Bunkfest 2010

Our beautiful Agne with expecting baby leads the dancers

Our favourite festival arrived, and again so did the sunshine!  This year we were delighted to be joined by drummer Karl Greenow who plays for The Keeling Curve, and also Peter who played for us last year.  A huge big thank you guys, it was so very much appreciated.  Hope we can do it again!!  This year at Bunkfest we again met up with Isisters, met new Morris dancers and watched the wonderful Zulu, all the way from South Africa - watch their VIDEO HERE - fabulous.  We performed in various places and had a wonderful time, some of us staying on into the night to watch some of the bands.

Watch the Youtube Videos under the Video Link and Vimeo HERE.

Alzheimers Show (see Video here)

AfroFusion

Saturday 24th April 2010 couldn't come fast enough! Jo Saunders of Arabian Fire & Cairo Kittens put together a brilliant show in aid of the Abingdon Alzheimer Hospice at the Amey Theatre, Abingdon School. Despite all being tucked away in the ladies changing room, we were able to watch all the performances on a big screen. Oxford Drum Troupe opened she show with their infectious drumming and were later joined by the amazing African dancing sisters Grace and Sarah of 1AfroFusion Rhythm. The Middle Eastern section was made up of soloists Niki Livermore, who strutted her stuff with everyone's favourite tabla 'artiste' John Sleiman, my teacher Loreley Rice who weaved her magic with her mesmerising Isis wings, professional Indian Bhangra dancers from London, fantastic Capoeira dancers with flamenco dancers Camino del Flamenco with teacher Rosie adding a much exciting exotic touch alongside the Argentine Tango couple, whilst Ashnah represented the tribal fusion style and performed our much loved stick dance and our improvised tribal ATS style dancing with Oxford Drum Troupe too. Check out our new Ghawazee coat/dresses made by Kay White woo hoo!

AfroFusion

It was a great evening and we managed to raise approximately £2,000 - indeed the show was so successful that there's talk of making if a permanent fixture - roll on 2011!!! A big thank you must go to the entire supporting team made up of Jo Trafford, Sonia Black, Janet Avison, Kay O'Reagan and not forgetting the lovely Sorcha who looked drop dead gorgeous in her wowing brown dress.

Bellydance Bonanza - Saturday 22nd May 2010

Yet again, this year the programme was well-balanced (Loreley Rice, Afra El Kahira, Dodo Pratt, John Sleiman to name but a few) and this year's prima guests were the diving Maria D'Silva (whom I'm completely bowled over with) and the utterly glamourous Anne White who only has to stand there to hold attention (total hussy and she won't mind me saying so either!!).  My apologies for beingunable to mention everyone, but a shout out must go to Helen Sleiman who's turning into such an accomplished dancer blessed with great choreography and imagination.

The day was beautifully rounded off when 35 students and teachers descended on our favourite Lebanese restaurant, The Riviera, and shimmied the night away.  Thank you Nikki and Neil!

report by Rita

New Design...... mmm

Just trying out a new design for our blog........ mmm not sure.....

Against Breast Cancer

April came and we were once again invited to dance in the Market Place for this fabulous cause 'Against Breast Cancer'. Here we are posing with a one of the lovely organisers in the fabulous warm sunshine. What an array of hues of pink again!

Gypsy Caravan Collective Soul Level 2

March - I travelled down to Lewes near Brighton for a 3 day Collective Soul 2 course again with the lovely Paulette Rees-Denis founder and Director of Gypsy Caravan Dance Company and hosted by Louisa Thomsen. I stayed at the delightful Dubois B&B (an absolute must stay at place!) which was about a 10 minute walk from the town.

photo - Angela & Paulette in 'Bills'

Lewes is fabulous and bursting with interesting independent shops (check out Bills, mmmm) and only a short drive to Brighton.

Anyway........ the first day we all met in Laporte's cafe - Paulette, Louisa, Angela from Tribe Zuza and Chris from Four Hundred Roses (who I met on the Level 1 course), and after hot chocolate and coffees we all trouped off and got down to the dancing. After the first day I didn't think I cope for another 2 days......where had my fitness gone??? Well, we worked hard, studied hard, ate at fabulous restaurants, laughed and chatted and on the 3rd day Angela, Chris and I were awared with our Level 2 certificates! Yay! So, I am definately 'certifiable' again!!

Paulette takes our photo whilst we huddle in

Celebrating with a glass of wine, and chilling on the chaise lounge

Hipnotic, Jazz Cafe in Reading

February saw us all travelling to Reading to perform at Hipnotic at the Jazz Cafe (check out the link, but better still pay them a visit for a brilliant evening)!

We cheered on the other dancers, took part in a few of the classes there we then performed our improvised tribal style dancing. A great evening was had by all. Check out the pictures.

Seeing the New Year in

Woo hoo, catching up on what's been happening this year starts with Kay, Philippa, Rita and Jen (belly Jen, we have 2 Jens, the other being tribal Jen), saw the New Year in celebrating it in the Dil Raj Indian Restaurant in Abingdon, eating sumptuous food, slurping superb wine, watching our belly dancer friend Jo performing yay, pulling crackers (paper ones of course), wearing hats, blowing them tooting blowey things, dancing - oh yes .. much dancing, singing Auld Lang Syne (or was it old Langs eye I sang ... mmm ....), you know, the usual kind of New Years stuff we all do.

Well according to the few pictures here, you can tell we had a blast! Enjoy the pics..................

Don't forget to go try the Dil Raj too!

Report by Kay

First Drum Performance

Our djembe drum class was asked to do a 'piece' for the Lake Street Community Centre Christmas do, as this is where we practice every week. It was a great open afternoon, with many families milling around eating mince pies, various cakes, mulled wine etc, whilst being entertained by various acts. Great community atmosphere! When the brass band stopped, it was our turn yikes! The Oxford Drum Troupe professionals drummed various fabulous African rhythms, whilst the people who thronged the room clapped and swayed and the children danced and jigged up and down. We were then invited on by the Drum Troupe for the last piece where we played 3 short rhythms with a drum call to swap from to the other. It went down well and we got a warm round of applause at the end. A big thank you to our drum circle teachers yay!! Afterwards we called into the Four Pillars hotel for a hot cup of coffee, tea and beer to celebrate.

Photo above - the professionals showing us how it's done


Photo right - Kay, Philippa and Rita getting ready

Another Birthday........

December loomed and with Christmas shopping done and presents wrapped, tree up, last card written, fairy lights turned on (yea, but not by me)..... Pippy's birthday jumped out at us suddenly, so at her request we all trouped over to her house each with a dish of food to pool into a birthday supper, with presents to swap and plenty of giggles to share. After sitting down to our feast of an array of English, Turkish, Polish, Indian food with salads and puddings, plenty of wine etc etc, (with Philippa wearing her new fairy wings heading the table) we exchanged presents and then 'hung out' and watched a dance DVD. Much laughter was had by all. Alas no pictures were taken on the big day, so I found this in our archives. Pippy modelling a piece of costuming in our dance studio....... great leg warmers! You go girl! Report by Kay

Christmas Celebration Performance Platform

November 2009 and 3 of Ashnah dancers, Kay, Jen & Rita, travelled to Swindon to take part in the Christmas Celebration Performance Platform organised by MADN (Mosaic Arabic Dance Network) held at the Phoenix Theatre at New College. Performers were plentiful and to name a few were Loreley Rice, Soraya with John Sleiman, Isisters, Helen Sleiman dancing to her fathers drumming (John Sleiman), Hazzaz, Negoum el Leyl, Afra al Kahira, Tracey Jones, guest dancers the fabulous Zehara Dancers led by Nikki Franklin performing their own Zehara tribal style and our very own delightful Ashnah dancer, Rita Maria who performed her new solo. There was a mix of various dances - Turkish pop, veil dances, isis wings dances, solo's, group dances, Egyptian pop, drum solo's and many more, whilst we performed our tribal dance to Harem with zills. After all dancers posed for professional photo's (which will appear in the next issue of the Mosaic magazine), we headed off back to Abingdon for an evening in the Thai Orchid which was simply heaven!!! Report by Rita

Halloween - or maybe not in our case

Hubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble - Philippa suggested we have an evening at hers, a trip down the pub followed by a takeaway. Last minute suggestion from me was 'let's dress up at it's Halloween'. On collection of Rita I was greeted by this ....... thing ..... bright red hair, pointy hat and a painted star over her eye ha! After much cackling all the way to Pippy's, and more shrieks of delight when she clapped eyes on Rita, we trotted off down a narrow lane in what seemed like the darkest depths of Peru, in the pitch black to the local pub. No torches and my mobile phone light wasn't bright enough eek!!!. Gingerly we held on to each other, me trailing at the back keeping an eye out for ghouls and goblins, Pippy leading the way with Rita in the middle cackling all the way. The locals eyed us with suspicion when we entered (though I think they stared at our wicked witch from the West actually), and we supped our tipple with quiet cackles (wondering who was for our cauldron). Another trek back up the darket depths of Peru back to Pippy's house, ordered our takeaway and flew there on Rita's broom, oh sorry I mean drove in my car. Again we were viewed with caution (bewilderment I think was more like it), and we drove back with our catch of Chinese food to gorge over.







Strange thing was, it wasn't Haloween! I'd got the date wrong doh!!!!!!

Tribal Vibe 2009

Following on from the Collective Soul course, I indulged in a weekend of dance workshops at Tribal Vibe held at Aylesbury, organised by Steffi Colbert of Barefoot Bellydance. I took part in Paulette Rees-Denis's Trance workshop which was wow and a must to experience, and her Shimmy Queen, Solo's in Tribal and her Formation workshop too which has given me plenty of 'food for thought'. Friday night there was a welcome party with food, wine, shopping followed by group dancing, individual troupe dancing, solo's and just get up and join in with whoever was leading, and continued on into the 'chill out' room until the early hours.

Philippa joined me on the Saturday evening and watched the show which I danced in. Afterwards Paulette got everbody up and dancing, Barefoot band played long and hard with Paulette lending a hand at drumming too, followed by more chilling in the chill out room with pizza's, wine, chatter, people being 'henna'ed' with various designs and collapsing into bed about 2am again.

Sunday loomed only too quickly and Philippa left ...... along with my hotel room key (yep, and with my luggage still in the room)!! Doh!! ;-)'

Report and artwork by Kay

Gypsy Caravan Collective Soul

I’ve just spent a fabulous 3 days on the Collective Soul Level 1 course with the amazing Paulette Rees-Denis founder of Gypsy Caravan, and hosted by Steffi Colbert of Barefoot Bellydance in Aylesbury, where I met 5 other ladies on the course too - Sharon and Kay (Kalitribe), Sandra (Tribal Hussy), Chris (Four Hundred Roses), and Sarah (Phoenix) where we talked about our backgrounds and individual paths which led us to this dance style, the history of tribal bellydance, the community spirit, the connection we felt within our own troupes, and where we see ourselves in the future with dance. We then danced, learnt new steps, zilled different patterns, and listened to drum rhythms and learnt to identify them all with Paulette’s instruction, corrections, praise, encouragement, energy and humour. We lunched together, laughed, wined, dined and studied together for the final days testing. We all passed and not only did I gain my prized certificate, I also gained a better understanding, an even bigger passion for this dance, a great feeling of well-being, a connection and a feeling of belonging, and a deep caring for my fellow dancers whom I felt I’d been dancing with for a very long time.

report by Kay White

Picture L-R Sharon, Kay W, Paulette, Kay I, Sandra and Sarah with Chris taking the picture

Against Breast Cancer

Oh the sun does shine yet again!!! What another glorious, sunny autum day it was when we were invited by Against Breast Cancer to participate in the Abingdon Splash of Pink Day which took place on the Market Place, with many shops supporting this wonderful cause by dressing their windows with shades of pink decorations and balloons. Along with the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers and Janice Day singing and reading from her book, we danced a variety of our choreographed dances and also our completely improvised tribal style too, along with Piotr playing djembe and Jen on the shakers. Then ... a first for Ashnah - oh my goodness, did someone dropped her stick!!!!! Oooh, but we pretended we hadn't noticed and carried on (in giggles).

Donations for Against Breast Cancer



Ashnah video

Bellydance Congress

Congress 09 … It’s over and I’m back to my reality .. but how sweet it was while it lasted!!! Back to back workshops for the duration, the opportunity for endless shopping, shows galore and of course burning the floor (Abdel Kader Saadoun & Band were absolutely sizzling). This 2 yearly gathering of top bellydancers, teachers and rising stars from all 4 corners of the world was this time round graced and lead by the legendary (drum rolls please) the one, the only, the inimitable Madame Fifi Abdou - this woman God bless her could teach us westerners a thing or two or three about Diva-esque behaviour but who cares? She’s earned her stripes, has written the book so I’m certainly not going to argue - long may she reign. For the first time, I had the opportunity to see Sadie dance, and on that particular night, she was just ahead of Randa Kamel. The differing styles triggered a whole discussion on the range and direction of bellydancing, from the American locking to the more fluid, original and emotive Arabic style. Khaled Mahmoud was on form and performed the best I’d seen him dance in a long time, Anasma (pictured right) took my breath away - I hadn’t had the pleasure before and she was simply mesmerising. So many headlining dancers, so many groups and a greater tribal presence as well - I cannot possibly name them all, but every single solitary one contributed in such a unique way to an absolutely memorable event......

Report by Rita

Wallingford Bunkfest 2009 (video)

Well, the weather yet again turned out to be another gorgeous day for us when we danced at Wallingford Bunkfest. After many weeks of extra rehearsing, dragging 2 unsuspecting friends along to get them to drum for us with the promise of fame and fortune (ahem), and by the time we packed all our equipment (CD player, amp, leads, sticks, zills, shakers, drums, dancers, entourage etc etc and grandads red shopping trolley to carry it all in) into 4 cars, we looked like we were off on tour!!!

Today was a 'first' for our newest member Jennifer Boyd (Jen), all the way from sunny Oxford, as she joined us for her first performance with Ashnah, as well the first time we'd danced to our live drummers too!!!! A really big thanks to Fiona and Piotr for their superb drumming and their time spent in the crash course we threw at them, and thanks to our other blonde Jen for joining in with the shakers when not dancing. Thought we all 'jelled' well folk. (Jen pictured right with Rita behind her, and below left Fiona, Piotr and our other Jen)
We performed improvised tribal (no choreography at all) on the little stage with our drummers, then the Kinecroft stage with our choreographed dances and CD's, and then trooped off to The George pub for more improvised tribal and drumming (check out the video's on Video Bar of the left of this page). With the help from our friends belly dancers Isisisters from Witney, again loaning us their amp again, we again returned to the little stage for one more time. Thanks ladies.

Tired feet, hands, and hunger loming, some trooped home whilst Fiona offered to host us at hers with showers, dancing to Bob Marley and a takeaway (with Bob accompanying us to the Chinese too).








All 'Marleyed' out now, so roll on Bunkfest 2010!! Yay!!!!

Conservative Club Family Day

Sunday 30 September 09 and Ashnah strutted their stuff at the Family Day organised by The Conservative Club (Con Club) in Abingdon. The weather was playing along, the barbecue was out, and the children kept busy with games and face paint. More mainstream entertainment was provided by the two dance groups who use the Club’s upstairs space for rehearsals so along with SalsaEngland http://www.salsaengland.org/, this was our first opportunity to show what we did every week. We did a couple of numbers outdoors and decided to finish our gig inside. The music system proved so much better and added not only general atmosphere but immeasurable bounce to our steps. This was our first showing of our recently acquired improvised tribal skills ... and even if I do so say myself ... I think it went really well .. we may not have blown the roof off but we certainly earned decent cheer. Check out our YouTube video on the Video Bar on the left hand side of this page, or click on the photo. Next stop the Wallingford Bunk Fest ... please pray for sunshine!!
Ashnah Video
article written by Rita........

A New Talent ??

Is it a phase or a craze? Neither - seems to be a new found love ........ playing drum is just sooo therapeutic. Bought a tabla a year ago after inspiration from other musicians, dabbled a bit, took workshops, then bought a djembe this year with the idea of playing for Ashnah (one day....). Along with Phil, we played with our djembes, added zills, bought some shakers, Rita and Agne joined in too - and hey! sounds ok......ish.



But who will dance if you play mmmmm.....?

maybe they'll ask Me...ow



Rita, Phil and I have now started to take lessons with the Oxford Drum Troupe www.southoxford.org/activities/odt.html. Absolutely brilliant. Yea, ok, sore hands ouch, but great fun and well recommended.

Barefoot at Warwick Folk Festival

July, warm weather, great company, laughter, plenty of dancing and lot's of wine - I danced with Barefoot Bellydance at Warwick Folk Festival. I don't think I've ever taken part in such a long procession, I couldn't feel my fingers after playing zills and dancing for so long. What a brilliant exhausting, but great experience though!




Show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I wanna go to bed ..........