JoY for the Ya Raqs Girls, posted by Meroe

We’re tired and we ache all over – but in a good way. Four of the Ya Raqs girls have been away to JoY (Jewel of Yorkshire) in Saltaire for a fantastic weekend of music and dance and shows and …….. and sticky toffee pudding!

Jewel of Yorkshire – for those of you who don’t know – is an amazing event that happens twice a year. Some fabulous dance teachers from all over the world descend on the Victoria Hall, Saltaire to provide some incredible dance tuition in virtually every style of Arabic/Middle Eastern/Belly dance you can think of.

Some of the girls from Ya Raqs were treated to workshops including Lebanese raqs sharqi with Farah Nasri, and some intense torso work that not only challenged the muscles we didn’t know we had, but exercised the brain too with Saqra. Saqra also taught us a thing or two about the Ghawazee style. And last, but by no means least some absolutely wonderful classes on baladi, dancing to the music of Omm Kulsoom and learning some of the dance moves made famous by legends such as Mona Saeed and Nagwa Fouad by the one and only Mayodi.

Phoenece, Meroe, Kebi and Noor with Mayodi

There was a open platform stage for participants of the festival to strut their funky stuff on Friday night – which was great – and on Saturday the teachers and guest dancers showed us all how it was done. All in all a fantastic weekend. In fact we enjoyed it so much we’ve booked up already for the April JoY!

And what about that reference to sticky toffee pudding, I hear you ask? Well, absolutely nothing to do with dancing at all, but at the café in Salts Mill they served the most scrumptious sticky toffee pudding that kept those all important sugar levels up – couldn’t have done all that dancing without it and we highly recommend it!