Mini Roman Festival, posted by Meroe

Well it wasn’t the all singing, all dancing Roman event we have all loved and enjoyed in previous years. But despite the lack of any support from various quarters, Ya Raqs were determined to support the Romans and early Britons who put on a mini Roman Festival in Chester’s amphitheatre on Sunday 1st June.

Dumnonika's display attracted a lot of interest

It was a fantastic day and we had a great crowd. We were lucky enough to do a couple of performances, and some mini-me workshops. And the Romans – well they did all their Roman stuff that they are so good at.

Teddy gets a hip scarf too! Phoenece and friends in a workshop.

It was a fantastic day and if you came to the event and had even a bit of a good time could we please PLEASE ask you to spread the word and tell folk what a great time you had. We need to bring the BIG Roman festival back to Chester and celebrate this city’s amazing Roman Heritage. Thank you.

A great day at Brook Street Carnival, posted by Phoenece

Sunday 25th May saw us back at the Brook Street Carnival. It was our 4th year at Brook Street and we had been looking forward to it - it’s one of our favourite events.

For the second year running we were sponsored by the Istanbul BBQ, a Turkish restaurant in Brook Street, so we set up our little home from home outside their restaurant. This was our base for some impromptu performances and for some henna.

Meroe, Phoenece, Kebi, Mish Mish, Naima, Tameri and Aisha perform a Tunisian dance

Our first set of the day was a Tunisan routine - which gave us the chance to wear all of our bling - followed by a Moroccan scarf dance. This was a new routine with lots of formation changes in it - we were in and out of formation like the red arrows! We were warmly welcomed at the old folk’s home for a private performance for them and even managed to get some of the staff to join in.

Moroccan scarf dance

One of our “missions” for the event was to try and get the crowd to join us as we performed a fun Lebanese line dance – a debke. We didn’t quite manage the cast of thousands we hoped for, but Meroe said that next year we aim to have a line running the full length of Brook Street.

Debke outside the Istanbul BBQ

Our day was finished of nicely with a fantastic meal at the Istanbul BBQ. Our thanks to the organisers of the Carnival for inviting us; to our sponsors the fabulous Istanbul BBQ; and especially to Betty - who gave us the run of her flat in Brook Street to use as our dressing room. Thank you Betty - and we apologise in advance for the fact that you’ll probably be finding sequins and glitter in your flat for weeks to come!

Liverpool World Museum 22nd and 23rd March 2014, posted by Naima

Our second event of 2014 was at the World Museum in Liverpool. Meroe, Kebi, Aisha, Tameri and I all headed over the water to Liverpool. Well not really over the water – more under it as we went through the Mersey tunnel!

When we arrived at the Museum, we were shown to our changing room. Once we had set up our performance arena and got changed into our costumes, the music started to play and we were joined by the lovely people of Liverpool who had come with their families to see the attractions at the Museum.

After our first performance, Meroe did a workshop for all the little girls and a couple of boys who wanted to dance with us. We dressed them up in sparkly outfits and afterwards they were given a certificate to say they had danced with Ya Raqs at the Liverpool Museum.

We had a break for lunch and did another 3 performances. Each time we had a lovely crowd clapping and zaghareeting along with us - Meroe had shown them how to do this beforehand!

It was all over too soon and we had to pack up - tired but very happy that everyone had enjoyed our performances. The lovely staff at the Museum told us we had 420 watching us during the day.

Sunday started on a beautiful sunny day, and we were back to do it all again, but this time without Meroe, who had a prior engagement with Hossam and Serena Ramzy down in London.

It was a little quieter than on Saturday, but that didn’t deter us from putting on our usual brilliant show. As soon as we started playing our captivating music, people came from all over the Museum to watch us. They were even watching from the balconies overlooking our dance arena.

We even managed to get the staff up dressed up and dancing with us. We then took a welcome break for lunch and had cake, which seems to be a tradition of Ya Raqs.

A member of the museum staff dancing with Naima and Tameri

The crowds were a little smaller than they had been on Saturday, but there were still about 250 people who enjoyed our show. There were certainly a lot of happy boys and girls who couldn’t wait to be dressed up and dance with us. They even got a memento to take home with them - one of our special dance certificates.

We had a great time and would like to thank all the lovely staff at the Liverpool World Museum not only for their warm welcome but for making us feel at home. They helped to make it a fun weekend for everyone, including us. We look forward to a repeat performance in August. So if you are free the weekend of 16th and 17th August why not come to the World Museum and join in the fun?

Club Baklava – February 2014

The dance season for 2014 got off to a cracking start for the Ya Raqs girls as they travelled all the way to sunny West Sussex to perform at Club Baklava – one of the newest Belly Dance Show Cases in the UK and the brainchild of Hossam and Serena Ramzy.

The Ya Raqs girls were thrilled that their performance for Hossam and Serena back in September had made enough of an impression for them to be invited to dance at Club Baklava 5 in East Grinstead this year.

Meroe is currently undertaking the Advanced Dancer course with Hossam and Serena, and she was already in East Grinstead for one of her monthly classes. But the others made an outing of it and headed south by train on the morning of Thursday 20th February. It proved to be quite an eventful trip with Naima almost getting stuck in one of the turnstiles on the London underground - but they finally made it the Poison IV club in one piece!

Kebi, Aisha, Naima and Phoenece performed first – a revamped version of Aziza. There hasn’t been much of an opportunity just lately to perform in our lovely glamorous dresses, so this was a real treat – it went brilliantly and the crowd went wild!

Kebi, Aisha, Phoenece and Naima - photo courtesy of Chris Parfitt

The second half of the show saw Meroe performing a solo to Enta Omri I in a dress she made herself especially for this show – given that Meroe isn’t much of a dressmaker it wasn’t at all bad, and fitted the music perfectly.

Meroe's solo - photo courtesy of Chris Parfitt

There was then a quick change for Meroe and a complete contrast to Enta Omri as she joined Kebi, Mish Mish and Aisha to perform a Bedouin routine to Efrooh Bawadina. The choreography was originally written by Serena Ramzy, but had been adapted for Ya Raqs by Meroe. The routine certainly lifted the mood in the club and the crowd went mad – in a good way. All the girls were on a high, made even better by a big hug from Serena who said that they had done her choreography proud. The costumes – made by Meroe and Phoenece – looked amazing too!

Aisha, Meroe, Kebi and Mish Mish - photo courtesy of Chris Parfitt

It was a great night and we are grateful to both Hossam and Serena for giving some of our girls this opportunity to dance somewhere new. The rest of the show was equally brilliant with lots of very talented dancers and we look forward to dancing with some of them again in the future – not too far in the future hopefully, so watch this space!

Hossam Ramzy Weekend – Chester 2013

Well who would have thought it – Ya Raqs sharing the bill with Hossam and Serena Ramzy! But that is exactly what happened the weekend of 14th and 15th September.

Meroe was lucky enough to persuade Hossam and Serena to come to Chester to do a full weekend of workshops. It was great. Serena taught two fantastic routines – a Saaidi stick on the Saturday and a drum solo on the Sunday. It wasn’t just a case of learning the steps - Serena and Hossam took the time to explain the music and how you interpret the music so the routine is both fun for the dancer and fun for the audience, but more importantly true to the music!

As part of the weekend there was a hafla in the evening which was a sell out – no great surprise given the line up. Meroe and the other dancers who had been at the workshop worked a minor miracle to transform the hall into a little piece of Egypt.

Highlights from the evening for Ya Raqs was a solo from Meroe, and the chance for Kebi, Aisha, Naima and Phoenece to dance a Bedouin routine with Serena – completely unchoreographed, although you would never have guessed it.

Dancing with Serena

It was a fantastic night, with some amazing dancers – thanks to all those who performed Mina Bryant and her group, Caroline Thorpe, Jane Hammond, Rhiannon Garrett, Heather Honeyman, Cecile DaSilva, Mark Carylon and particularly to Serena and Hossam Ramzy.

Meroe and Serena

There will be more events like this to come – in fact we are plotting and planning to bring a similar event to Manchester in 2014 – so watch this space!

Ya Raqs at Wellingborough - the movie

Click here to see Ya Raqs dancing with Serpentyne at the Wellingborough Medieval Festival in July. Thanks to Maggie Sand of Serpentyne for the video.

Doncaster 2013, posted by Kebi

Autumn has arrived, so it was off to Doncaster for the Ya Raqs girls, for the last outdoor event of the year, the St Leger Festival. It was wonderful to meet up with the boys and girls from Deva Victrix and the VIII Augusta. We had seen very little of them this year.

The Saturday was somewhat windy and cool, a bit of a shock after the wonderful weather we have had this summer. Nevertheless the awning went up in record time and we were soon dancing for the entertainment of passers by (and to keep warm).

The girls managed the Dance of Death wonderfully, with veils that at times seemed to want to take flight. Naima did brilliantly on her first performance of the dance, in difficult weather conditions. The gladiators were on form and the show went very well. But not everyone was happy! More on that later.

Naima ready to dance

The Dance of Death - with gladiators

Saturday night involved yet more dancing; of the night club variety. The Buzzcocks were playing in town, so we decided to head out for a meal and go watch the concert. We had a wonderful Sicilian meal in Fratelli’s. The waiter was Tunisian, so we showed him some photos of our Tunisian costumes. He was really impressed and quite emotional that we loved his country’s music.

At Fratelli's

Later, we were on our way to the concert, and just popped into a bar, which was playing music from the 60s 70s and 80s. We had such fun dancing, we missed the Buzzcocks! (Some of the Romans went and said they were fantastic.)

Dancing the night away

The Sunday started a little warmer and sunny. We danced all afternoon, the children loved dressing up and joining in. One lady arrived at 10 am with her chair and a picnic and sat all day waiting to dance in Meroe’s workshop.

Taking a break

A group of children sat happily watching the gladiator show, yelling support for Leonidas, and calling for his opponent to die horribly. The look on their faces as they got what they wanted was priceless. Their jaws practically hit the floor.

After the trainer had tamed the bear, and the gladiators that the bear had dispatched had been removed, the bear reappeared with a sign on his back, "Equal rights for Bears!" He was not happy about being left out of the Dance of Death. So to the amusement of everyone, he had his own mini version of the dance performed by Meroe.

The day ended with Aisha leading the performers in a dance to Way Down by Elvis Presley. It's funny how they were somewhat reluctant to come into the arena yet when they were there we couldn’t stop them dancing.

Doncaster was as much fun as always. We were well looked after by the Premier Inn staff, (who remembered us, even out of costume) and the staff of Doncaster council. It is a lovely way to end our season.