Sheikh It! in Henley on Thames

What a month it has been! For those of you who have been following our blog you’ll know that we’ve been rehearsing hard for a show in Henley On Thames called Sheikh It! And did we sheikh it in Henley? You bet we did! What’s more it was all in aid of the Sue Ryder charity – so win win.

We didn’t quite arrive in Henley by train, boat and plane – but almost.

Henley On Thames

Meroe had arrived back from her trip to France less than 12 hours before, so that is the boat bit, and the rest of the Ya Raqs crew travelled down by train. We all met up at the Catherine Wheel hotel in Henley for a quick lunch before heading off to Kenton Theatre for the sound and lighting checks.

The theatre was a lovely and by the time we arrived it had already been taken over by the glitter and glam of the rest of the Sheikh It cast. We were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to run through our Tunisian number in full on stage – not a bad idea given that we’d had two weeks apart and really needed to just do the last minute fine tuning to the performance.

I have to say that Henley was a real treat for us in more ways than one. We got to stay in a great hotel – so no need to camp out in our Bedouin tent this time. We got to perform on a real stage – not the wind-swept field somewhere remote. We even had our very own dressing room – with mirrors and everything!

Phoenece and Aisha backstage

Show time was 7:30 and our first routine was the Bedouin. It wasn’t long before we’d got not only the audience but also some of the other performers, who were waiting in the wings, clapping along with us. It was great.

Aisha and Meroe

Naima, Aisha, Meroe, Mish Mish and Phoenece

Aisha and Meroe

Phoenece and Mish Mish

Then a rather leisurely costume change before out Tunisian routine in the second half. We even had time for snacks!!

Mish Mish refuels between dances

This was quite a contrast to the Bedouin with lots of very strong hip movements to get our Tunisian tassels flying - another amazing reception from the audience.

Phoenece, Aisha, Meroe, Naima and Mish Mish

Mish Mish, Naima and Meroe

Then came the big test – the finale. The finale had been quite carefully choreographed but because of the distance between us and the rest of the cast we hadn’t had a chance to dance it all the way through – until now! We had choreographed our little bit independently, and hoped it would fit, thankfully it did.

We had a great time in Henley and met some amazing dancers – dancers who we very much hope we will share a stage with again sometime soon. Our thanks go to the masterminds behind this whole show Louise Brooks and Natasha Bradley – thank you for inviting us to join you ladies and for all your hard work in making it such a huge success - it was a pleasure working with you. We must also make special mention of Mark Chattington for his amazing photographs from the evening - thank you too Mark.

Drum solo workshop

A couple of Ya Raqs girls found themselves back in Manchester on Saturday. This time Kebi and Phoenece found themselves taking part in a sell-out drum workshop run by Jane Wass Mazazik and accompanied by Guy Shalom. Drum solos are one of the most popular aspects of Arabic dance, where a dancer uses her skill with hips and shimmies to work with the drummer, and sometimes lead the drummer. Jane encouraged them to develop the creative side of a drum solo, playing with different energies to change tempo and use different parts of their body in their dance.

Kebi, Jane Wass, Guy Shalom and Phoenece

Besides dancing to live music, they learned about different drum rhythms, which was really helpful as they have both been taking drumming lessons from Meroe and Rhythmic Ginger.

Henley Here We Come!

Well that is it, our last group rehearsal for the Sheikh It! show in Henley. Those of you who follow our blog regularly, you may remember that back in February we were invited to East Grinstead to perform at Club Baklava for Hossam and Serena Ramzy. Members of the audience were clearly impressed by our performance of a Bedouin routine as it led to an invitation to take part in the Sheikh It! show.

Show time is just a couple of weeks away and we have been working on two folkloric routines - a Bedouin piece based on a choreography by Serena Ramzy, but adapted for Ya Raqs by our very own Meroe, and a Tunisian piece which Meroe is 100% responsible for. Both are very different, but very high energy.

Aisha, Mish Mish, Kebi, Phoenece and Naima in rehearsal

Saturday was our last group rehearsal and it all went really well. Kebi stepped in to Meroe’s spot for the purposes of the rehearsal, just so she could watch what was going on. It’s very difficult to dance in a routine and be aware of what is going on with all the other performers - even with mirrors - so it’s sometime best just to look at how rehearsals are going from the audience perspective!

And how is it going, you may ask - pretty good I would say. All that is left to do now is for the individual dancers within group to iron out the minor wrinkles in their performance and we are good to go!

So look out Henley - Ya Raqs are on their way!

If you want to come and see us, and lots of other amazing dancers, we’ll be at the Kenton Theatre, Henley on Thames on Wednesday 22nd October. Proceeds from the show will be going to support the care provided by Sue Ryder. So not only do you get to see a great show, but you get to support a great cause too - win win!