Another new
event for Ya Raqs and our first outing to Connahs Quay. We were very pleased to have been invited to
be part of a brand new festival celebrating
diversity – North East Wales Diversity Festival.
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| Lina, Phoenece, Naima and Meroe |
With a bag full of spare sparkly hip
belts, lots of chiffon scarves and a hand full of Ya Raqs dance certificates we
made our way to the Civic Hall for our first of two dance sessions. The first
was a workshop and although there were only a few folk to dance with us, boy
did they throw themselves in to it. They
all did brilliantly and we even managed to get some of the stewards up too!
Just time for a quick break to recharge
our batteries as only Ya Raqs can – and yes, before you ask, that did involve tea and
cake!
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| What cake? you blinked so you missed it! |
Our second set was a trip through the
villages of Egypt with folkloric dances from the Delta right down in to Upper
Egypt in the south. We had a great time
and it was quite a luxury for us to dance on a proper dance floor, inside – so
no fear of getting cold and wet!
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| Set 2 in full swing with Meroe, Kebi, Lina and Naima |
We met up with some old friends – Rob
Davies and one of the Ravens from the Tower or London – and made some new ones –
in the shape of Paul Shanley, Magician.
Paul wowed us with a private magic show and despite being under
Phoenence and Naima’s beady eyes we still couldn’t work out how he did it!
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| Phoenece and Naima with Rob and the raven. |
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| Phoenece with her 6 of Clubs, but can Paul guess it? Naima's got the proof - yes he can! |
Thanks to all those involved in making
the 2016 Diversity festival such a success – and thank you for letting us be
part of it.
