Hathor

The weekend was entitled "Celebrating Dance" - well we certainly did!

We saw some wonderful dancing both at the Friday hafla and the Saturday showcase including several I had not seen before - a Khaleegy thobe dance, dancing on glasses and Afra's dance with two swords. A highlight was Vashti's Moroccan folk dance which she'd taught us earlier in the day with its very fast half hip swivels (think of pelvic lifts at treble speed) which apparently the village women perform to encourage those giving birth!

My best memory is of watching Morocco dance and taking two classes with her. Morocco has been dancing for over forty years and has a wealth of experience and knowledge which she enthusiastically shares with her students. She taught a stick dance and another with finger cymbals - two exhausting but inspiring three hour sessions. We learned that originally all dancers regularly used finger cymbals when dancing, though I think it will be a while yet before I attempt this - I'm still struggling with the basic rhythms. All together now:
right, left, right;
right, left, right;
right, left, right, left, right.

by Jill Dunkley (honorary Hathor member, Karen's sister)

I had been told that Morocco would 'work my socks off' but I hadn't quite prepared myself for the pace of her workshops.

Morocco taught cane and sagat workshops. Each, very full class, was divided into two. This gave those 'resting' an opportunity to observe Morocco without the distraction of trying to keep up! Class notes and choreography were handed out at the beginning of each class and although modestly priced music cassettes were available the quality of the recordings was very poor. Personally I would prefer to pay a few pounds extra for a recording on CD.

I found Morocco to be a very generous teacher, full of good humour sharing stories about her dance career as well as dance history and snippets of information with us. I was also impressed by her very professional use of queued music - no searching for just the right spot on the tape.

by Karen