World Museum Liverpool

We were invited to perform at the private view of the new Ancient Egypt gallery at World Museum Liverpool on Thursday 4 December. This took place in the evening, with the new gallery opening to the public the next day.

The gallery is on the second floor, but we danced in the museum's main foyer, beneath the pterodactyl skeleton suspended from the ceiling! As if this wasn't enough, we also got to share a changing room with one of the mini Superlambananas created for the Liverpool 08 European Capital of Culture.


Over the course of the evening we danced two sets. The first set used traditional music, costumes and dances while the second was more modern. After the second set we invited audience members to join in, and demonstrated some basic moves.

Image courtesy of National Museums Liverpool

Once we had danced, we had a chance to visit the new gallery. It looked amazing, and our only regret was that there wasn't time to look around properly. You can follow the links from the museum blog here to find out more.

The sun always(?) shines – a review of the year

2008 wasn't the best of summers; at times it seemed as though it never stopped raining. However looking back at the photographs from some of the events Ya Raqs attended over the year, we had a surprising number of good days, some days which were at least dry, and one very wet day!

Our year started with the Festival of Minerva in May. Chester has the only rock cut Roman shrine remaining in situ in the UK and Deva Victrix, Chester's Roman legion, hold an annual festival at the site. This was also the first time we used our tent, which over the summer became our home from home.
Meroe

In June we were invited to the Welwyn Festival Roman Day, held at the Roman baths on the outskirts of Welwyn. This event included displays of Roman and Celtic daily life, recreated by Colchester Roman Society and Celtic Harmony. Military might was provided by Legion XIIII and II Augusta Legion.
This was the first Roman event we had attended without Chester's 20th Legion. However it was also the first event at which we offered temporary and henna tattoos, and as Mish-mish had found the emblem of the original Legion XX in Chester museum we were able to demonstrate that we remained firmly Deva girls!

The sun shone, and it was a beautiful day. There were lots of things to see and do, but Noor managed to find some time to make a few repairs to the tent (with help from Hebba!)


July saw us back in Chester, performing at the Roman amphitheatre as part National Archaeology Weekend

Phoenece, Noor and Aisha

Meroe's sword dance, with Kebi drumming

Later that month we danced at the Chadkirk festival, again in brilliant sunshine.

So far we had had dull days and sunny days and a few showers, but nothing serious.
August was when our luck with the weather finally ran out. We accompanied Deva Victrix on a weekend event at Beeston Castle, an English Heritage site in Cheshire. On the Saturday we managed to get the tent up in the dry, but then the heavens opened.

The day looked like being a complete washout. However the English Heritage staff kindly rearranged their (indoor) display area to make some room, we made some quick adjustments to choreographies to adapt to the smaller space, and we were able to perform for the hardy souls who had braved the atrocious weather to come out.
Sunday couldn't have been a greater contrast. The sun shone again, and we were able to perform outdoors.

waiting to start

Aziza, Aisha, Mish-mish and Kebi

Kebi and Meroe

Hebba, Aisha, Phoenece, Aziza, Kebi, Meroe,
Noor and Mish-mish

Our final outdoor event of the summer was the Harlow show in August.

Phoenece, Mish-mish, Aisha, Hebba and Aziza resist the temptation of ice cream!

We have one more outdoor event this year, the Saturnalia parade in Chester on the evening of Thursday 18 December. More details will be posted nearer the time.

Festival of the Ancestors, posted by Meroe

Ya Raqs embarked on a slightly more sombre event on 2nd November by supporting Chester’s very own Deva Victrix in the Festival of the Ancestors. It was arguably one of the coldest events we’ve taken part in this year and all I can say is thank goodness for thermal underwear – not terribly authentic, but what the eye doesn’t see………!

Meroe, Hebba, Kebi and Mishmish traded their usual dance costumes to become official mourners at the re-enactment of a Roman funeral – that of a poor dead gladiator called Pisces Phalanges. Although his name brought smiles to those who had worked out what his name meant, the sentiment of the event was authentic and was approached with the professionalism for which Deva Victrix is famous. For our part, Ya Raqs provided not only the professional mourners but also the dancers who were bought in to entertain the family and friends after the funeral – as would have been the norm in Roman times.

Our funeral procession left the Grosvenor Museum at 2pm and soulfully wound its way through the streets of Chester, finally making its way back to the museum. Each member of Deva Victrix has taken on the name of a real Roman who lived and died in Chester and one by one they made offering to their namesakes in the Stones Gallery –as with many ancient religions, the Romans believed that by speaking the name of the dead they were restored to life.

The mood then lightened as we changed from our mourning outfits to our dance costumes to celebrate the lives of the ancestors that we had just honoured. At 3:30pm, the procession left the museum and headed down to the Groves by the river where there was an opportunity for everyone to set free candle lights on the River Dee in remembrance of their own lost loved ones. In the dusk of that cold November evening, it was truly magical to watch our little lights of remembrance making their way downstream.

As with all good funerals, there was a party to bring possibly one of our chilliest events this year to a close.

The British Museum, more pictures

When we were dancing we were aware that there were lots of people taking photographs, and we wondered how these had turned out. Happily we've been able to see a few of them, and here they are. Many thanks to Mike Franklin for permission to include this link to his photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikefranklin/2865326736/in/photostream/

The British Museum part 3, posted by Noor

Standing on the steps of the British Museum with Aziza, I was starting to get worried. The minutes were ticking by, and there was no sign of the others. Fortunately just as the word "duet" was mentioned, they appeared.

Not all of the members of Ya Raqs have been able to come to the last few events we have attended, so it was great to get everyone together for this one. However even with all ten of us there, the Great Court is such a huge space that I thought we might be completely lost in it. Somehow when we came to dance, the area formed by the arc of the audience was just right.

After each performance there was a workshop, where Meroe taught some basic steps and then brought them all together in a simple dance. Judging from the enthusiastic (if not very Roman) conga which wound round our corner of the Great Court, our audience really enjoyed the opportunity to have a go themselves.

When I'm not dancing, I am one of the costume makers for the group, and I have not long finished our red and yellow Ghawazee coats. I was thrilled to see how good they looked when we danced, with the white sleeves and the scarlet skirts swirling around us.
Here are some photographs of the day:

The British Museum part 2, posted by Hebba

As we waited at the station for the train into London my nerves began to kick in. I think some of the others were nervous too because when you get more than seven women together you expect some noise and we were awfully quiet. I have not been in London for several years and it took me a little while to get used to the volume of people in a hurry to get to their destination immediately. I had a big bag over my shoulder and I definitely clipped a few heads (by accident) with my bag as I turned to get my bearings a few times. Sorry London folk.

I have never been to the British Museum, what a fantastic place. Apparently it's like an iceberg, it has so much more in storage underground. I like the thought of that. Inside the building it was incredibly light, I think that was due to the huge glass dome and the beautiful white stone from floor to ceiling, which I assume was a lot of marble, then there was the noise. So many voices talking quietly in so many different languages, all milling around the great court, brilliant. We were taken downstairs by a really kind person called Babs who was there to look after us for the day. We all got changed and went upstairs into "The Great Court", then milled around saying hello to the other re-enactors and to people wandering around, until it was time for us to perform. Words cannot come close to how scared and excited I was. In one of the dances, I had to dance with three other women with a stick balanced on my head and I did it. I thought I was going to explode with sheer joy, (how sad is that?) and the audience were so lovely they smiled clapped cheered us on and then asked lots of questions about what our lives might have been like as dancing girls following the Roman cohort around. We then spent a good few hours wandering around the British Museum adding colour and having our pictures taken by tourists and visitors. After a quick costume change into our Ghawazee coats we had our pictures taken outside in the sun by the Hadrian's Wall display and on the steps of the British Museum. I tend to take a really bad photo, I am either talking, pulling faces or have my eyes closed, so I hope there is at least a couple that have turned out okay with me looking relatively normal.

Before the second set, people were sitting down a good ten minutes before we were due to start, word had got round the dancing girls were in town. I thought the first crowd was big the second crowd was massive. People were holding cameras in the air to take photos, the audience seemed ten deep, people were standing behind us and watching us from the stairs it was incredible. We danced our best ever. We were in time, smiling; it was perfect. I felt so proud dancing with my friends. Then it was all over. We danced our last dance, took our bows and then answered more questions from interested people. I felt so happy that we had done it and sad that it was all over. We stayed in costume for another hour, then, when the Museum was closing, we went downstairs and got changed back into our twenty-first century clothes.

This has to date been one of the coolest things I have ever done.

British Museum, part 1

Wow! We had a fantastic time performing at the Roman world day held at the British Museum on 13 September. The day explored the art, culture and everyday life of the Roman Empire, and was part of the Hadrian: Empire and Conflict exhibition. Details and pictures coming soon, watch this space!

Henna Tattoos

This summer, as well as dancing, we have been able to offer henna tattoos to visitors at the events we have attended. The tattoos are drawn on to the skin, and then left to dry. Once dry, the henna will drop off or can be brushed off, leaving the skin beneath stained brown. The tattoo will then fade over a couple of weeks.
Note: We only use natural henna with no additives.
These are some of our designs

Harlow Show - 31 August

We have seen lot of rain at our last few events, but it stayed dry for most of the day (although when it finally rained, it was a downpour). Only Pheonece, Hebba, Mish-Mish, Aisha and Aziza made it down to Harlow, but they saw off competition from the World Wrestling Federation(!) to entertain the crowds.

The Story So Far

Ya Raqs was formed in 2005 from two Arabic dance classes in Chester and the Wirral. Our intention was to concentrate on traditional Arabic dance, rather than more modern and 'belly dance' styles. Our debut performance was a small hafla (party) in Tattenhall organised by and for Meroe's Chester based class.

Over time, our repertoire has expanded to include North African dance as well. Our first public performance was at the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival Family Day at Sefton Palm House in July 2006. Chester is a Roman city and still has many Roman remains, including an amphitheatre. The city's Roman history is brought to life by Roman Tours, who stage events throughout the year. It is known that the Romans employed Middle Eastern dancers to entertain the troops, although there is no record of any coming to Britain. In 2007 we were invited to perform at a number of Roman Tours' events, including National Archaeology Weekend, the Chester Roman Festival and a torchlight parade for Saturnalia, the midwinter festival.

In March this year we were invited to dance at the 2nd British Egyptology Conference, held at the University of Liverpool. For this we swapped our traditional costumes for something a little more glamorous.

As well as events in Chester, we have ventured further afield, dancing at the Welwyn Roman Day, the Chadkirk Festival in Stockport and Beeston Castle in Cheshire.