The Arab Quarterly - Bellydance and Live Music Evening

Maho Beaumont

Allow me to introduce The Arab Quarterly as an evening of music and dancing to its own live Arabic Quarter Band set up in 2009 by both Melanie Norman, who has an established career teaching, choreographing and performing oriental dance, and Chalf Hassan, an international musician who brings with him a wealth of experience and great musicianship.  The location is the beautifully restored Islington Assembly Hall in London.  To that, I accompanied our lovely teacher Maho Beaumont and her invited troupe for that particular evening, Sundara’s Patsy Foulkes and Lucy Moss, along with Maho’s own student Sharon Vivers and Ashnah’s own Kay White.

l-r - Patsy, Sharon, Maho, Lucy, Kay

We found our way there quite easily and the ladies all disappeared backstage to re-emerge at the end of the show victorious and happy!  Maho’s had been the only ATS® tribal representation of the show and introduced classical music to its repertoire – genius and awesome!!!  Maho or Liquid Gold (as I’m calling her from now on) and ladies, you absolutely rocked that house – Also worthy of mention, is our most delectable Turkish restaurant where we rounded off our evening – yummy!!!!

taking a well deserved bow

Video here

report by Rita

Winter Wonderland Hafla 2013

Rita, Janet and Kay

.. otherwise known as the biggest party that never was due to snow which kept - wait for it - 60 people away!  However, although we were at reduced numbers, the spirit and energy were more than willing and some, who will remain nameless ;-)  made the most of the opportunity and performed an extra slot; well, waste not want not!!!  Well done to Nikki and her team who rallied together and kept good control over the programme.  We all got to keep nice and warm in the best possible way ..... namely dancing!!

Janet

Sundara Workshop

Fiona, Mel, Rita, Lulu, Angela, Shereen, Kay
Penny, Patsy, Lucy

First workshop of 2013 hosted by our neighbouring ATS® sister group Sundara.  We warmed up and stretched every which way ahead of the floor work which I know left us all buzzing - it was so nice to hook up with everyone.  Plenty of goodwill and support and a firm resolution to give gliding across the floor a real good try in 2013; we’re aiming to look like swans (I think!); brilliant and bring it on!!!

Kalash Oasis Workshop

Toucan evening out -Tiverton/Devon

Workshop ladies!!

Ah this weekend!!! Kalash’s lovely lead Kelley Beeston held her regular term workshop day and combined it with a night out at one of Tiverton’s local restaurants followed by a sleep-over at her barn.  It shouldn’t be at all difficult to imagine the energy generated by 25+ women hooking up for class (we were good, we were, I promise!!!), then making their way to logistically kick off the evening.  This included showering, deciding where to get dressed, finding the blessed holding (beautiful beautiful home), setting up sleeping areas for the night (Shereen of Nirzari and myself got to lay our weary heads on a proper bed ;o).  Before I forget a huge thank you to the wonderful Tim (Kelley’s son) for chauffeuring us on the night - some enjoying the ride in the caged in Landrover - brilliant!!!  Then we danced, and danced, and danced some more and ate and drank and buzzed, and some of us stayed up with Kelley until the wee hours .. oh Lord, it was b****y brilliant!!!!!  Very merry Christmas you-all and the best and better 2013!!

Rita & Kay

Philippa with Lucy from Sundara

Frock 'n' Roll

In-Spires - OMEDS tribal class

Frock ‘N’ Roll as the name suggests was a gathering at The Wesley Memorial Church in Oxford on Saturday 8th December to celebrate all things fashion including clothes, accessories, and of course well-being which was where OMEDS came in, to promote music and dance!  Under the umbrella of Fe-Line Women who promote a more relaxed and informal approach to networking per se, we held dance tasters and showcased the basic principles of ATS®.  It was certainly all relaxed and cozy with plenty of stalls of local independent small businesses.  There was a very popular pamper corner with manicure, make up and even hair styling. No doubt about it, when you look good, you feel good!! 

Merry Christmas to you all !!

Enjoy the video!!

(click here if you can't see it)

Oxford Middle Eastern Dance Society hafla

Ashnah with 'our' Janet

Proud mommas here!  We’re still buzzing from the Oxford Middle Eastern Dance Society (OMEDS) party of this past Friday where In-Spires (Kay’s tribal brood at OMEDS) acquitted themselves brilliantly on the night.  The girls who all looked the part had been nervous ahead of the number but it all went utterly swimmingly and we all had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

In-Spires - Jenny, Penny, Winnie, Christine, Lucy & Esme

Guest of Honour was the sassy Emma Chapman who ended up dancing on the chairs and bringing the roof down – go Emma!!  The rest of us mere mortals, local students and groups, contended ourselves with solid performances.  Along with bellydance solos and group numbers, there was also a strong and eclectic tribal presence represented by the lovely ladies from Sundara and Belly Raqs from Thame who dance Gypsy Caravan-style and yours truly, Ashnah, who danced with 'our Janet’!

In-Spires - Christine, Jenny & Winnie

Tribal Tea Party - London

Moirai Tribal & Hannah Mi

The FireWater Collective consisting of Hannah Mi and MoiraiTribal host this dance night and combine it with a fundraiser.  This month, the selected charity was TheKaruna Trust, a UK based Buddhist organization that focuses on education, health and cultural projects for poor people in India irrespective of religion.  The evening was tremendous and the hospitality so warm!  In a lovely informal setting, the evening’s programme was nicely eclectic, not too long and performed to a very receptive audience.  We made new friends and had a fab night!!

Oxford Christmas Light Night

Friday 23rd November - Ashnah were invited to this event laid on by Oxford City Council and shared the dance stage with a whole host of local dance groups.  The selection covered Street, Ballet/Lyrical, Salsa, Breakdancing, Jazz, Bellydancing and ATS® of course courtesy of yours truly.  My best bit was being announced by our MC Matt from Heart FM – I wake up to him and Michelle every morning!  The weather was clement, the audience very receptive – what else could we wish for?  Oh yes, a lovely polar bear leading the lantern procession – I smell Christmas!!!!

Brutal Belly Dance Halloween Hafla

Ashnah and Sundara Tribal

No amount of messing about was going to stop this hafla from going ahead and the new location at Burwell Hall may have been a bit more snug but it certainly generated a lot of heat!!!   Hosted by our indomitable Carrie - The Joker, the occasion brought forth all manner of fantastic and dark creatures, some more dramatic than others ... Alyah in her awesome cat suit, Xenia performing an awesome fusion dance, Suhana bellyancer showing her stick skills in her dance, (Ella Mentary) imported brilliantly intricate Day of the Dead make-up, the hilarious piggies ha (Nikki, Jackie etc), Sundara wowing the crowd with their beautiful mesmermising slow ATS® number while others like Kalika looked wonderfully glamourous in their original eye lace masks.

Basket Dance

Once again we performed our new basket dance (with Kay tossing out furry spiders from her basket to the audience), and our second dance was a collaboration with the lovely Sundara Tribal ladies, Patsy and Lucy, performing an improvised ATS® number ....... smooth Berber Walks ladies!  

It was an eclectic show and a very successful evening and yay to Dave Hutchings who allowed us all a glimpse into his musical talent.

Ashnah and Sundara Tribal

Basket Dance

World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

Loreley Rice's WWF fundraiser kicked off our local calendar at the Abingdon Guidhall, and belly and ATS® groups gathered from far and near (very near for some yay)!!  It was the perfect opportunity to combine a good cause to a nice evening, and of course to catch up with old friends.

Ashnah premiered their latest choreography - a basket dance, and also performed an improvised piece too with one of their students, Janet.

ATS® Flash Mob World Wide

London contingent hosted by Philippa Moirai

Under the concept of One Dance, One Song, One World United ....... Ashnah decided to accept Philippa's invite to join the London contingent of the ATS® tribalists taking part in our first ever personal flash mobbing!!!  As you can imagine, it was pure excitement all around and meeting up at the rendezvous point with various dancers, including 2 Brazilian flight attendants who happened to stop over mid flights to join us along with Maho Beaumont, we took our final orders from our General and disappeared into the crowd to gradually gather again throughout the dance.  It was terrific, fabulous and over too soon!!!

Our thanks to Warren for the taping, and to the rest of the ladies - it was an absolute pleasure!

View the video HERE !!

Tribal Pura, Edinburgh

Carolena Nericcio, Megha Gavin, Philippa Moirai and Katra Tribal

We're still suffering from withdrawal symptoms - the weekend was fantastic!






In brief - Flight ok (I'll take the small inconveniences as it only took us 50 minutes to get there), McCraes Organic B&B highly recommended, 'Edinburghers' a very friendly and helpful lot, Edinburgh GORGEOUS!!!

What else?  Oh yes!  The workshops!  We found them fabulous with endless tweaking to our moves to be had.  Carolena and Megha were all smiles, and hooking up with old and meeting new friends was wonderful.

We left a bit of our hearts there.......

Class with Carolena & Megha

Workshops

Sightseeing

Oasis Workshop with Kalash - Tiverton, Devon

It was that time again and Ashnah headed to the Kalash Oasis workshops hosted by the lovely Kelley Beeston at Tiverton.  We got stuck in awful traffic but finally made it there past lunchtime and had a perfect afternoon! Our focus this time was on what I'm calling shading - allowing the moves to marry the rhythms - it was all so eye opening.

We also went over various formations and long may we never get done; it's all way too enjoyable!!

Roll on December!

FCBD® Sister Studio

I am very excited to announce, that following on from my Teacher Training course in Sweden with Carolena Nerricio and Megha Gavin, I've now been honoured a FCBD® Sister Studio status.

Sister Studios are graduates of General Skills for  ATS®, ATS® Teacher Training.  These teachers are dedicated to presenting ATS® as created and developed by FatChanceBellyDance® director and master teacher Carolena Nericcio.  Sister Studios do not blend ATS® with other styles of dance, tribal or otherwise.  They present ATS® only, or clearly separate ATS® from the other styles of dance they are presenting.  Our gaol is that you, the student, should be able to attend an FCBD® ATS® class anywhere in the world and receive consistent, quality instruction.

from the FCBD® website

FCBD® Teacher Training, Sweden

Me with Megha & Carolena

Well I did it!  I flew to Sweden to be certified in the FCBD® ATS® Teacher Training programme by Carolena Nericcio and Megha Gavin.  And what an event it was too!  I travelled with Patsy from Sundara Tribal, where we joined 3 other UK dancers in Gothenburg, along with others from Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and France ..... 19 nervous dancers :-}

2 days were given over to listening, learning, teaching (yup, teaching in front of Carolena....) :-} and were all proudly presented with our certificates at the end of the course, resulting in many, many smiley faces and numerous photos being taken, followed by celebrations!!

What a wonderful experience ..... getting to know all the other dancers, wining and dining together, learning and dancing, firming friendships and making new friends.

5 UK dancers Patsy, Jo, Kay, Charlote & Helen

Well done to all you lovely ladies!!  Lalalalalalala!

report by Kay

Wallingford Bunkfest 2012

Oh flippydiflip and flop it’s over but what fun we had!  Ashnah and Nirzari joined by the ever wonderful Oxford Drum Troupe spent the day at Wallingford and even managed to catch the sun!! As popular as ever this event is so family and dog friendly.  Belly and Morris dancers in abundance, great stalls, food and drink what’s not to love?  I will however add that the idea of not having a marquee covering the main Kinecroft stage is one we’d rather not see repeated.  Apart from the fact that it left us all at the mercy of the weather, sitting not that far from the dance platform to watch other performances, we couldn’t hear anything and that was a pity. Thanks to Jenny and the rest of the team for all their hard work.

Matt & Kate Russell's nuptials

Saturday11 August 2012

Ah the joys of performing at a wedding – everyone is appropriately suited and booted, spick and span and on their bestest behaviour - food and drinks are free-flowing and spirits are definitely lifted.  Ashnah was invited to join in the general merriment of this coolest and most laid back of knot tying and had a fabulous time.  Oxford Drum Troupe got feet stamping and we got hands clapping and after our performance, we got everyone up boogying (well quite a few at least).  Brilliant afternoon all around!  Long life and health, wealth and prosperity to Mr & Mrs Matt Russell lalalalalala!!!

White Horse Folk Festival

This was an Ashnah first.  We kicked off the day teaching an ATS® workshop and this became my own personal highlight.  It certainly helped that the Scout Hut location was kept cool with a couple of fans and Lord knows we needed them on a day which turned out to be a scorcher!!  There were at least 10 women in that room all positive and all buzzing and we all had a blast.  Oxford Drum Troupe joined us at Grove and held their own masterclass.  A few hours later we performed with ODT and our student Janet at various locations, and having of course partaken of food and drink (duh!!!) and oh ice cream as well, we all made our way home, tired and wonderfully spent.

Nicholson House, Care Home

Our collaborations so far have been at Ashnah's instigation ..... this time around, we were asked by our belly dance friend Jen Evans to join her at her gig at the Nicholson House Summer Fete.  The audience were delightful, and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  It was also a perfect opportunity later on to catch up with our lovely friend, which we of course did at The Kings Head and Bell (dancing is thirsty work - as if you didn't know)!!

Photo to come.....