A review of the NADA AGM by Abi Hopkins and Niki Jones.
It was a sunny Saturday morning in Shropshire as we packed up the car to drive to Lincoln for the NADA AGM. Having never been to Lincoln before or indeed a NADA event, excitement at seeing our northern dancing friends made the journey whizz by.
We arrived just after 10am and received a lovely warm welcome from the host Karen Rastall and the NADA committee members before being given instructions for the day including useful things like directions to the souk, toilets, kitchen area etc. The first workshop of the day was an insightful health and safety update from Trish Champion. Trish managed to cover everything from checking the floor at dance venues to delivering first aid for the most common problems likely to be encountered in a dance class (including asthma attacks, fainting and sprained ankles).
The first dancing workshop was a fun and Funky Folk Fusion session with Anne Kingston. Her approach to the workshop was to have fun, fun and more fun, whilst learning interesting elements of folk dance. As most of you know Anne is well travelled and experienced and therefore has an authentic knowledge base around folkloric dance which she warmly shared with us during that session. It was a great way for a group of women to get to know each other as we moved around emanating the social contexts of the dance - we even managed to swap a goat for two sturdy men – don’t ask, you had to be there! We laughed, danced and laughed a bit more whilst moving to the folky Arabic beats.
Over lunch, the NADA Committee members held their Annual General Meeting. It was interesting to find out where the association was in terms of its plans for 2014, the structure of the committee including finding out about the committee members and their responsibilities. It was great to hear that membership was going strong and that the insurance scheme was being well received. After hearing the updates, it was an opportunity for the members to suggest ideas for promotion, increasing membership, and events and after a rather useful discussion, the meeting was closed as it was time for more dancing and learning.
After a quick cuppa, it was time for Anna Bisco’s Nubian Dance workshop. At the beginning of the workshop Anna said that one of the appeals of Nubian dance (for her) was its fun simplicity and joy. Within minutes, the group were smiling and laughing whilst limp stepping, box stepping, chicken flapping and turning with aeroplane arms. It was a joyful way to spend 1 ½ hours of a workshop during which we learnt some great combinations and a funky Nubian choreography. Even those who were not dancing were sat around the edge of the room, enjoying it with us – even Rhythmic Ginger got caught doing a chicken flap or two!
While I was in Anna’s workshop, my friend Niki took a workshop with Rita Williamson (of Rita Williamson Designs!) on costuming. Rita showed the group how to improvise a “no-sew” galabaya for any last-minute hafla requirements using only 3 scarves and a handful of pins, before going on to demonstrate a slightly more long-term galabaya design that involved some fairly simple cutting and stitching. Niki came away feeling quite inspired, so it will be interesting to see the result.
The NADA Committee had arranged for a bling and buy sale along with trading from some of our favourite costume makers and designers such as Rita Williamson and Qu Designs. There were costumes, jewellery music, DVD, props and henna all under one roof which was fantastic especially between workshops. If you were not dancing, you could shop and if you were not shopping, you could dance! Perfect! So after a break and a wander around the souk, it was time to get into the Assaya groove with Anne and her fun saiidi cane choreo. The workshop was filled with saiidi rhythms, the differences between the styles danced by men and women, useful tips for choosing the right stick for you followed by exploring how you could dance with your stick. I’m a huge fan of saiidi so for me it was the perfect way to end the first part of the day with an opportunity to immerse myself in saiidi music and rhythms whilst learning some useful combinations and indeed new steps.
Whilst we were brandishing our sticks, you could hear the delights and laughter of the lovely Sabrina who was teaching an Iraqi workshop in the next room at the same time. As we were finishing up with our sticks, there were dancers walking through from her workshop with huge smiles so I can only imagine it was as much fun as it sounded. It was lovely to see Sabrina back teaching again after having her gorgeous little boy and it was apparent that her workshop was really well received.
After a delicious dancer’s tea of chicken or vegetable tagine with couscous made by the lovely Barbara Conway ably assisted by the delightful Siobhan Waring, it was time for the evening hafla. The format for this was great – there was to be a short showcase from Anne and Anna followed by drumming by Adam Warne (Rhythmic Ginger) and general dancing. This worked well in my opinion as it allowed ladies the opportunity to get to know each other. Old friends were up on the dance floor, sharing moments of laughter and delight whilst bopping around to their favourite pieces of music, Adam would interject with live drumming, much to the delight of the room. All in all, it was a fantastic day. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, strangers quickly became new acquaintances, email addresses were exchanged and ‘make sure we link up on Facebook’ was a popular statement by the end of the night. I had a really lovely time, finished off my a raucous evening at Karen’s beautiful home, dancing sha’abi in her front room, to the early hours, with a lovely bunch of friends and a couple of bottles of Pinot!
Successful weekend I would say!
It was a sunny Saturday morning in Shropshire as we packed up the car to drive to Lincoln for the NADA AGM. Having never been to Lincoln before or indeed a NADA event, excitement at seeing our northern dancing friends made the journey whizz by.
We arrived just after 10am and received a lovely warm welcome from the host Karen Rastall and the NADA committee members before being given instructions for the day including useful things like directions to the souk, toilets, kitchen area etc. The first workshop of the day was an insightful health and safety update from Trish Champion. Trish managed to cover everything from checking the floor at dance venues to delivering first aid for the most common problems likely to be encountered in a dance class (including asthma attacks, fainting and sprained ankles).
The first dancing workshop was a fun and Funky Folk Fusion session with Anne Kingston. Her approach to the workshop was to have fun, fun and more fun, whilst learning interesting elements of folk dance. As most of you know Anne is well travelled and experienced and therefore has an authentic knowledge base around folkloric dance which she warmly shared with us during that session. It was a great way for a group of women to get to know each other as we moved around emanating the social contexts of the dance - we even managed to swap a goat for two sturdy men – don’t ask, you had to be there! We laughed, danced and laughed a bit more whilst moving to the folky Arabic beats.
Over lunch, the NADA Committee members held their Annual General Meeting. It was interesting to find out where the association was in terms of its plans for 2014, the structure of the committee including finding out about the committee members and their responsibilities. It was great to hear that membership was going strong and that the insurance scheme was being well received. After hearing the updates, it was an opportunity for the members to suggest ideas for promotion, increasing membership, and events and after a rather useful discussion, the meeting was closed as it was time for more dancing and learning.
After a quick cuppa, it was time for Anna Bisco’s Nubian Dance workshop. At the beginning of the workshop Anna said that one of the appeals of Nubian dance (for her) was its fun simplicity and joy. Within minutes, the group were smiling and laughing whilst limp stepping, box stepping, chicken flapping and turning with aeroplane arms. It was a joyful way to spend 1 ½ hours of a workshop during which we learnt some great combinations and a funky Nubian choreography. Even those who were not dancing were sat around the edge of the room, enjoying it with us – even Rhythmic Ginger got caught doing a chicken flap or two!
While I was in Anna’s workshop, my friend Niki took a workshop with Rita Williamson (of Rita Williamson Designs!) on costuming. Rita showed the group how to improvise a “no-sew” galabaya for any last-minute hafla requirements using only 3 scarves and a handful of pins, before going on to demonstrate a slightly more long-term galabaya design that involved some fairly simple cutting and stitching. Niki came away feeling quite inspired, so it will be interesting to see the result.
The NADA Committee had arranged for a bling and buy sale along with trading from some of our favourite costume makers and designers such as Rita Williamson and Qu Designs. There were costumes, jewellery music, DVD, props and henna all under one roof which was fantastic especially between workshops. If you were not dancing, you could shop and if you were not shopping, you could dance! Perfect! So after a break and a wander around the souk, it was time to get into the Assaya groove with Anne and her fun saiidi cane choreo. The workshop was filled with saiidi rhythms, the differences between the styles danced by men and women, useful tips for choosing the right stick for you followed by exploring how you could dance with your stick. I’m a huge fan of saiidi so for me it was the perfect way to end the first part of the day with an opportunity to immerse myself in saiidi music and rhythms whilst learning some useful combinations and indeed new steps.
Whilst we were brandishing our sticks, you could hear the delights and laughter of the lovely Sabrina who was teaching an Iraqi workshop in the next room at the same time. As we were finishing up with our sticks, there were dancers walking through from her workshop with huge smiles so I can only imagine it was as much fun as it sounded. It was lovely to see Sabrina back teaching again after having her gorgeous little boy and it was apparent that her workshop was really well received.
After a delicious dancer’s tea of chicken or vegetable tagine with couscous made by the lovely Barbara Conway ably assisted by the delightful Siobhan Waring, it was time for the evening hafla. The format for this was great – there was to be a short showcase from Anne and Anna followed by drumming by Adam Warne (Rhythmic Ginger) and general dancing. This worked well in my opinion as it allowed ladies the opportunity to get to know each other. Old friends were up on the dance floor, sharing moments of laughter and delight whilst bopping around to their favourite pieces of music, Adam would interject with live drumming, much to the delight of the room. All in all, it was a fantastic day. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, strangers quickly became new acquaintances, email addresses were exchanged and ‘make sure we link up on Facebook’ was a popular statement by the end of the night. I had a really lovely time, finished off my a raucous evening at Karen’s beautiful home, dancing sha’abi in her front room, to the early hours, with a lovely bunch of friends and a couple of bottles of Pinot!
Successful weekend I would say!