artery clogging perhaps but what’s the harm once in a while?). This was probably the perfect day of the holiday.

Day 6 was a sad day. Last day of the workshops and last full day we were in SF. Workshops of day 6 were Kami Liddle’s Finishing Touches, where we learned a new choreography and how to add entrances and create choreographies. Then Deb’s Dance Therapeutics – another highly useful workshop about activities to save your bellydance body. Certainly a load of exercises I will be doing from now on. Then it was time to say goodbye. We exchanged small gifts – little trinkets like shells or beads in an attempt to spread the love of dance all over the world. I got something that I think was a bindi! At least, that’s what I’m gonna use it for. We went around the circle stating our intention for having come to Mecca and what we felt we gained from it, and anything else we wanted to add. I think we all got a bit emotional – there was a fair bit of crying, particularly when it dawned on me that I may never see a lot of my new friends again. It’s so sad to form new friendships and then just leave. Sure, there’s the internet, but it’s not the same is it? Girls and guys attended from all over the world – UK (me!), Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Canada and all over the USA (I think that covers everyone!) – tribal is a truly global phenomena now and it keeps growing all the time and that’s really exciting!

Those of us that were left after the closing circle went for dinner at this Mexican-cum-Irish Tapas bar – yes I know how weird that sounds. It was hard saying goodbye. We didn;t eat too much since we were still tourists and wanted to go to the Stinking Rose garlic restaurant. Wow – we had garlic ICE CREAM. I’d like to say I enjoyed it but I still haven’t figured out if I liked it or not!

My poor fiancé spent the majority of our holiday by himself, wandering the streets of SF armed with his camera. I cannot believe what a supportive partner I have, and I am so lucky that he makes the journey with me to these events then spends most of the time on his own. I always feel guilty for leaving him while I dance, but I’m certain that if he didn’t come with me I wouldn’t go at all. I’d miss him way too much and honestly I would have felt a little frightened being in a big city like SF by myself – especially in Mission where most of Mecca was located. I can’t say it felt like the safest neighbourhood to me.

We left San Francisco the next morning with a heavy heart. We had fallen in love with this city, despite some of its shortcomings (of which every city has them) and we both resented going home. I’d enjoyed the dancing so much, I wish I could do 5 hours plus of dancing every day all the time! And the city just has something about it – the different cultures and neighbourhoods, the food, the activities, the people. It is, in short, awesome! As we waited at the airport I felt really depressed to be leaving all the possibility that SF held behind. I was in a state of mourning for the experience I was leaving behind. I’ve come home completely re-inspired and I can honestly say that this will not only change my dancing, it has also inexplicably changed my life. I can’t quite put in to words how good this whole thing has been for me.

I hope to return to SF some day. In the meantime, I’ve learned so much and I’m going to take the time now to devote to my dancing in a way I haven’t felt motivated to before – I’m always doing something but it’s never been enough in my view. I’m going to consolidate everything that I have learned this year, pre SF too, and come back with a renewed quality to my dancing – I hope everyone will see how much this has changed me when they next see me perform!

While I was away I found out that both myself as a soloist, and Shikidim have been selected to perform at Birmingham’s Artsfest. What an exciting opportunity for us both. I have lots of exciting performances and workshops coming up – I’m so excited about the future of British bellydance, and I’m so proud to be a part of this growing scene here. This thought helps me to stop being so sad about no longer being in SF! Samantha Emanuel recently said that she was so happy (and I’m paraphrasing here!) to see that the opportunities for training here in the UK are increasing and we no longer have to go abroad for our dancing. I agree – the scene here is growing and it’s awesome – but don’t let that put you off making the journey to SF – it cost me an absolute fortune to do but it was so worth it.

I just want to end my blog by saying a huge thank you to Deb for organising such an amazing event and for being so welcoming to both me and Dan. None of this would have happened without her so I’m forever grateful to her. Also thank you to Medina for making me the most beautiful costume I now own and for taking so much time to do alterations on it. Thank you to Deb, Medina, Kami, Zoe and Manca for being really supportive during the Decompression. Also thanks to Manca for finding us such great food at Yamo! And finally to all the new friends I made at SF Mecca that made the experience so great – especially Monica who was so kind to me the whole time we were there, Adriane for nursing my foot, and Linda for driving us home after Jamila’s class. You guys all rock!

Outside the Fat Chance Belly Dance Studio

 Being ladylike in the way only bellydancers can be... 

Wow! That’s all I have to say about my experience of Paris!

 Last Friday we made our way to Birmingham International Airport, slightly worried we were going to miss the plane since we both had to head off straight after work to catch a 5:40pm flight. We had checked in online but I was concerned about getting through security in good time – a worry I needn’t have had since our plane was delayed by almost two hours!! At this point I began to worry more – the delay was due to bad weather – what if they cancelled the flight altogether? Was our trip to Paris doomed like the last one?

 Well, no it wasn’t. We made it (eventually) after flying in this minute plane that they had brought in from Scotland – it had propellers – I didn’t even realise they used planes like that to transport people! After a good long sleep it was off to my first Rachel workshop of the weekend at the Amana studio. Rachel covered slow dancing and we learned a neat combination to a Swedish Wedding March. Standing next to Rachel in class was a very surreal feeling – to be inches away from this iconic dancer was awesome – not like the packed classes I shared with her at Raqs Britannia three years ago. Amana had kept numbers down and there was no tripping or accidental hitting involved this weekend! It was super hot in the studio and I’d consumed nearly all my water before class even started. When the four hour workshop was over I looked like I’d just stepped out of the shower! Even my hair was soaking wet. I thought I’d experienced sweat in Leyla Jouvana’s class but my hair wasn’t wet in hers! Though the studio itself was 27 degrees so that probably had a lot to do with it!

After the workshop was over, I met my boyfriend who had been wandering the streets of Paris armed with his camera, and we returned to the hotel to get me ready for the show. The show was at 8:30pm so I had loads of time, but we were doing a tech rehearsal at 5 and Amana suggested I should come with at least hair and makeup done in case I wasn’t able to get to a mirror. So I went and showered the sweat from my hair and followed my usual routine of makeup application and hair twisting whilst rehydrating with about a dozen glasses of water! I opted for a spit curl on my right cheek which turned out to be the best I’d ever done, and my eyelashes stuck first time – this is a rarity!

I headed off to the theatre Studio Raspail, leaving Dan to once again pound the streets of Paris. The tech rehearsal involved a great deal of waiting around – turned out I would have had loads of time to get myself ready backstage as I watched other performers arriving bare faced and transforming themselves in front of the mirrors. Commands were being flung around in French and I had no idea what was going on half of the time – and worst of all it was HOT! I sweat my make up off several times and had to keep reapplying it. During the tech rehearsal we discovered that there had been a mix up with the venue – it was originally thought that we would be able to watch Rachel dance, and Amana had reserved the balcony seats for the performers to watch after their performance. Unfortunately it turned out that the only way to get to these seats was to walk across the stage – not ideal when you have someone dancing on it! So sadly we all had to wait backstage in the sweltering heat AND miss Rachel performing (as well as the other dancers in the bill that I wanted to see). Sadly this is a fact of performing sometimes. In some ways I wish I had not been performing but to have passed up the opportunity I think I would have regretted it.

I think my performance went well. I got a few zaghareets throughout and as I have now know this choreography quite well I can really enjoy it when I perform it. Being on stage is a very strange experience. I’ve danced on stage at Raqs Britannia and Madame Jojo’s but you can still see everyone in the room at those places. It’s been about 8 years since I was last on a stage and couldn’t see anyone past row 1 in the audience, back when I used to perform modern dance with the stage school I attended. I’d forgotten what it was like and it took me by surprise when I turned around on stage (I start my choreography facing the back in this dance) to see mostly blackness. By the time it came for me to leave the stage I didn’t want to move. I had enjoyed this experience so much!

Backstage we waited as performer after performer graced the stage and returned to the dressing room. After Rachel’s final dance we all made our way on stage for the finale. This was the most surreal feeling – to be standing inches away from Rachel on the same stage…I couldn’t help but grin like a buffoon! Never did I think when I first started going to Karen’s classes four years ago, that I would be one day standing on the same stage as Rachel, performing in the same show. I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with pride at this achievement. I can’t put into words the feelings or the thoughts that ran through my mind while standing there, but perhaps the picture below will tell you just as much. Amana stopped me backstage before I left to talk to me about how she had enjoyed my performance, and that I reminded her a little of Mardi. It’s not the first time it’s been said to me but I never tire of hearing it! She was surprised that I had not yet studied with Mardi, but told me that I must (and believe me I’m trying to find an opportunity where I will actually get there!).

When I left the theatre I was delighted to see a face from home. Maureen Pemberton had travelled to see the show and I was so happy to see her there. It’s great when people you know have been in the audience, though the French audience was absolutely lovely to dance for – very appreciative and supportive. We went off to get some food since we hadn’t eaten anything substantial since breakfast – 11pm is a ridiculous time to eat!

 Next day we did some sightseeing around the Eiffel Tower area and then set off for Rachel’s workshop. The workshop took us through drilling of foot patterns with hips and upper body movements before moving on to a drum solo choreography which she had performed the previous night. The drum solo was fun, and I’m sad we didn’t have time to learn the whole thing. It’s interesting to see different dancers’ interpretations of a drum solo since they all seem to take a different approach to it. She had us split into groups and perform the part that we had learned to the rest of the class, which was a great opportunity to see everyone’s individual styles shine through.

 I was sad to leave the Amana studio. I had made some lovely new friends from Switzerland, France, Germany and the UK, as well as other areas of Europe. Before I left I went to Rachel to thank her for her workshops. Rachel is really approachable and sweet. She said something about my dancing which will stay with me forever and has instilled more confidence in my abilities (which is something I often lack, whether people see it or not), and reassured me that I should be performing at this stage in my dance journey (as I know some people think you should be a student for much longer before you even think of performing in public). I will never, ever forget what she said to me and I want to thank her for that.

 I exchanged business cards with my new friends and hopefully our dance journeys will overlap again at some point in the future – I’d certainly like them to. After that we did a bit more sightseeing and eating – Hard Rock Café is a must see for is since we are pin collectors, but I was sad to see that my favourite place in Paris – Sacre Coeur – was packed full of people getting drunk (or already drunk) and I felt really unsafe. We made a quick exit which saddened me as I’d always loved it for being such a beautiful place. But the rest of Paris was very beautiful and I felt very safe everywhere else. We enjoyed a final day of sightseeing before returning home to reflect on this unique experience. I feel really honoured to have been selected to perform there and it is certainly an experience that I will never forget!

The rest of the week involved many dance related activities too – on Tuesday I danced at a hafla organised by Sambelina for her students and had a great time catching up with everyone. Friday was Dawn O’Brien’s African Midsummer fundraising hafla, which I’m delighted to hear she raised a great deal of money for the charity. Lots of awesome performances on Friday, had a really good time there too! And today Shikidim performed at Chelmarsh Village Fete for the fifth year running (my fourth year). I think today was the best Shikidim have ever performed. I had so much fun, the crowd was very receptive to our show and I felt so happy to be dancing with the ladies again. I couldn’t help but have a huge smile on my face the whole time!

My next stop is Gothla UK next weekend. I’m not performing, which will be nice, but will be going for the show with all the star performers, so I'll get to enjoy seeing other people dance, and for a workshop with Princess Farhana (cannot wait!). After that there is more dance related goodness at Sherri Wheatley’s workshops and show in Glasgow – if you are reading and would like more details on this head over to my calendar and click on the Sherri event for links. I’m loving the way this year has been so full on with dancing, but I think after all the events have subsided for the year I’m going to take a little break from performing solo to have a time of reflection on what I need to do to improve and give myself consolidate all that I have learned this year, because I have learned tons and feel like I’m not yet utilising it all.

Well, I may not blog again until I’m in San Francisco – really can’t wait to get there and learn even more!!

Me on stage at the show with (L-R) Cie Salammbo, Floryan, Jiva & Rachel Brice!

Celebrating its 5^th anniversary in style, Raqs Britannia 2010 was the best Raqs so far.

A change of location to Sheffield City Hall was always going to throw up some problems – having been at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens for the past 4 years, I’m sure we’d all forgotten that overwhelming feeling of trying to find rooms in a place you’ve never been to, etc.

There were of course problems associated with the weekend – but nothing that couldn’t be remedied in time for next year. If any of you have seen my participation in the discussions on Facebook, you’ll know my opinions on what these were – better signage needs to be installed to avoid getting lost on the way to classes – I missed the start of a couple of workshops because I was lost in the labyrinth of corridors in the City Hall! Some of the workshop rooms were too small and they were carpeted – not good for the chaines turns we were doing with Sonia! The souk was too spaced out for my liking so I didn’t bother trying to look around the traders’ stalls and Kami Liddle’s classes were so full you could hardly see her let alone move without smacking someone!

Those were the bad things, which as I say can be remedied. One way a discussion turned on Facebook regarding the oversubscriptions of Kami’s classes was to reintroduce TribaLondon. It was obvious from how full the classes were that they cannot cope with the amount of tribal dancers that want to do them. I didn’t even try to count the participants but let’s just say we were being taught on a rather large stage with barely a fore arm’s distance between each other, which resulted in numerous ‘Oh I’m so sorry’ moments for hitting someone or treading on them, and many tripping over water bottles and notebooks (though I admit I was mostly tripping over my own!). If TribaLondon came back I think there would be fewer participants in the class and would allow people the opportunity to take classes that would have otherwise clashed. We also discussed the numerous other reasons we’d like the reappearance of TribaLondon, but perhaps that is for another blog! This is supposed to be about Raqs!

So on to the positive stuff, of which there were tons! I travelled to Sheffield by myself on the train on the Friday morning. This was a far easier journey than to Blackpool. A simple change at Birmingham was all it took and I was well on my way. And I got to have a lie in since my train wasn’t until nearly 11. Nothing like the stressful and long journey that Blackpool entailed – an early morning followed by three changes and freezing my backside off in Preston waiting for the train!

Having taken the scenic route to the city hall (by this I mean I didn’t follow Google’s instructions and found my own way there by asking some friendly locals!), I entered Raqs and got my tickets. I was early. I spent the hour I needed to wait catching up with some friends and meeting with Manca Pavli, whom I am hosting for workshops next year. It was great to finally meet her after months of Facebook correspondence. The hour quickly passed and I made my way to my first workshop – Lyrical Choreography with Kami Liddle. Kami remembered me from previous workshops – I have taken 9 with her now, so it’s hardly surprising – and came over to say hi. She taught us a really fun choreography which interpreted the lyrics of the piece of music she’d chosen without slipping into mime territory. I’ve learned quite a few of Kami’s choreos and I think this one was my favourite so far!

After that it was a quick dash to Samantha Emanuel’s workshop – The Octopus Hypothesis. I got lost on the way to this one. She showed us a video of numerous sea creatures to inspire us and then lead us through an experimental class using imagery and exercises to create the underwater look. Nobody could take themselves seriously curled up in a ball with one limb waving through the air before a clap of Sam’s hands set the limb recoiling back to rejoin the rest of our curled up bodies! I sure hope there were no cameras filming us! She then taught us a short choreography before we had to put our experimentations into practice, partnering up and creating a 16 count addition to the choreography based on our chosen sea creature. I love Sam’s teaching style – I’m so happy to be bringing her to Wolverhampton so everyone else can enjoy her too!

After that I had to run to Leyla Jouvana and Roland’s shimmy workshop. I was late for that one too, since Sam’s class overran and the workshop room was tucked away somewhere – I have no idea how we found it! This was one of my favourite workshops of the weekend. Leyla took us through tons of shimmies – I lost count – and many variations too. My favourite had to be the African choo choo shimmy. Leyla has such an easy going teaching style – very relaxed, very encouraging. There were a couple of us Tribal girls in the class but in my experience she helped me to loosen up a bit and relax into the cabaret style which still taking elements that could be made tribal – she also considered us by stating which moves she thought could work in tribal. Many of the shimmies I’d heard of but never been taught how to do such as the muscle shimmy and vibration shimmy; some of the variations were completely new – such as the move where she made us get onto the floor into an almost yoga like position and use a vibration to shimmy the leg which we were holding up – it’s hard to explain in words but it looked fantastic! Roland meanwhile provided an enjoyable soundtrack – playing his drums not only with his hands but also using pedals with his feet! I sweat like never before in this workshop and I had to leave three times to refill my water bottle!

After an exhausting day, my body felt very much like it usually does by the Sunday of Raqs! My boyfriend met me at the city hall, we went to eat and then back to the city hall for the Friday night show. We were treated to fantastic performances from Tamalyn Dallal, The Uzume, Hilde Canoodt, and the amazing Leyla & Roland – my favourite performance of the night, maybe even of the weekend – and many more. Afterwards it was back to the hotel for a nice hot bath to easy my aching muscles!

It was lucky that my first workshop on the Saturday wasn’t until 11.20 – we intended to get up and have a leisurely breakfast in the hotel – maybe even go and use the swimming pool and sauna facilities. However, despite setting our alarms, we overslept!! We had just enough time for a shower, breakfast and a quick walk to the city hall before my first class of the day – Kami Liddle’s Good Old Fashioned Hip Work. We drilled several hip movements and practiced combos that utilised that. This was the workshop where nobody could move without hitting someone, which was a real shame.

After that it was onwards to Sonia’s Oriental Ballet. I really enjoyed this workshop. Sonia has a really eloquent way of teaching and I feel I can really benefit from the little ballet refresher that I had from her. Having quit ballet over 10 years ago, I really needed some reminders on feet positioning in dance, and this is what I found most useful – that and practicing chaines turns! I even adapted one of the bits of choreography for my open stage performance to incorporate what I’d learned with her. And she’s such a sweetie!

After that I was back for more with Leyla and Roland, this time Multiple Layers. This is where Leyla’s impeccable teaching style shone through – there were a mix of abilities in the class, some complete beginners, some in the middle and some highly advanced.  She took us through adding layered movements, the difference between parallel and simultaneous layers, and had us layering between two movements for beginners and 8 movements for advanced – so it was really inclusive which I loved. I made it to 7, which I was incredibly proud of. I’d always thought of layering as how I’d learned it from Kami’s class on the subject two years ago – one or more upper body movement over hip work and/or travelling (she demonstrated it more eloquently than that but that’s what I tended to stick with having learned how to layer). I’d never thought of hand movements being a layer – seems ridiculous not to now but I concentrated so much on getting something else going with the hips that I hadn’t thought about all the intricacies of the body. She also demonstrated variations for tribal and cabaret which I liked too. This was another very sweaty workshop!

Then it was off to the BDSS show – I always enjoy it, but I thought the tribal contingent needed an extra body – there were only three of them on stage so it looked a bit empty I guess. My favourite pieces were the Bhangra fusion piece the tribal girls did, Petite Jamilla’s veil dance (which did hit a snag with the veils but still looked awesome!), and Kami’s drum solo with Issam. And Bozenka’s solo was captivating – she is such a beautiful dancer! Pieces I wish they would drop: Bellynesian and the Reggaeton – I really, really hate that one! But it’s just personal opinion, I’m sure others love the Bellynesian and Reggaeton! They’re just not my cup of tea.

After the show we chatted with some new friends from Scotland and then onwards to the Tribal after show party – a steal at £10! Performers included Darkstar, Kim MacKoy (her performance was the best I’ve ever seen her), The Uzume, Samantha and Kami – both of whom performed the beautiful choreographies that they had been teaching us. DJ Phil Meadley provided the music and we all danced together afterwards.

That was a very late night and it was ridiculously hot. We had the window of the hotel room wide open and switched on the electric fan. Still I couldn’t sleep. It was so uncomfortable! The previous night I had the best sleep of my life – oversleeping! This night I had about three hours and I had a 9AM class to get to.

Despite my tiredness I soldiered on to my final Kami workshop – powerful and graceful. We learned a choreography that had been performed in the BDSS show the previous night to Mission by Beats Antique – I really struggled with this choreo! Why? Because I dance to this song too! I haven’t finished a choreography completely in three years but this one was almost completely choreo, with about four bars of improv – every time we ran through Kami’s choreo, my body wanted to do my own! It’s so hard to get out of the habit. When I spoke to her later she said she often sat watching dancers perform to songs she had choreographed to thinking to herself ‘No! That’s not what you’re meant to do there!!’ That reassured me a lot!

After that it was on to Sabah’s BDSS Boot camp. Sabah was energetic and excited – lucky her! By this time I was knackered, and despite her obvious enthusiasm and the interesting topics she covered in the workshop, I couldn’t help wishing it was all over. I learned a lot in this class but my heart wasn’t in it – it was my 8^th workshop of the weekend, I was tired, my body ached and I had to get ready for my open stage performance – by this time this was something I wished I hadn’t signed up for!

I had an hour after Sabah’s class to get ready for the stage and miraculously I managed to do it (with the help of my better half)! I performed to two tracks which I mixed – Fratres for Violin & Piano by Beats Antique and Dura by Ratatat. Bex Priest made a comment on my video that my performance reminded her of a John Waterhouse painting – ‘The Lady of Shallot’ – which is exactly the emotion I was trying to convey. I’m so happy that someone could see it because I wasn’t sure I’d portrayed anything much other than concentrating on the few bits I had choreographed and trying to think what to put in the bits that I hadn’t! I then danced with my teacher’s troupe Shikidim, and we did really well despite everyone’s nerves! Will upload that video next week. Have had some really positive feedback on the performances which is awesome – there were some BDSS girls in the audience though oddly that didn’t put me off.

Afterwards I watched the auditionees that had made it through to the final round to join BDSS. Tasmin was amazing and if she doesn’t get in it’s a travesty.
I personally would hate to tour with them – they go from place to place all year – sure they get to go all round the world, but do they get to actually see much of it? I think I would find it exhausting having to be crooked up in a coach travelling from theatre to theatre to do the same show every night for god knows how many months, being away from family, friends, pets, home. The only advantages I think are getting to do what you love every day and spreading the word of dance all around the world. I wouldn’t have the emotional stability to be away from my boyfriend and my family for that long and not being able to sleep in my own bed would be tough! I personally wouldn’t see joining them as the ultimate achievement that one can attain in bellydance, but if it’s what she wants and she gets through I will fully support her – she’s an amazing performer and she deserves to get in.

And that was it! The end of Raqs B, the bursting of the little bellydance bubble we enclose ourselves in for three days. We bid farewell to our friends old and new and returned to the grim reality of work and normalness! What I love most about Raqs is the community that it seems to have developed. I remember the first year I went, even though I loved it, I felt so lonely because I didn’t know anyone and nobody spoke to me! This year I didn’t go 5 minutes without seeing people I knew because I had met them before or knew them via Facebook and was now meeting them properly for the first time. You see the same faces year after year and it’s comforting to see them even if you don’t know their name! The staff did a fantastic job of putting on a smooth running event and despite the few fixable hitches this was most certainly the best Raqs yet. I have no idea how they can top this.... but I’ll still be back next year!

This coming weekend I’m performing in the Rachel Brice show in Paris – I am terrified and excited all at the same time! Hopefully I will act as a good representation of us Brits to our French dance friends. Will let you know how it goes!

Me with Kami Liddle after my performance at Raqs Britannia

This year gets better and better.

Sure, the Mardi Love thing majorly upset me, but it seems at the moment like that episode has been a fly in the ointment.

Since I last blogged, I’ve performed at two wonderful events, surrounded by fantastic and inspiring dancers. Back at the beginning of this year, I received an email from Vanessa of Bellybliss Allstars inviting me to perform at the monthly showcase Bellybliss @ Madame Jojo’s. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to perform at one of London’s most prestigious clubs, I graciously accepted!

Madame Jojo’s lived up to its opulent expectations. What an amazing venue! I think the only place I have performed that was equally as majestic was at Galleria Merravigli in Milan earlier this year. What grand surroundings. The crowd was fairly small, not unsurprising considering Madame Jojo’s petite size, though it was standing room only.

I was excited to be performing here, and the Bellybliss girls were quick to put all performers at ease. I thoroughly enjoyed performing with them, in such a friendly and supportive environment, and having the opportunity to be introduced to some amazing performers that I had not seen before. I didn’t get to see everyone perform, but I was treated to a beautiful veil dance by Charlotte Desorgher and a wonderfully playful drum solo from Roxana. Despite being the only tribal fusion girl there, I didn’t feel at all out of place – I hope that the audience enjoyed my performance as much as I enjoyed dancing!

My favourite part of the evening was everyone getting on stage at the end, improvising to an Arabic pop track all together, closing the show with the shared sense of community I had experienced back stage.

Having left London, my boyfriend and I headed for Brighton. No performances there, I went for a photoshoot to prepare my new business cards. The ones I currently have are rather out of date! The photos are at least two years old and the phone number has changed – it’s definitely about time I got some new ones! While I have lots of nice photos that people have taken of me, my better half decided I should do it properly and booked a shoot.

Suzie was my photographer, and she also did a fabulous job of my hair and makeup – she transformed me from plain old Alexis into a stunning 50’s style pin up girl, with the peaches and cream makeup with signature eyeliner flick and victory rolls in the hair. Even I couldn’t deny I looked beautiful! (If only I had the skills to recreate how she made me look!)

I took several costumes with me, and Suzie lined me up in a variety of poses with a variety of backgrounds and props. She specializes in Burlesque photography, so most of the poses aren’t very ‘bellydancey’, but I am SO pleased with them! They turned out absolutely amazingly. I can’t wait to get the CD in the mail and upload them here.

Earlier this month I also performed at the Cirque Surnaturel in Derbyshire. A great event full of variety and fun. By day we were entertained by the hilarious Black Pig Border Morris group – I’ve never been a big fan of Morris Dancing but this group changed all that. They were amazing! I’ve never had so much fun watching Morris dance. When I have seen Morris in the past, it has always been with a sadness that this typical of British traditions is dying out, or so people keep telling us, as younger generations are not taking up the dance. So I was delighted to see all ages dancing away with the Pigs!

Evening entertainment was in the form of a bellydance show – performances from Bex Priest, Tasmin Bex, Imajica, and lots of others whose names I sadly can’t remember were fabulous, and I also performed myself! Sadly we had to leave for the last train before the event had finished so I’m sure I missed some other great acts. Hopefully next time it will be different :)

My final pieces of news are probably the most exciting. I will be performing at Sharon Kihara and Sherri Wheatley’s haflas in Bristol and Glasgow respectively. Most exciting of all was returning home last week to an email from Amana studios. I had managed to recoup some of the money lost on the Mardi trip and arranged to attend the Rachel Brice workshops in Paris instead in order not to lose more. I was delighted to see in this email that I had received that I’d been invited to perform in the Rachel Brice show in Paris!! This is exceptionally exciting for me! To perform in Paris is one thing – to have Rachel Brice there is quite another! I cannot begin to imagine what a nervous wreck I will be. She has seen me dance before, three years ago when I was a baby bellydancer – but I didn’t know she was watching!! Hopefully I’ve improved a lot since then! This was the best piece of news I could have ever received!

So I have lots of exciting things to look forward to for the rest of this year (well, until October at least!).

Check my calendar if you fancy coming along to see me!

Next up Raqs Britannia! I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say when I get back!

Until next time!.....

Well what a fantastic weekend I had with some brilliant dancing ladies! I went to Belly Dance Elements’ Henna & Spice Hafla on Saturday and once again was blown away by what talent we have in the West Midlands!

Belly Dance Elements were amazing as usual – beautiful group dances and what gets me so much is the absolute joy on everyone’s faces while they’re dancing – especially Claire Challand – you can tell just how much she loves to dance! And let’s face it, that’s what it’s all about innit?!
We had the joy of Bex Priest’s spooky gothic bellydance to the wonderful tune by Saltillo (I love that guy), the ever smiling Bibi, glorious ATS from Shankari as well as the lovely Fulya and a hugely entertaining fan-veil dance from Bellydance Sensation. And of course, who could forget poor Hoochie Kuchi Mommas – their lovely upbeat bellywood dance was going so well until disaster struck with the music – it could only happen to Sambellina! But they recovered well and carried on with a big smile on their faces as the music returned!

What strikes me as special about Claire’s haflas is not just the wonderful line up of dancers. The whole thing has a very unique atmosphere about it and I think it is mainly because all the dancers are based in the Midlands area. With BDE, they all have a great love for their teacher and for the dance and I love to see that. The venue was dressed beautifully and the event, as with her last hafla, was so well organised. I’ve been to haflas and proper shows with famous dancers where the audience has had to wait two hours just for the show to start, then they don’t know who’s supposed to be on next and they get the music wrong. Claire’s is nothing like that, and they have the lovely Louise with her comedy announcements!

I also danced at this hafla and I felt very proud of myself. I performed the same dance that I performed at Samantha Emanuel’s hafla a few weeks ago – you know, the dance that I hated and screwed up and kicked myself for! Since that shoddy performance I decided I needed to get my backside into gear and polish it up. And I think the hard work paid off. Of course, things can always be improved upon and I can still pick faults in the video of the performance, but this time pretty much everything went to plan! The performance was well received and I felt that I could be proud of this dance finally – I no longer hate it! And my skirt looked great even if I do say so myself! The hours of work on the sewing machine paid off!

Performing this dance was also a healing process for me as well. Last weekend I was supposed to be performing in Mardi Love’s show in Paris, and thanks to the volcanic ash from Iceland, my flight was cancelled, I couldn’t get a Eurostar or ferry or coach to get me to Paris in time and I had to miss the show (as well as lose hundreds of pounds for the privilege!). I was understandably devastated. I’d put so much into the costume and polishing the dance and money into transport, accommodation and a workshop with Mardi (which was actually the most expensive thing of the lot!) and had nothing to show for it at the end. What hurt most of all is that Mardi Love was the dancer who inspired me to pursue Tribal Fusion bellydance when I saw her dance with Bellydance Superstars back in 2006. She struck me as being this incredibly beautiful woman, she had the body of a normal woman and she was elegant, graceful, yet powerful. She was exactly how I wanted to be, and of course the other things like the costuming and music the BDSS girls danced to appealed to me way beyond the cabaret did. But it was Mardi who inspired me more than anyone and to finally take a workshop with her after four years of trying was super-exciting for me. To be accepted to dance in her show was an absolute honour and while I was nervous to the core, I couldn’t wait to get to Paris and show Mardi what a huge inspiration she had been on my dancing.

Alas I never made it and I was just about ready to burn my costume and break my CD because I felt like I didn’t want to perform this dance anywhere now – that hearing that music and wearing that costume would be just too painful a reminder of what might have been. Thankfully I was convinced not to and the performance on Saturday made me feel proud of myself – and that was kind of a comfort to me. Being with so many lovely, encouraging people made me happy that I kept going with this dance - I guess it's not a cursed dance afterall!

I still haven’t got to meet Mardi to say thank you for what a big influence she has been on me – I’m hoping I might still get to a workshop with her this year but it seems all odds are against me – I’m in San Francisco while she’s in Amsterdam and I’m bridesmaid at my best friend’s wedding while she’s in Berlin. One day people! Keep your fingers crossed for me! Oh and keep your fingers crossed that I get my money back from the travel insurer – that would be a huge consolation! ;)

2^nd April 2010 marked a very nerve wracking day for me! I have been performing as a dancer, singer and musician for most of my life for audiences which have consisted of a few people to a few hundred. Nerves never really got to me all that much – of course you need to be nervous to perform well but I can honestly say that on most occasions a few butterflies in the tummy would be all I’d get.

 When I first started performing bellydance four years ago I would have terrible nervous reactions – feeling sick, difficulty breathing (I’m an asthmatic), trembling – you name it I got it! Over the years these nerves have dissipated, and the familiar butterflies have returned to my stomach before each performance, driving me to give the best performance I can as opposed to crippling my creativity. But 2^nd April was a very different day, for scattered amongst the rest of the friendly and supportive bellydance community I was performing for were Samantha Emanuel and Elizabeth Strong. For the entire week prior to this day I hardly slept at night, with my constant repeating of my not-quite-finished choreography in my head over and over again, my half sewn costume hanging on the rail staring at me and concocting elaborate ways my performance could go wrong. I didn’t feel prepared. For any other people I probably wouldn’t have worried so much, but I wanted to show Sam how hard I’d been working on my dancing since her last intensive in January – I’m not ashamed to say it – I wanted to impress her.

I needn’t have worried – both Sam and Liz were very supportive and congratulated me on my performance – I forgot my choreography and the nerves didn’t go away as I continued to shake on stage! But it didn’t seem to show as many fellow dancers and audience members paid me some lovely complements. I still wasn’t happy when I watched back the film but with words of encouragement and some new inspiration from Sam, Liz and the other ladies I performed with that night, I feel like I can really build on the choreography and make it my best yet.

Talking of the other performances, wow, what a show! A diverse range of fusion styles – Darkstar performed a gothic Indian fusion dance, Kimberly MacKoy was as graceful as ever and Tasmin Leona’s gothic bellydance was sumptuous! It is rare to attend a hafla where the calibre of all the dancers is so high! And Kalash provided a hark back to all our roots with their stunning ATS.

Samantha and Liz were of course the highlights of the night. Sam has this other-worldly style that I cannot quite describe! Her timings are spot on and she shifts seamlessly from sharp pops and locks to liquid fluidity. Liz was also a pleasure to watch. She performed a Turkish Rom piece, swishing her skirt and thumping her body with her fists before her partner Dan Cantrell joined her for an accordion piece. The intimate atmosphere meant that you were inches away from these superstars of bellydance, an overwhelming feeling of honour at being allowed to study their moves so closely.

After a feast of amazing performances, the DJ spun some Balkan tunes and we all danced together, doing some ATS with Kalash, improvising with Liz and chatting to our new friends. The small collective of individuals resulted in new friendships and connections that we can nurture through Sam’s now regular intensives – an opportunity I am very grateful for!

After a night under the stars in the Barefoot Barn’s yurt, it was time for workshops – Three hours of ticking and strobing and contrasting these with fluidity followed by two hours of ‘freeing our feet’ with Liz. Sam’s workshops are very intense – and that’s just the warm ups! It is nice to go to the classes and be challenged – I can’t always keep up but it helps me identify which areas of my body and of my dancing I need to work on and to draw inspiration from these other upcoming dancers who share their incredible talent with each other. Sam is patient and encouraging and inspirational and I would implore anyone who hasn’t taken one of her classes to book one now!!

By the end of the weekend I was sad to leave behind the lovely friends I had made and after lots of hugs, kisses and almost tears from some people it was time to bid a fond farewell to the beautiful surroundings of Dartmoor National Park, until the next time!

Darkstar, Tasmin Leona and me with Samantha Emanuel after the hafla