Monday, October 19, 2009

Dance Musings - Tribal Vibe, 16-18 October, Aylesbury

On Saturday I attended Tribal Vibe - my first time at a bellydance event that was devoted to ATS/ITS.

My day was kick-started with “Shimmy Queen” - a workshop with the wonderful Paulette Rees-Denis of Gypsy Caravan. I’d been to one of her workshops before in Edinburgh and she was as excellent a teacher as I remembered. We took a whistle stop tour through basic shimmies and then on to combos. It was an energetic workshop and my shimmies definitely felt the benefit.

After lunch, it was time for some “Dynamic Duos” with Philippa and Jesse of Moirai Tribal. The workshop focused on a core group of moves and using them in passes, turns and lead changes with a partner. It was great fun and taught me how to add an extra dimension to dancing in duets.

My final workshop was “Spins and Formations” with Sarah from Tribe of Kismet. We started off discussing elements that help when performing fast turns before trying to encompass them into a basic spin. Once we were well and truly dizzy, we moved on to formations and how to maintain them while changing lead. Finally, we combined practising formations and throwing in some fast spins for good measure. I did feel more confident spinning by the end of the class – I still can’t get the hang of spotting though!

I was unable to stay for the whole evening show but I did manage to see the first half. It was amazing to see all the different styles of ATS/ITS in the one place. I wasn’t convinced by the performances with large chorus lines, but I think in a larger space they would have worked better. I was, however, very impressed with Kalash who danced with such amazing energy I swear I could feel it emanating into the audience. Moirai Tribal, and their student troupe Apsara, were as fantastic as ever, although I am terribly biased!

Overall, I had an amazing day and learned so much from truly excellent teachers. I do hope Barefoot Bellydance decide to go ahead with next year’s event, as I will certainly be there!

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1 Comments:

Blogger Alicia Foodycat said...

I had a great day too - sometimes just doing weekly classes it feels like I am never going to progress, but then doing a workshop like those makes me realise that I have progressed and lets me see a bit into the future of where I can go.

10:18 am  

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