{"id":4391,"date":"2012-08-27T15:49:33","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T22:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/cms\/?p=4391"},"modified":"2012-08-27T15:49:33","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T22:49:33","slug":"catherine-luxor-egypt-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/cms\/2012\/08\/27\/catherine-luxor-egypt-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dance Challenge in an Ancient Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

Farha Festival 2012 in Luxor, Egypt<\/h2>\n

\"Placeholder\"\n

by Catherine Barros<\/a>
\nPhotos by author, Kay, and others
\nposted August\t27,\t2012 <\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Farha Festival, May 16-23rd, 2012 – Organized by Kay Taylor<\/a> and Sara Farouk
\nFeaturing the orchestra, Layali el Helwa led by Ahmed Mahrous>
\nWorkshops taught by Eman Zaki, Mohamed Kazafy and Dandash<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

There are a lot of items on my ever-expanding list of travel and dance that I constantly peruse for future adventures.\u00a0 Luxor is a place that I visited in March 2005 and had been wanting to make a return visit.\u00a0 But travelling to Upper Egypt past a certain point in Spring just didn’t appeal to me due to the heat.\u00a0 Even though I live in Texas where we experience some very hot summers, nothing in Texas compares to the baking you get in Luxor.\u00a0 Needless to say, I looked longingly at Kay<\/span>’s Farha Tour<\/span> in a previous year and decided “Too hot!” without allowing myself to be swayed by the opportunity of performing with Egyptian musicians.\u00a0 But this year was different because I had a friend going.\u00a0 Well, the upshot was that I committed myself and she wasn’t able to join me due to other obligations.\u00a0 But I didn’t let that impact my decision.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Besides, I needed a personal challenge this year and dancing an improvisation solo for the final night performance with the musicians seemed to fit the bill for me.<\/p>\n

\"anotherI knew based on prior experiences with Kay Taylor’s group adventures in Cairo (see my Gilded Serpent article from 2008<\/a> ) that I would soon make friends with other participants.\u00a0 I even met another Luxor-bound dancer (Stine Olsen<\/span>) in Cairo when I stopped over at Yasmina<\/a><\/span>’s dancer Bed & Breakfast in Giza (I highly recommend the B&B).\u00a0 We both managed to put pre-Luxor dents in our pocketbooks when we teamed up for shopping (costumes and otherwise)\u00a0 and 2 Nile Dinner Cruise shows on the Nile Maxim<\/span> (Randa Kamel<\/span> and Mona Ghazi<\/span>).\u00a0 It is amazing what can be done in 2 short days in Cairo all while trying to adjust to the time change and jet lag.<\/p>\n

After my 3-nights and 2-days of Cairo, I flew off to Luxor where I was met at the Luxor International Airport by Sherif<\/span>, Sara<\/span>’s husband.\u00a0 It was rather weird to find the airport so deserted as my Egypt Air flight was the only one arriving at that time.\u00a0 Tourism is down all over Egypt and many charter flights had been cancelled.\u00a0 In fact, our Luxor sojourn had to be shifted one day as one of the main charter flights coming from the United Kingdom had its Tuesday departure cancelled.\u00a0 This impacted about half of the participants who were mainly from the U.K. but everything worked out eventually.<\/p>\n

Luxor itself was almost a ghost town compared to its former self; we stayed at the Sofitel Karnak, a resort hotel, which is a little ways outside of Luxor.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Our group of 28 plus organizers and teachers brought a small amount of needed business but the premises weren’t teaming by any means.\u00a0 How slow things are in Luxor was brought home when we went in to another hotel in Luxor to see a dance show and visit the souk.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"Pool
\n View of the swimming pool at Sofitel Karnak <\/h6>\n

The first night of arrival, we all gathered in the Sundowner Bar<\/span> overlooking the Nile for a get-acquainted session with drinks and snacks.\u00a0 The schedule was handed out and details about the upcoming days of classes and activities were explained along with several optional activities available for an extra fee (West Bank, Valley of the Kings, Hatshetsup’s Temple, Habu Temple, Karnak Sound and Light Show, felluca ride, balloon ride).\u00a0 After that, the next day we hit the ground running and didn’t stop until we all departed on the 23rd of May.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

For 4 days, we had 2-hour classes in the morning and the afternoon (alternating between the squash court and the party tent).\u00a0 Our group was split in half roughly based on which participants would do solo performances and which were going to be in the Reda Style Nubian group choreography taught by Mohamed Kazafy<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"Kazafy<\/p>\n

\"Kazafy\n <\/p>\n

Day One<\/p>\n

We alternated a Reda<\/a><\/span> style Saidi taught by Kazafy with an Eman Zaki<\/span> class “Dancing to Leila Murad”, totally different styles of dance and music.\u00a0 I’ve had classes with Kazafy before so I knew what to expect.\u00a0 His style is a bit more technically challenging than some but he never made it so hard that you didn’t learn the choreography.\u00a0\u00a0 Eman Zaki was an unknown to me as a teacher, having only heard about her costumes for several years.\u00a0 So, it was with interest that I attended her class.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

She used to be a dancer before she started making costumes for other dancers full-time.\u00a0 She has an older softer style that was reflected in her workshop topics<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I enjoyed what she taught us and found a person that was a delight to get to know for the first time.\u00a0\u00a0 After the classes broke for the day, we had an audience with Eman where she told us some of her story and people got to ask her any questions.\u00a0 At this point, I wished I was a “Lynette” with camera and recording devices at the ready.\u00a0 It was nice to just be able to listen to someone tell their story in a relaxed atmosphere.\u00a0 The evening’s after-dinner activity was an opportunity to listen to some Saidi music in the Theatre on the grounds of the hotel.\u00a0 The Nile Group<\/span> was the featured band and, at first, we mostly sat to listen to them play.\u00a0 But eventually, people were encouraged to get up and dance, which they did with much enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\"Eman\n <\/p>\n

Day Two<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eman Zaki did “Oum Kalthoum<\/a><\/span> Samia<\/a><\/span> Style” and Kazafy taught Reda style combinations, twists and turns.\u00a0 Once again, a day of contrasts but also very productive in different ways.\u00a0 The afternoon’s audience was with Kazafy.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Knowing that he came from the Reda troupe is one thing; to hear him tell about how he started with Reda and came up through the ranks then to came to the point where he started teaching was fascinating.<\/p>\n

Once again, I wish I was Lynette.\u00a0 I didn’t take any notes because I just wanted to listen.\u00a0 That night we went to a belly dance and folkloric show in Luxor at another big hotel.\u00a0 The quality of dancing was OK but it was nice to get out of the Sofitel for an evening.\u00a0 After the show, we went on to the souk for some shopping.\u00a0 I managed to limit myself to one scarf, which I didn’t really need, but was a beautiful red.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day Three<\/p>\n

… was our “free day”.\u00a0 This meant we had a break from classes and could do whatever we wanted.\u00a0 I signed up for the trip to the West Bank (a guided tour which left very early in the morning) and the Karnak Sound and Light Show<\/span> in the evening.\u00a0 In between, I took an optional class with Sara Farouk<\/span>, which was a bit of her philosophy on how to approach dancing (feeling the music, breathing from an interesting space).\u00a0 Sara is going to be a featured teacher at the next Farha Festival in August 2013 and this class was meant to be a bit of a teaser.\u00a0 Unfortunately for me, I think being out in the heat all morning had sapped my energy and I was ready for a nap more than for dancing.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Day Four<\/p>\n

It was back to dance.\u00a0 This time we had Dandash<\/span> “Dancing to Dandash’s favorite music” and Kazafy diving into Nubian music – laying down the basics for the group choreography.\u00a0\u00a0 I love Nubian although it can be quite energetic and hard on the feet.\u00a0 It was also a challenge because Kazafy started to break us up in to smaller groups, so you had to remember where you were in the big scheme of things more than when you do a solo.\u00a0 After Kazafy’s class, I went for a massage.\u00a0 Sometimes you just have to take advantage of what is available and Kay had organized a sign-up for the massages (getting us a good deal from the hotel).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dandash’s class was in the afternoon.\u00a0 I’ve had a class with her before so I knew that we were going to do “follow the bouncing butt<\/a>” method.\u00a0 There is something that I wasn’t getting though and I kept feeling frustrated by the class.\u00a0 Other’s raved about her but I find that I am not convinced about her teaching.\u00a0 Now to watch her dance is another story!\u00a0 That night was the Dandash show with dinner.\u00a0 That was a real treat as Dandash danced to the Festival’s musicians.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a wonderful evening and so nice to have such a small group to share it with.<\/p>\n

\"Class<\/p>\n

\"Class<\/p>\n

>
\n \"Dandesh<\/p>\n

\"Dandesh<\/p>\n

\"Dandesh\n <\/p>\n

\"Dandesh
\n Dandash dinner show
\n <\/h6>\n

Day Five<\/p>\n

Dandash was “feeling the music”.\u00a0 I followed along as best as I could in trying to get that feeling of my own as it is difficult to copy another dancer’s feeling.\u00a0 That afternoon, Kazafy continued to lay the groundwork for the Nubian group choreography.\u00a0\u00a0 By the time I got to the class with Kazafy, I was feeling like I should hang out and watch as I wanted to spare my feet more energetic pounding.\u00a0 Kazafy had the male dancers come to the classes that day who were going to be part of the group number.\u00a0 It was rather fun to watch and see how different the moves looked on the dancers who did it professionally.\u00a0 The audience that afternoon was with Dandash.\u00a0 As her English was not that good, Sherif (Sara’s husband) was recruited to help with translation.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, sometimes I feel that a lot is lost in translation but we did get a good overview of how Dandash started dancing and came up in her career.<\/p>\n

After the audience, many of us went off for a felluca ride then spent a relaxing evening.\u00a0 It was disco night down in the theatre but I chose to have an early night.\u00a0 By this time it had been a long 5 days in the heat and we still had a lot of work to do the next day for our rehearsals and performances.\u00a0 Plus, we had to get up very early in the morning for the balloon ride on the West Bank.\u00a0 And, by very early, I mean we had to be up for the drive to the water taxi in Luxor and then bus to the launch site so that we could be aloft by sunrise!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Felluca<\/p>\n

\"Felluca
\n Stine is in black
\n , Ann in blue tank
\n \"Felluca<\/h6>\n
\"Felluca
\n Roseanne Pouw- Kyria dances
\n <\/h6>\n

\"Felluca<\/p>\n

Day Six<\/p>\n

The dawn balloon ride over the West Bank and our big performance night!\u00a0\u00a0 The first item is the one thing I wanted to do the most as I haven’t been up in a balloon before (although performing solo baladi taxim improvisation with the musicians was a first too).\u00a0 I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to convince anyone else to do it, but we ended up with enough people in the end.\u00a0 Although we did get a few extra Egyptians to ride in the gondola with us for balance purposes I suspect.\u00a0 There were a few other balloons that went up at the same time and I am sure that every one of them had a “captain” that boasted just like ours did.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Once we were up, the view was great.\u00a0 We were able to see the sun slowly rising but also spot all the various sites that we had visited on our bus tour on a previous day.\u00a0 It was actually a very relaxing ride and I am glad I did it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

\"balloon<\/p>\n

After returning to the hotel, I had breakfast before going back for a bit of a rest and mentally preparing myself for the rehearsal with the band.\u00a0 I was nervous because I was wondering how I would approach it.\u00a0 Each dancer got 15 minutes for their rehearsal.\u00a0 Everyone had picked out the music they were going to use before they came to Luxor, so that the musicians would know what to prepare although most were fairly standard songs (just shorter versions).\u00a0 When it came time for my rehearsal and for what I wanted to do with baladi, Kay explained to the musicians and they played around a bit to sort it out.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Then they launched in to the music, I made my entrance and danced.\u00a0 I danced once! \u00a0It went well, I felt good about it and I didn’t want to jinx it by over thinking it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can’t even believe that I said I was fine and just left the stage.\u00a0 After all that nervousness sitting around waiting and watching what other people were doing.\u00a0 Well, I decided that even if I spent the full 15 minutes allotted that I probably wouldn’t\u00a0 do much different and I should just “save” it for the evening.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

And with the approach of evening came another set of jitters naturally.\u00a0\u00a0 I had enough time for napping and getting prepared for the evening, but it always ends up at some point being a rush to get myself out the door and to the performance venue.\u00a0 In this case, a short walk away.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Although it was mostly the festival attendees who were in the audience, there were some guests who had been invited to come to the performance.\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone looks so different with full makeup and costumes and I had no preconceived notions regarding which dancer was supposed to be the “best”.\u00a0 And you can’t always tell by watching people in a dance class who will be a good performer.<\/p>\n

It was a great show.\u00a0 Almost all of the participants performed either as soloists or in the group Nubian choreography plus our 2 organizers, Sara and Kay, also performed.\u00a0 The Nubian dancers were split into 2 groups so that we saw one group in the first half and the other group in the 2nd half.\u00a0 In their bright costumes, they were a whirl of activity with each dancing girl paired with a dancing boy.\u00a0 After we all performed, then we got a chance to just get up and dance to the music the DJ was spinning.<\/p>\n

The end of our 6 days was drawing rapidly to an end and I felt like I needed another go at dancing with the musicians.\u00a0 It was rather funny when I watched myself on a video that Stine took because I wondered (like I always do) “what was I doing?”.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I can’t second guess myself regarding the rehearsals at this point.\u00a0 Improvisation is truly supposed to be that.\u00a0 I have my favorite moves and I understand the music, so that part I hadn’t worried about.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 I think my nervousness showed in the fact that I danced too fast; I didn’t take my time to relish the music.\u00a0 I need to find myself my own band of baladi musicians and keep dancing.\u00a0 Well, I’d like to at least have my own accordion player.\u00a0 He was great.\u00a0 All the musicians were great.\u00a0 I wasn’t able to take advantage of the singer, Samir<\/span>, and the violinist, Ahmed<\/span>, but together, the whole group was wonderful.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

One thing I can take away from my performance is that as I walked from the stage after my performance, the riq player (who was sitting on the end) said “Bravo!”\u00a0 (ok, can I say “yippeeeee!” very quietly with a smile on my face?)\u00a0\u00a0 I hold that very dearly to me.\u00a0\u00a0 I shall dream of another day when I can perform with the band.<\/p>\n

\"Author\n <\/p>\n

\"Nubian\n <\/p>\n

After 6 days, I had to shove all my sweaty stuff back into my suitcase and return to where I came from (oh, Cairo, then Istanbul, then Cairo).\u00a0 Kay and Sara gave us a nice send off the following day.\u00a0 Everyone was transported back to the airport at various times of flight departures.\u00a0 It was a bit of an anti-climactic end as we all went rushing off our separate ways.\u00a0 Need I mention that I am already thinking about the next time?\u00a0 The Farha Festival 2013 is already scheduled for August 21-28 with Khaled Mahmoud, Sara Farouk and Mohamed Kazafy.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I don’t think I can wait that long for some good Egyptian music so I am considering joining a Cairo trip with a different slant: Discovering the Soul of Egyptian Music, Feb 17-23, 2013.\u00a0 This trip promises to immerse one in the music of the golden era (the 40’s and 50’s).\u00a0 Be still my heart! Maybe to round it out, I should stop over in Marrakech for a few days of relaxation with another Farida Adventures offering from Feb 26 – March 2, 2013. Now I am glancing at timetables, flight times and my pocketbook!!\u00a0 Yes, once again, my wish list gets longer and I must work on making more of these a reality. I hope to see some of you out there somewhere soon!<\/p>\n

\"Group
\n click photo for enlargement
\n <\/a><\/h6>\n

List of participants :<\/strong>
\nCatherine Barros(author), Ann Blagden, Joanne Bramley, Claire Cookson, Teresa Maria Garcia, Susan Geis, Natalie Gray, Ann Hall, Emma Hamilton, Kay Keddam, Angelica Khessib, Judy Linley, Valeria Lo Iacono, Sally McAllister, Mindy Meleyal, Anne Noble, Bente Petersen, Roseanne Pouw\/Kyria, Suzan Pratt, Katharine Proud, Leigh Sherratt, Frances Starbuck, Sandra Thompson, Val Waldron, Jen Woodhead\t, Gwen Mitchell, Stine (Anne) Olsen<\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
Nile Group- a Saidi band in Luxor<\/h6>\n

\n Everyone dancing to the Nile Group<\/h6>\n

\n One of the Nile Group band members dancing<\/h6>\n

\n Doing Kazafy’s Saidi choreography<\/h6>\n
 <\/h6>\n

\n<\/a><\/h6>\n
Bellydance and folkloric show with audience participation.<\/h6>\n

The Temples in Luxor<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"doorway<\/p>\n

Resources:<\/strong>
\n Author’s GS biopage<\/a><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"use<\/p>\n

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\nCheck the "Letters to the Editor<\/a>" for other possible viewpoints!<\/p>\n

Ready for more?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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