Meroe, Kebi and Phoenece headed to the Trinity Sports Centre in Manchester, the chosen venue for this weekend of pure Ramzy-ness. The Saturday found us all in Classical mode with Serena guiding us through an amazing routine to a track from Hossam’s album Ruby – The Black Opal. Kebi was a bit unsure about this one at first, she doesn’t usually “do” Classical – but by the end of the day she was a complete convert. The routine was challenging but gave us all the opportunity to perfect some points of technique, to learn some new moves and to do a bit of improvisation by really translating the music.
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| Kebi, Meroe and Phoenece with Hossam and Serena |
Our very own Meroe is currently enrolled with the Drumzy Dance School on their Advanced Dancer course. So she took the opportunity to catch up with Hossam and Serena over dinner on the Saturday evening. Living up to true Ya Raqs reputation she did cake – well sticky toffee and chocolate volcano pudding to be precise, so not quite cake but close enough. Don’t worry she’d didn’t eat them all herself – both Hossam and Serena have a sweet tooth that almost rivals that of Meroe’s, but only almost!
On the Sunday and we were into new territory and a new twist on Saaidi – a modern fusion with some Persian and Indian moves. On paper this shouldn’t work – but it did! Unlike many fusions this remained true to the Saaidi base to give it a real Egyptian feel. Again, very challenging, but with plenty of opportunity for a bit of improvisation.
Meroe was put on the spot a bit this weekend when Hossam got her to show off some of her new found drumming skills that she has been learning whilst on the Advanced Dancer course. He asked her to join him and Serena to drum for the rest of the students in the workshop. No rehearsal time, no music, just a piece from memory - no pressure then! But she did it and it helped to demonstrate that someone like Meroe, who has never read music before in her life, could be sat in a dance studio in Manchester drumming with Hossam and Serena!!
On the subject of drums - Phoenece decided that now would be a good time to start her Christmas shopping. So someone out there is in line to get one of Hossam’s beautiful new lady's tablas for Christmas - lucky thing.
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| Phoenece's Christmas shopping |
Our thanks - and thank you on behalf of all the other students who came to Manchester - to the amazing Hossam and Serena Ramzy for a wonderful weekend.
Watch this space folks. This isn’t the first and it certainly won’t be the last Drumzy School weekend in the North West!
To find out more about the courses and workshops that Hossam and Serena run check out their website and if you want to know about lessons with Meroe click here, or email us for details on yaraqs@hotmail.co.uk
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