On 19th May five of the Ya Raqs dancers were lucky enough to be invited to take part in Club Bellydance, a new concept as part of the Bellydance Superstars UK Tour for 2012, at the Pyramid Theatre in Warrington. The idea behind Club Bellydance is that local talent make up the first half of the show, with five members of the Bellydance Superstars line up doing the second half. It was a chance for us to trade our warm fleecy cloaks that are more suited to the normal venues we dance in – i.e. a windswept field or Roman site – for the warmth of the stage lights, the smell of stage make-up and the roar of an appreciative audience! OK, so stage make-up doesn’t really smell, but everything else was true – getting a bit carried away in after-glow of working in a proper theatre!
We had two slots in the show and it gave us a chance to show off what we do best – folkloric dance from Egypt and North Africa. The first number was a group routine in our Tunisian costumes. There really was a roar when the lights came up and we stood there in all our Tunisian finery. A faultless performance that, according to friends and family in the audience, received some of the loudest and longest applause (of course, they could be biased)!
The second slot of the show was a solo by Meroe, who took the opportunity to perform essentially an Egyptian classical routine with a medieval twist to try and highlight the fact that we don’t only do Roman period re-enactment.
The rest of the first half was brilliant with some fantastic performances from other groups and soloists from the North West. As for the second half, well what can I say - A-MA-ZING. The Bellydance Superstars were most certainly on form that night, as you would expect.
After the show the “professionals” and the local talent got together for a group photograph and it gave us all a chance to talk – the Bellydance Superstars are just really, really nice people and it was a fantastic experience.
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| Meroe (2nd from left, middle row) and Ya Raqs, with the rest of the cast |
Thank you to Tracey Gibbs from Taste of Cairo, who was overseeing the organisation of the local talent for Club Bellydance, for inviting Ya Raqs to join them. And if you ever need someone to fill in again, you know where we are. Happy to audition for you anytime you want!
