Drum Solo Workshop

I thought I would write a review of the workshop I attended on Sunday.  There were 2 workshops one with Asif and the other with Pauline Q.  I had not really intended to do the drumming workshop but went along with hubby and I am so glad I did.  Asif is a very good teacher he managed to teach me the basics and get me drumming along to different rhythms even though I have never ever done any drumming before.  My husband has been drumming for several years and has trained with the likes of Issam Housham and John Sleiman, but he also felt that he got a lot out of the workshop.  Asif is patient and explains things well and the drumming sounded fabulous as there were about 12 of us playing together.

The next workshop was with Pauline and we danced along to some of the drummers.  I have to confess that the drum solo is the one area of belly dance that terrifies me.  Most of my performances tend to be choreographed - this is because I dance more with a troupe and a choreography is a much safer way to ensure a professional look.  I am not at all comfortable with improvisation (unless a I have had a few glasses of vino that is). I  have often thought what a waste of a wonderful resource it is to be married to a drummer and so I found this workshop to be of excellent value to me.

Pauline gave me some really good tips - such as the drummer will play each rhythm 4 times - you can fill in for the first set and then have 3 more sets to catch up.  She said to not over complicate it with loads of moves and that a good drum solo can be done with just 4 moves - this was music to my ears as when I improvise my brain goes totally blank and I end up repeating the same 4 moves - but that is OK (Pauline said so!)  She also showed us different things to go with different rhythms - including travelling moves, different shimmies/flutters (oh and she said my flutters were good - a very proud moment for me as I have always though I was doing them wrong).

If you get the chance to work with this lovely couple then do grab it>

Karennshikidims thoughts: Butterfly hafla

Karennshikidims thoughts: Butterfly hafla: "I performed with Shikidim at a hafla organised by Katherine Souter-Caddick last night. We decided to step outside our comfort zone and perf..."

Butterfly hafla

I performed with Shikidim at a hafla organised by Katherine Souter-Caddick last night.  We decided to step outside our comfort zone and perform El Gourya for the first time.  It went OK but we could have done better.  Fortunately we also performed Last Kiss which I felt went down really well - the group are very together for that dance and we received a lot of positive comments afterwards.

There were some very lovely performances, my favourites being Holly who performed a fun Reggaeton dance - she really is a joy to watch.  Pauline Qu did a very impressive sword dance (which reminds me  I have to get a sword).  Nancy did a very beautiful wing dance to the music from the nutcracker suite.  Katherines baladi dance was great and I also enjoyed The Bollywood dance by Ottoman delights.  It was nice hanging out with the Shikidim girlies - wearing our new purple costumes and lovely to see other friends in the Belly Dance community.

My only criticism of the night is that some of the dances went on too long - my motto is less is more.