Monday 9 July 2012

More dance from Morocco

I've added a couple of new clips of traditional Moroccan dance to my YouTube channel.  I filmed these during my trip to Marrakesh last year.  You can read my previous post for a collection of some of the other videos, including Berber dancing and an unexpected surprise during a beauty cooperative tour.

First of all here is the candle tray dance filmed at the beautiful Palais Chahramane restaurant.  I loved watching this dancer for her sense of spectacle without skill.  Possibly even an insight into what might have been the low class street entertainment of days gone by.



The second video is of fun and athletic Gnawa musicians and dancers.  This was part of a brilliant afternoon of entertainment aimed at Moroccan people rather than tourists, in an unlikely location - an outdoor restaurant, behind a service station on the road to Casablanca.  I have still have some unpublished video of the different acts that featured, so either watch this space or feel free to leave me a note if you would like to see more.

Thursday 5 July 2012

Keeping it all together

This is my new zills pouch.

It's sturdy, compact, and it's also my new bargain as it cost me just £1.50 from a textile/crafts store on Nicholson Street in Edinburgh.

How do you store your zills?

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Big Dance Edinburgh and Bellydance Flashmob

I've had a fantastic dancey weekend.  I previously blogged about the Big Dance weekend of dance, in Edinburgh Saturday 30th June to Sunday 1st July, connected to the London 2012 festivities around the country.

After Saturday night's eventful gig, I felt spurred to head down to the National Museum of Scotland on Sunday to take part in the bellydance flashmob, organised by Elspeth Swishandhips, as part of Big Dance Edinburgh.  Months of careful and planning and organisation went into this and Elspeth even filmed and uploaded tutorials of all the choreography so that as many people as possible could take part. 

There were about 50 dancers, with Egyptian, ATS and Tribal Fusion styles all featuring.  With so many old and new faces, there was a fantastic buzz about the place and a huge crowd cheering us on - although I suspect not all of them were so unsuspecting.  Congratulations Elspeth, it was a fantastic event and thank you for all your hard work! And well done to all the dancers who took part!

Here we all are dancing in the Museum's spectacular surroundings (thanks to Norma for the photo): 


Big Dance events were taking place all over the city.  Here's my shot of Fife based ATS teacher Elaine giving a taster in the Museum, a bit later on:


And here's my shot of amazing double sword dancer Briar from Edinburgh troupe Twisted Tails under the shadow of Edinburgh castle.


At the end of the day, I even found myself chatting to someone in the crowd who felt inspired to start a new dance class.  Well how about that then for a successful way end to a weekend aimed at getting people dancing?

Here is Emma's video of the flashmob in all its glory:

Monday 2 July 2012

Dancing down the farm

I had a gig with a difference on Saturday night.

A real first for me, teaching a taster hen party class in a farm shed.  The party was meant to be held in a gazebo outside - but the terrible rain at the weekend caused the roof to collapse - so the owners lent us these fine surroundings:


Where's the strangest place you've ever danced?

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