May 11th 2002 at Bramley, Hants Reviewed by Alison Smith

This day-long workshop actually covered three topics - Modern Egyptian technique (as used by current Egyptian stars like Dina and Lucy), an introduction to floorwork  and dancing in shoes.

Afra paced the workshop well. After the warm-up we started with a very short sequence of steps (a grapevine and leg shimmy, as opposed to a hip shimmy) onto which we built up more moves. One of the  'Dina' moves we used was a small, sharp pelvic tilt in response to hits in the music, on top of the grapevine. This went against my natural inclination  to do a 'camel' as we moved sideways, but it was quite a subtle move which worked very well. Afra's method of gradually building up the complexity of  the sequence was effective, as students get a chance to master lessons learned earlier in the workshop while learning new moves. Another Dina move was to perform several hip hits in sequence while doing a hip circle and leaning forward - difficult to describe, but very distinctive!

After lunch, we got out our aerobics mats and got down on the floor. I didn't  really know what I was expecting, but Afra had assured me that we were not  going to have to do the splits. This style of dancing is enjoying a revival at the moment and is usually performed when music slows down to draw the audience in towards the dancer. The most difficult part of floorwork is getting down and back up gracefully. Afra has a natural advantage here with her background in ballet, but I can see that it would be easy to just plonk down on the ground without realising how inelegant it appeared. Although many hip moves can be done from a kneeling position, this is the time to draw attention to upper body moves. I really enjoyed this section of the workshop and feel inspired to do some floorwork in a future solo choreography.

Towards the end of the workshop, Afra got us back on our feet and into shoes  (and sandals). During our earlier lunch break, she had spoken about the suitability of various shoes for dancing (basically the foot should be well- supported and smooth soles don't work on wet or smooth surfaces!). It was amazing the difference that dancing with a slight heel makes. Although it  can feel a bit alien at first, percussive moves like hits (and that Dina pelvic tilt) are much easier. This is something else that I would consider doing in a future choreography (but not with floorwork as I can see that  there is a danger of getting shoes caught in my skirt when trying to get up  from a seated position).

I really enjoyed this workshop. Afra was my teacher until she moved to Devon and I had forgotten how knowledgeable and thorough she is. If there is a follow on workshop I will definitely be attending.

Alison Smith