BellyUp Goes to the Nile Group Festival
Cairo, Egypt
I was was honoured to host a Master class workshop at the November 2010 Nile Group Festival in Cairo, Egypt. 20 BellyUppers accompanied me on this journey to the motherland of bellydance for a 2 week stay. The Nile Group festival ran for 7 days with dancers from all over the world and a wealth of Master teachers to take workshops with all day long for the entire week. The evenings were full of fabulous shows with a wide variety of dancers performing and incredible live musicians. Conveniently the workshops are all held in the hotel in which we stayed. The Pyramisa Hotel in downtown Cairo is the perfect location and close to many of the cities incredible tourist attractions.
BellyUp Students with Mahmoud Reda Joharah with Mona El Said Veronica, Hayley & Me with Farida Fahmy
The sublime Aida Nour performing! The much adored Khaled Mahmoud on opening night. The elegance of Liza Laziza!
BellyUp students got to study with many of the world's finest teachers and choreographers including Mahmoud Reda, Farida Fahmy, Aida Nour, Mona El Said, Khaled Mahmoud, Dr. Hassan Khalil, Lubna Emam, Nour and Asmahan to name only a few. To us...this was truly Oriental dance heaven! In addition to all the dance training, the Nile Group Festival's Beach Tours were so wonderful to us and always there to help plan and escort us on some breathtaking day trips so that we could take in the sights, sounds and smells of all that is Egypt. We visited the Pyramids, travelled to Alexandria, Luxor and of course spent endless hours at the Khan el Kalili Bazaar in downtown Cairo. The Cairo Museum, Coptic Cairo and the Citadel were must sees for us. And we fulfilled every bellydancer's dream of an evening on the Nile Maxim Dinner Cruise ship where we got to see the amazing Randa Kamel perform for us live!
Randa Kamel performing on the Nile Maxim Dinner Cruise
My experience teaching a Master workshop at the festival was like no other teaching experience I've ever had. The students spoke little English but the language of dance between us all was the bond that we all shared. I taught a 6 1/2 minute fast paced Modern Oriental choreography with a veil entrance. The students were so enthusiastic and interested in learning and enjoyed the upbeat music and the fast combinations of dance movement. I would like to thank all of them for their kind participation in my class and for making the experience such a wonderful memory for me! Click here to check out the video of us performing the choreography at the end of the workshop! Boy did we work up a sweat!
It's only been a few weeks since we've been back to Canada but the excitement is building for next year's Nile Group Festival when we intend to return and introduce more BellyUp dance students to the festival and the spectacular country of Egypt. There is so much to be taken in when in Egypt ! And for a student of Oriental dance there is no better place to truly feel the roots of where this dance form began than in Egypt! We encourage all dancers to experience the Nile Group Festival, if not with us next November then try to attend at least one of the four festivals that the Nile Group orchestrates each year. Read more about the Nile Group Festival here.
I would like to thank the wonderful founders of the Nile Group Festival, the incredible Aida Nour, the wonderful Mohamed Abou Shebika and his amazing wife Suzanne as well as Freiz Sayed for organizing an extremely well-run and first-class festival. We look forward to another journey in 2011 inshallah!
If you are interested in joining the BellyUp group next year as we travel to the Nile Group Festival once again, please contact me directly with your interest and to learn more.
Joharah of BellyUp