Repeating Performances

As I mentioned earlier I was the Samantha Emanuel workshops and hafla this weekend. I was very impressed by her clear, encouraging and challenging teaching, and really pleasantly surprised that she took the time in the workshops to go around and check people’s posture and movements offering suggestions and personal tips. In classes of 24+ with a lot to cover in a short space of time, I think that’s very impressive.

Another lovely touch was that Sam taught us a choreography that she then later performed. There were two points in it where, when practising, we’d all shouted "Woo!". When Sam performed it at the hafla those of us in the crowd who’d been at that workshop shouted out at the right times.

Why do I think this a "lovely touch"? Well, for a start it was a really tough choreo! Watching her perform a routine I’d been trying to learn a few hours previously gave me a much greater appreciation for the nuance, subtlety and beauty in it. But more than that it felt a bit like hearing a band play a favourite song you can sing along with – there’s a kind of connection between the performer and audience when both know the song/routine, a sort of comforting familiarity. Being part of the ‘in crowd’ that knew what was coming and when to shout "Woo" felt really nice.

This experience of seeing a performer repeat a favourite routine is not that common in my experience of watching bellydance performances. I feel there’s pressure for performers to do a different routine every time, particularly now YouTube means that performances can be spread to a huge audience who can watch last month’s performance prior to seeing you dance in the flesh tonight. In fact the beautiful and talented Tasmin Leona Bex was talking about this very thing this weekend, the pressure, because of YouTube, to always create something new when performing. I, for one, have been really happy when I’ve seen a performer/performers repeat a dance of theirs that I particularly liked the first time I saw it. And I admit that I write that as much a reminder to myself as for anyone else who’s felt that pressure to come up with something new.

For those that are interested, the choreography Sam taught us in the ‘Honky Tonk’ workshop can be seen in this video – the song starts around 3:40, our part of the choreo starts at 4:04.

And in the below video you can find the choreography from the Octopus Hypothesis (that bit starts around 1:48):

Samantha Emanuel Workshops and Hafla

I’m pretty excited about the up and coming workshops and hafla with Samantha Emanuel (was Hasthorpe), the only British member of the Bellydance SuperStars.  AND I just learned that one slot has opened up for the masterclass that she’s teaching – so if you’re interested you’d better be quick off the mark – http://www.bordersarabicdance.org/

Here’s Sam in action – enjoy!

Peebles Hafla

Celia Buchan teaches adult & teenager classes in Egyptian bellydance in Peebles and organises a hafla there on an annual basis.  (There was talk on the night of there being an April Peebles hafla too – I’ll add more info about this when I get it.)

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but had heard good reviews about past haflas in Peebles.  I wasn’t disappointed.

Peebles Arabic Hafla – Fri Dec 18th

There’s a hafla on next Friday!  Tickets cost £10, or £5 for under 12s and things kick off around 7.30pm.

Here’s a performance video of Tigerlily, who (I am told) will be one of the performers. Woop, woop! 🙂

For more info and to book your ticket(s) see the Eastgate Theatre website