Visiting New York

Sara--in mean mode--but dressed for a family audience !

Tuesday 10th

Returned to the studio bright and early and ready to learn a new dance.  First there was a repeat of the warm up, which by now I was finding more relaxing although we were still expected to have perfect posture, perfect arms and lots of focus for the whole hour!  Next we ran through the drum solo three times to help with our muscle memory.  Repeating this each day certainly helped.  Our choreography for the day was Zey Hawa and again watching Rocky dance it through for us I thought it impossible to learn in so few hours - and yet it soon became second nature.  The combinations were complex with weight shifts and turns right from the start, but Rocky emphasized the relaxed nature of the moves and urged us not to push or force the turns - and to remember to breath.  By the end of the day it was looking fantastic and everyone was turning and travelling as one across the room.

Morocco brings nearly 45 years experience to teaching dance - she has travelled extensively to research and is keen to share her knowledge with those who take her workshops (and as everyone's "Aunty Rocky" on email).  Not only does she perform beautifully, she can explain and break down the moves, fit them perfectly with a piece of music and mix her love of fact with theatre style presentation to make an end result that is a pleasure to watch.  At first her teaching is so different from other peoples that its hard to take in and focus, yet the more workshops I do with her the easier it becomes to hear what she hears and understand the layers as she interprets them.  I'm very lucky to have done as much class time as I have with her (as with all learning the more you repeat the deeper you understand - and to have read much of her online work.  When her book comes out I will be first in line to read it !

After Class we had the chance to spend some more time with Saqra and to recover the moves we had learnt and focus on some tougher turns and forms.  I will admit that for that hour I mostly stood or sat by and took notes.  I was too tired to spin anymore and felt I learnt more from watching - I did have a go at everything once.

That evening I had the wonderful chance to meet Serena Wilson.  This amazing woman was probably the first to ever set up a dance school focused on Bellydance and still runs very popular classes not far from central park.  Her philosophy is very different from that of many of the other "masters" of this dance and it was fantastic to sit and talk with her.  I was shown some beautiful old photos with stunning costumes and poses - I wish I had had longer as there were albums after album I could have seen.  Maybe next time!

Wednesday 11th

And so the day starts again - long, full warm up and then we do the drum solo three times, then Zey Hawa three times, and finally we see today's choreography through twice.  Today's was a Modern Schikhatt dance from Morocco and Rocky kindly gave us a good understanding of who and when this dance would be done.  Compared to the others this one looked much more relaxed and easy, but its difficulties soon became apparent.  This is done with two small hankies and my brain somehow didn't want to get them to match my hips for two beats and then do opposites for two - and then repeat on the other side!!!  For a while I tried without the hankies and that was much easier - until I added them back in again.  On one level it was a much happier, community dance so we had fun making eye contact and there were many more smiles all round.  But it was tough!  Also by now we were used to working with the speed and intensity that Rocky requires.  Amazingly we were done by lunchtime and sent out to eat and unwind.

The afternoon session was taking by Tahya and was listed as dance meditation.  We started with a gilded meditation that I fell into very deeply and was amazed to find myself waking refreshed and energised.  She then led us through a couple of very basic circle dances aimed at increasing our energy.  These were a wonderful chance to dance with each other, bond and relax.

In the evening I set out to see Time Square, Madison Square gardens, Broadway and 42nd street.  It was about a two hour round trip so I returned ready to sleep!

Thursday 12th

After warm up and three runs through three numbers we were handed back to Karima to learn the beautiful Esma Yalli choreography.  Meanwhile Rocky was hidden away sorting out the running order for that nights show.  Karima taught in a very similar way to Rocky but also included the lyrics and showed us how to interpret them in our dance.  By three o'clock we were done and sent off to get ready for our show at the Lafayette.

I just had time to paint my nails and put on my false lashes when my mother duck arrived to collect me! - A number of us had wanted to use the subway so one of the delegates who was brought up in Queens offered to let us all follow her.  Not sure how we must have looked - half a dozen ladies in big make up, red lips and carrying huge trolley bags all wandering off in the wrong directions - but then in New York no one is surprised by anything they see…..

The Lafayette is a lovely venue well used to bellydance shows - it has a fantastic floor level stage and a small but usable basement changing room.  I got to watch the first half and then performed in the second.  I think my performance went well - certainly it felt good.  I had a great reception "and please welcome, all the way from the UK……." And then I was off.  The space was larger than I had imagined, but meant I could use it to travel and having tables on three sides meant that I could change focus and dance to the corners and sides in turn.  There were fans on the ceiling so I quit the overhead throws after the first (I had proved I could do one after all!) and then stuck with smaller closer veil moves.  After my practice last week, the feedback I had included a note that I should change angle more during the drum solo - which I remembered and did - I hope it worked.  I also added a turn during my mayas - again to add interest and a change of direction.  At the end I got some nice reaction (American style!) and just had time to get change and see the end of the second set.

After food Rocky and members of Casbah danced some numbers for us - again the highlight was Tarik and his duet with Rocky.  Karima and Morocco also danced the numbers we had learnt that week so we could see how they should be done!

Very late to bed.

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