Kae Montgomery UK Visit, Oxfordshire

fun day out at Henley

She came, she taught, and left us properly worked out, tweaked, and wanting more – the group is definitely looking forward to the next visit although we’re still on a high!

The lovely Kae Montgomery spent 5 days with us and on the programme apart from a little sightseeing to the lovely and oh so English town of Henley, was a weekend filled with workshops, a couple of which focussed on all aspects of solo performances and which carried on from each other, plus we also had workshops which included some of Kae’s own dialect.

all at sea

We kicked off the weekend with a terrific dinner dance which included African, Indian, Irish, and Middle Eastern flavours from Sunny; huge thanks to all the performers who so readily gave of their time to join us.  A majority of us managed a Saturday night outing to our local Indian where we danced in the restaurant.  The whole event was fabulous especially as we had in our midst new faces who joined the more familiar of our ever growing pool of friends – the atmosphere was so cosy and buzzing.

working us hard

Thank you all for your attendance and support; we couldn’t have done it without you!

discussion time

jollies at the restaurant

Oasis Workshop, Devon

Of course Ashnah went to Devon to attend this month’s gathering – our big circle included new faces from Froom who I hope had a fab time.  Later on that day, at the evening show, new blood was joined by fresh blood with the Nirzari ladies, Mel and Shereen joining us with their brood Mireya and Cillian respectively who were both as good as gold.  The show was wonderfully eclectic with the skirt winning the ‘prop of the evening’ award.  Show stopper of the night was the beautiful and haunting live rendition of Ederlezi which of course, I didn’t think of taping :( the number was a collaboration of local musician and Kalash).  We’re booked for December!

Kay left holding the baby

Hanney Festival

l-r Rita, Pips and Kay

God bless new events, and Ashnah absolutely loves venturing out to new places and making conversions as it were!  The tireless Dawn Massam invited us to the Black Horse in East Hanney and being her beautiful warriors and all (her words of course), we were only too pleased to accept.  Naturally, it had the Massam flair which lay in the detail – brilliant bands, lovely atmosphere, a warm welcome and if I had anything to grumble about is the lack of communication between Dawn and the big man – thank goodness for her foresight which saw us dancing under cover!

Thanks for looking after us so well Dawn.

Bunkfest

Ashnah, Nirzari, Zoku and Marekesh plus baby

What can I say about Bunkfest 2016?  This years entourage consisted of 4 dance troupes, 1 drum troupe, 1 husband, 1 small child, 2 babies, 2 students, family and friends plus 1 dog - making a total of 35 'beings' who came to dance, support, gurgle or bark!!

Kaleidoscope consisted of the Nirzari lovelies who performed together for the first time since the births of Mel and Shereen’s babies, our lush Marek all the way from Essex who heads Marekesh Tribal, Charlotte Elizabeth of Zoku who overcame all the challenges British Rail threw at her to reach us from London and not forgetting ourselves, Ashnah.  Also rocking the rhythms on African djembes were the inimitable ODT who were joined by Kay’s son Owen on his first gig out - he helped ramp up the beats and raise the temperature everywhere we went!  We did get rained off towards the middle of the afternoon but nought could dampen our spirits.

Thank you Jenny Cox and team and bring on 2017!

Oxford Drum Troupe

Angela from Nirzari leads

Marek leads the troupe

Angela leads Lulu, Kay and Marek

  

Shereen from Nirzari in full swing with Rita

Follyfest

This was a new platform for us, and it didn't disappoint.  Putting the invites out there we were joined by the lovely Nening from Zoku along with her husband, and Marek from Marekesh, who drove all the way from Southend-on-Sea with his partner to come dance.

Brilliant performance, lovely crowd, beautiful market town and all finished off with Sunday lunch all round!!!

Looking forward to next year!!!!

Wads Stock Festival

A new event for us - and this time we were joined by the lovely Nirzari ladies, Thurstan and Cillian!!  This event was held at the Wootton Community Centre, and the lovely warm afternoon brought crowds of people to come and  watch a variety of entertainers including Morris dancing, listen to bands and visit lots of scummy stalls.

As usual, we can't have an event without finishing up for eats and drinks which happened in the local pub.

Eastleigh Mela

Lulu, Angela and Shereen from Nirzari

What a fab event this turned out to be!  Ashnah and the lovelies of Nirzari (minus our Mel) hooked up and our Shereen performed for the first time since the birth of Master Cillian Johnston who also joined the company and was the perfect young man, not a peep out of him!  

This year, there was just one stage which I thought was a good move on behalf of the organisers with everyone’s attention focussed in one place.  We did well and as it was Kay and my first outing since the FCBD teaching course, we were trying to implement the latest tweaks – work in progress; bring it on!

Damn, we love you Nirzari girls!

Ashnah, Nirzari and Master Johnston