August 14, 2013

Megha Gavin workshops, Devon

Shereen and Kay
Well, that's it ..... the weekend's been and gone all too quickly!

Big build up, big workshops, big crowd, big hafla, those big skirts and a big drive home ..... leaving me with big tiredness, almost like jet lag (weird)!!!  All of this deserves a big cheer for Kelley of Kalash Tribal, Jacqui and Philippa Moirai for organising it all, and not forgetting Megha herself and her lovely daughter Jasmine, who accompanied her mom for her birthday trip to the UK.

This weekend I travelled to Tiverton solo this time (minus Rita and Pips), and again stayed in the wonderful Angel B&B which is located right in the centre of town and not far from the workshop venue.

Starting the Friday night workshop named 'Master Class for Teachers and Advanced Dancers' was all about musicality, phrasing, finer detailing again of some moves, chorus work, format and that wonderful 'personal box' that all us ATS® dancers take everywhere with us ;-)

Ooh matching tops!!
Saturday and Sundays workshops were all about 'Intensive Focusing on Posture, Technique, Formations and Improvisational Choreography' which were 2 days of hard work, fun, note taking (how many years worth of notes do I have now)???, talking, laughing, dancing, zilling, and eating chocolate cake and cream ...... followed by the big hafla in Kelley's barn once again (with Shereen and I turning up in matching tops made by the lovely Patsy)!  So here we were once again, 30 or so ATS® dancers all costumed up along with Megha & Jasmine, caterers, a few husbands/partners, oooh and Mark from Tribe Zuza with the wonderful souk, in a fabulously decorated barn which resembled a Sultan's palace draped with ceiling veils, candles, rugs and cushions ...... complete with all us dancing girls ;-)  Performances by Megha, Philippa, Kelley and Jacqui, along with Kalash, Jaydee, Nirzari ladies, Charlotte and Emma and everyone else who are too many to mention!!  A great time was had by all !!

me soloing
And my favourite workshop?  Well, it had to be the Smile Workshop - which undoubtedly made us all smile, even laugh ..... and even brought an emotional tear to Megha's eye!!  Yup ... we made her cry ;-(

As Megha's would say ..... 'hey y'all .....





photo's taken by Shereen and Kelley
Hey y'all

August 04, 2013

Wittfest - Charity Music Festival

The best smallest music festival, and it’s local and it’s free – what else can one wish for?  Ashnah, minus Kay (who was away sailing the 7 seas) accompanied Oxford Drum Troupe to this event which takes place in the grounds of The Plough in Long Wittenham (hence the name Wittfest).  It was so chilled and family friendly with all manner of music and dancing.  This gathering is also a fundraiser in aid of local charities so I suppose there’s nothing else to be said but that I hope the organisers beat last year’s total!