Chesters Fort, posted by Noor

This was a slightly different event for us. Roman Tours were staging a weekend of military displays and gladiatorial combat at Chesters Fort on Hadrian's Wall, and asked if the gladiator dancers could join them to take part in the gladiator show which formed the highlight of each day. Unfortunately, only Meroe and I were able to go.

Meroe in the Roman camp

Because this was not a dance event, we spent most of the weekend in Roman dress. In fact, we even went shopping for lunch in the local supermarket in Roman dress. Clearly the residents of Hexham are well used to Roman events taking place, because hardly anyone looked surprised to see us.

Shopping, Roman style

I had been warned that it would be cold and windy up there, and it certainly was. The cavalry regiment from northern Spain who occupied the fort in the third century must have wondered which deity they had offended, to be posted to such a place! Thankfully the lovely staff at Lucullus Larder, the café on-site, kept us supplied with hot drinks.

On Sunday, while the military displays were taking place, the girls strolled down to the remains of the Roman bath house to take some photographs. Don't be fooled by the words "hot bath" in the picture below!

The less-than-hot bath

We had a great weekend, and the fort and the small museum were fascinating. Apart from a brief school trip many years ago, I had never been to Hadrian's Wall. After this visit I definitely want to go back and explore more of the wall and the forts (but in warmer clothes).

A New Dance

Unfortunately, the weather gods were feeling fickle during This is Deva 2012. The weather held on Saturday, but sadly Sunday was a washout. We had planned to take photographs on the Sunday, so there isn't a lot to show for this event.

The one thing we did record was the debut of a new dance. This year's festival included live performances by Manike, and Meroe, Tameri and Phoenece performed the 'Dance of Hades', to a piece played by the group.

Phoenece, Tameri and Meroe

Brook Street Carnival, posted by Kebi

This year's Brook Street Carnival was bigger and better than ever. There were giants, and a dragon. The day started with a loud and lively parade led by a Chinese dragon. The Ya Raqs girls were followed by 5 Chester giants including William and Kate; there were Irish dancers and a fire engine as well. A truly international parade. And we all coordinated beautifully in red and black.

With the giants

Meroe, Phoenece, Aisha and Mish Mish

The residents of the Chester Lodge Care Home Gave us a rousing welcome as we passed. After the parade, we went down to the nursing home and gave a short performance of Bedouin dances. The audience of residents and staff were wonderful. I got a lovely kiss on the cheek from a gentleman resident. He really enjoyed the show.

The sun shone and everyone had a wonderful time. The music was non-stop on two stages. We danced to warm and appreciative audiences; a lively Bedouin set and later a couple of Ghawazee dances. Both times we had an enthusiastic group up dancing with us.

The temporary tattoos were a big hit with the children, and Aisha was kept busy with henna tattoos. We even made it into the local paper.           

It was a joy to dance for the residents of the nursing home. This carnival is fast becoming one of our favorite days of the year.

The biggest giggle we had was going down the slide. I haven’t laughed so much in ages. I did rather skin my elbow though!

Kebi and Meroe enjoy the slide

Many a true word spoken in jest! - Club Bellydance, Warrington

“OK!  Now let’s dance that again as if we were auditioning for the Bellydance Superstars!”  I wonder how many times that phrase has been heard in the Ya Raqs rehearsal room? Probably quite a lot, but in May of this year it finally turned out to be true!

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.

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!

Armilustrium March 2012, posted by Meroe

The official start of the Roman Campaign season found us in Lancaster (or Roman Calvnivm) to celebrate the Armilustrium.  This was a festival in honour of Mars, the god of War, and marked the beginning of a new campaign season.  Ya Raqs were there to provide an escort for our emperor, Domitianus, and some entertainment for the Roman soldiers and the good people of Calvnivm.

Phoenece and Mish Mish with the Emperor Domitianus

We started the day with a procession down from the castle to the museum.  Phoenece and Mish Mish were our two beautiful flower girls who made sure that the emperor stayed out of trouble!  Kebi, Aisha and I, donned all our best Tunisian finery.  Modern day Tunisian was part of what was Carthage, and our Tunisian costumes (called a melia) are very similar to togas that would have been worn in Roman times.

Kebi, Meroe and Aisha

We arrived at the museum in time to do our first set of the day – two Tunisian routines.  Then it was all change into our black and red Bedouin costumes, ready for our second set which comprised a Bedouin routine and a Nubian routine, which is new for this season.

The crowd was, as always in Lancaster, very warm and welcoming although we couldn’t persuade quite as many of them to get up and dance with us as we have in previous years – but we did try.  The rest of the day was spent adding a bit of colour for the visitors to the museum and providing a more decorative back-drop to the Roman military displays!

It was a very good day, albeit a tad on the chilly side.  We finished with a procession back up to the castle and then home.  Our thanks to Roman Tours and Deva Victrix for inviting us to join them, and also to the staff at Lancaster Museum who looked after us all day and provided us with an excellent lunch!

Claire House, posted by Kebi

We were delighted to be invited to dance for the children and staff at Claire House Children’s Hospice last month. We were made to feel very welcome.

When we arrived we discovered it was also the birthday of one of the young men, I think he enjoyed our rendition of Happy Birthday.

We thought a bit of glamour was called for, so out came our “evening” dresses, and of course the audience had to be glammed up as well.


Tameri, Phoenece and Kebi with one of the children

I can honestly say they were the most enthusiastic audience we have danced for in a long time. It took very little encouragement for the room to be full of clapping and shaking of bells and tambourines. A couple of the carers also had a go at dancing and there is some definite talent there!


Tameri, Phoenece and Kebi show two of the carers some moves

It was a wonderful evening, and the children really enjoyed themselves. It was a pleasure and honour for us to perform for them.

When we had finished, we were presented with a beautiful thank-you card the children had made for us.


The card from the children

Claire House is a wonderful happy, joyful, caring place, which holds a special place in my heart. Please check out their website and support them any way you can.

Historical Happenings at the World Museum Liverpool, posted by Meroe

March already and our first event of the season, and what an event it was. The World Museum, Liverpool had invited us to take part in their Historical Happenings weekend, which gave us the opportunity to perform no fewer than three times each day in the Treasure House Theatre – what a treat.

The museum was packed with visitors as well as re-enactors of all kinds – Romans, Vikings and Medieval knights. There were demonstrations of weaving and flint knapping, musicians, knights with their hawks, even Mesopotamians with a remarkable replica of the golden lyre from Ur. And last, but by no means least, the dancers of Ya Raqs, who treated the museum’s visitors to three different dance displays over the course of each of the two days.


Phoenece, Aisha and Meroe, in their Tunisian costumes, attempt to outshine the Golden Lyre. Photograph courtesy of Andy Lowings

Our first set of each day was Tunisian, which gave us an opportunity to get out all the bling that we have been collecting. The show was divided into two halves – the first was an explanation of the costume and this gave a member of the audience a chance to get dressed up as a Tunisian dancer. On the first day it was a little girl who would have been drowned by the four yards of fabric that make up the costume, so she just wore all the jewellery and the head-dress. On the second day, our volunteer was a little older and a little taller so could wear the full costume. The museum staff all seemed quite impressed that we managed to get a sizeable audience for this show – normally the first show of the day is very quiet, but not this time. News that the Ya Raqs girls were in town had clearly got round!

The second performance on both days called for a change of costume and a change of style – Bedouin – and a chance for us to try out two new routines, which went down really well. On the Sunday we tried something a little different and rather than just dance all four dances straight through, we encouraged the audience to get up and dance with us for the final dance of the show.

The third performance was yet another costume change, this time into our Ghawazee coats for another full set. By this third performance word had spread and we were dancing to almost a full house! Once again we had the audience dancing in the aisles with us at the end of this performance. To be honest, the audience for all three shows on both days were amazing – they clapped, they cheered, we’d even taught them the zaghereet – it makes such a difference to have an audience that joins in.

By the time we’d had our final photo call of the day, which followed each performance, it was 2:30 and we had finished the “official” part of our time at the museum, but the event itself didn’t actually finish until 4:00. Anyone who knows the Ya Raqs girls know that they never pass up a chance to dance if they can absolutely help it, so what did we do? Yes, you guessed it – have portable PA will travel, and we busked our way around the museum galleries for the rest of the afternoon. We did a set in the Egyptian gallery; one outside the aquarium, and at 3:30 on both days Aisha managed to sweet-talk one of the knights in to allowing us access to their arena in the atrium so we could put on one final impromptu performance, just to finish off each day.


Tameri, Mish-Mish, Aisha, Phoenece and Meroe on the steps of the museum

The girls danced their socks off and by the end of the weekend we were all shattered. No fewer than eight mini shows during the course of the two days, as well as some busking; that comes to a grand total of about 24 dances – no wonder we ached all over.

It was a wonderful way to start off our 2012 season and our thanks go to Gina Couch from World Museum Liverpool for inviting us to join in with their event, and also to Adam Gledhill who was our tech-guy in the Treasure House theatre. Adam made sure the music was nice and loud; the theatre was packed with an enthusiastic audience for every performance, and provided us with lighting that was so flattering, it made it look like we’d all been airbrushed – for that alone we will love Adam forever!