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Two Reviews of Celebrating Dance 2004

The first is by Vicki Barnes

Celebrating Dance is an annual festival held in Bideford each year and run by Afra Al-Kahira. This was the first year I attended and I was so glad that I did. I made some new dance friends and attended some really good workshops.

The weekend kicked off with a fab haflah at a local hotel. Lovely surroundings and excellent food with a great selection of different dance styles to enjoy. I particularly enjoyed the solos by Janai, Helen, Raheesha & Oona’s (whose costume drew gasps of amazement - a diamante bra that was very risqué!) and the group numbers by Mersin and Jane Claridge’s group. A special mention must also go to Chrissie whose music didn’t want to play. After several false starts, she gamely started again when a better copy was found - that took courage after such a disastrous start! The evening was topped off by an impromptu drum solo performed by our hostess Afra. Wow! Dressed to kill, with some killer shimmies and hits to match! After her solo Afra then had a wonderful way of getting everyone up and dancing, by going around the room, taking people by the hand and leading them to the dance floor, taking a few moments dance with each person. A lovely personal touch to the end the evening. We then hit the dance floor with a vengeance and boogied the rest of the evening away to an eclectic selection of Middle Eastern music. In fact the only downside to the evening was the knowledge that we couldn’t stay up all night, as it was down to work in the morning!

The first day of workshops started off less than auspiciously with a downpour of heavy rain just as we started arriving at the workshop venue. However it didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm and all the workshops I attended were well put together and taught to a high standard. I particularly enjoyed Vashti’s, Rachel’s and Emma’s. I only did Morocco’s workshop on the Sunday morning, and my legs were still like jelly as I got in the car to drive home! Morocco’s workshops are great fun, but very energetic, especially if like me you aren’t as fit as you’d like to be! It was worth every ache and pain though, as I learned so much. 

I don’t get to go to shows very often, so for me it was a real treat to sit in a theatre and watch the teachers perform for us on the Saturday evening. The evening started off with a costume competition for the dressmakers amongst us and this was followed by a fashion show of costumes by Farida Fashions. It was nice that they used dancers of all shapes and sizes as models for those lovely, glamorous costumes, showing that beautiful costumes are there for us all.

Afra opened the show with a fun little 60’s skit to Wipeout by the Surfaris. She was followed by a wide selection of both Turkish and Egyptian-style numbers, with the occasional fusion number as a contrast. I won’t bore everyone with a long list of all the numbers, instead here’s a taste of what for me personally were the highlights of the show from a varied and skilled line up. I loved both Kharis and Kay Taylor’s Egyptian numbers and Karine’s modern fusion was a lovely revelation as I’ve only ever seen her dance to more traditional sounds. We were also treated to some more unusual numbers too. Michelle Pender performed an amazing zaar, using very spooky lighting and atmospheric music. We even had a spot of magic from Yasmin and Tony! Afra came back later on with a more thoughtful piece which started off full of a kind of frenetic energy and subsided into a lovely veil dance with the most incredible silk veil I have ever seen - much bigger than normal and in beautiful colours. She wasn’t finished there though - coming back towards the end of the show with a number using Isis Wings. She floated across the stage at the beginning hidden under a veil, then off with the veil and a very upbeat finish with lots more of her lovely shimmies. Before we had the chance to catch our breath, out comes Morocco to perform a wonderful set. We had everything from modern Egyptian pop songs through to baladi and a drum solo, all accompanied by finger cymbals! She must have danced for around 20 minutes and yet still had enough breath at the end to take the microphone from Afra’s husband and address the audience! She is one amazing lady!

After Morocco’s workshop on Sunday morning I whiled a way a good part of the afternoon buying far too many dance goodies in the excellent bazaar. I couldn’t stay for Morocco’s lecture as I had a long journey home, but I heard that it was very interesting.

My congratulations go to Afra, her husband and her team of teachers and helpers for a wonderful weekend. I’ll definitely be going back next year, but with one request - Afra please teach a workshop next time!

This review is by Bernadette Smocynska

We celebrated dance in Bideford, North Devon for a whole chilly weekend in October, and what a great weekend we had even though it did rain.

As ever the hafla at the Royal Hotel was an excellent way to spend a Friday evening, with good food and a glass of wine or two, some wonderful performances and an opportunity to meet up with “Celebrating Dance friends” that you only get to see once a year. As an added bonus the barmaid even managed to be pleasant this year.

On Saturday evening we were completely wowed by our teachers who entertained us at Bideford School Theatre. A treat if ever I saw one. I am always amazed by “our” dance - the wide range of styles, the way each dancer interprets those styles and how she makes the dance her own, how personality is such an important aspect, plus all those wonderful costumes and this was certainly a heady mix. It would be really impossible to say which performance you enjoyed most, as they were all so different and all magnificent in their own ways, although I must say that I completely forgot to breathe during Michelle’s Zaar and I am still wondering whilst writing this three weeks after the event whether Morocco has caught up with her feet yet.

It was sooo difficult to decide which workshops to choose, they all sound so interesting don’t they? But having been out of action for some time I decided that to start with I would probably benefit from going right back to basics with Rachel and Sara, plus I knew they would be gentle with me and this was definitely a good decision as I learnt a lot, got moving and still had enough energy left for Michelle’s North African scarf dance which was great fun. On Sunday I plumped for classical Egyptian with Yasmin where I twirled to the walking music and walked when I was supposed to be twirling but hey, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Next was Karine’s delicious veil routine, ditto twirling and walking and enjoying myself - sorry Karine and Yasmin, you know there’s always one in every class! And to finish what better than an hour with Heike leaning an upbeat feisty modern routine to Shakira, picked up some great moves in this one as well as innovative ways to stroke a guinea pig!

Altogether a great event, thank everyone who helped to organise it, you did a grand job. My only complaint is that I was so busy dancing I didn’t have enough time to shop.

See you next year?