Tamr Henna Workshop - You girls rock!

Last night I held a choreography workshop at BellyUp. Over ten students attended to learn a choreography that was created by the famous Aida Nour to a traditional Egyptian song "Tamr Henna". Tamr Henna is the movie title and theme song to the 1957 classic Egyptian movie starring legendary Orientale Dancer and movie star "Naima Akef". Tamr Henna means henna flower and the vocals in the song were sung by Fayez Ahmed who is singing about the vanishing of her sister as she wonders what has become of her. It's a beautiful song and a challenging one for any dancer to master. Our hardworking students, as always, came ready to work hard for 2 1/2 hours and that they did. The windows were steamed by the time we were done so we knew we worked hard. I broke the song down by muscial phrases or paragraphs and presented each line of the choreography. Then we'd practice from the top, again and again until each phrase of choreography began to settle into muscle memory. A few spots were difficult as the beat is less distinctive and doing your counting became essential in order to get "spot on" with all the accents. But we focused and we got it! One thing is for sure, BellyUp students have developed a strong sense of musicality which certainly helps with a more complex musical arrangement like Tamr Henna . Also Aida Nour's technique is very clean and precise which is why it looks so simplistic, but isn't always that easy. The routine uses the Hagallah, lots of sit kicks, big hip accents, sassy pivots with shoulder shimmies, very slow pelvic circles and figure 8's, Arabesques, hip drops, travelling undulations, plus lots and lots of soft, slow shimmies combined with layered stomach undulations and sharp hip accents. Plus plenty of directional changes to up the challenge level too. Boy were we busy! But by 9:30pm. we were ready to show off our new routine. Fortunately BellyUp's Tribe Maya Fire rehearses on Thursdays so we invited the girls in from the next room to watch. They came equipped with their zils and added the perfect instrumental touch which was alot of fun. Our Tribal sisters were impressed as much with our progress as we were with their zil playing. Great night girls...and as always it's an honour and a privledge to teach and dance with you. Let's get together again and practice the routine some more. Thank you!