North Norfolk Bellydance

I felt privileged to learn from these maestros of their art. A great deal of warmth emanates from this couple. It was encouraging to feel part of the “global village” Mr Ramzy described of women all over the world who are keen to learn and be a part of the beauty of Egyptian dance.

Hossam and Serena Ramzy at North Walsham Dance, North Norfolk on 18- 19 November 2006

By Dianne Davies

North Walsham Dance pulled off a substantial coup in inviting Hossam and Serena Ramzy for a weekend of workshops, a concert and a hafla in this small North Norfolk town. I must confess I was very excited at the prospect. Having listened and danced to Mr Ramzy’s music for some years, I was already aware of his International reputation.

I was not to be disappointed. Hossam Ramzy is a very charismatic teacher of the rhythms, principles and history of Egyptian music and dance, and his wife Serena is absolutely charming and a very engaging teacher of the dance aspect.

The workshops over two days comprised ten hours in total, which seemed daunting to those of us who are not super-fit, but in fact the program was broken up into manageable sections. Much of the time was spent listening to Hossam’s fascinating explanations. The dance sections, though fairly intensive, were not long enough to be exhausting. The only downside to this was that it was pretty cold in the hall (it was November!) and the body has a tendency to cool down and stiffen up in between the dance sessions. Having said that, Serena did a long, slow and graceful warm-up at the beginning of the main dance section in the morning.

In the evening their concert was quite breathtaking, alternating between dance performance by Serena and drumming demonstrations by Hossam. Serena (now transformed into a Goddess!) embodied all the principles of dance we learned during the workshops. She makes even a simple routine look truly amazing by translating every single beat of the music. Hossam’s drumming was - well, it was Hossam Ramzy - what more need I say?

Serena and Hossam

Serena Ramzy

Abeer

He began by demonstrating the Egyptian and Arabic rhythms, our first opportunity to hear his unbelievable tabla playing. It would perhaps have been easier to take all this in if he had used visual aids, like the “dots” of the rhythms, but I still felt that I learned a lot and CDs are available for home study. Further workshops explored the structure of classical Egyptian pieces of music and how the dancer should interpret that structure. On the second day we learned to dance to Baladi, where formal choreography is abandoned in favour of total improvisation. He gave us considerable background information about the historical and cultural origins of the dance.

Hossam Ramzy is a fascinating personality. He is quietly spoken, witty, funny and very authoritative by turns - and a master of dramatic pauses. You could hear a pin drop in the room as we eagerly assimilated his many nuggets of wisdom. He encouraged - nay, just about demanded - questions from his audience all the time, and was very patient in going over points again. He is a keen communicator, and has a real need to get his point across. In short, the very best sort of teacher, as he fascinates and absorbs his pupils.

Kateryna

The major principle that underlies Hossam’s teaching is that the dancer should be the visual embodiment of the orchestra; she should interpret the music using her body so totally that she becomes as another instrument. The basis of this is learning to count the rhythm (“in your head”) and translate that into precision, rhythmic movement. After the rhythms have been mastered you add the other nuances you can hear in the music to your movements.

At no time was he interested in criticising or complimenting the quality of our “moves”. He wanted to concentrate purely on how precisely our movements were “on the rhythm”. In that sense the workshops were suitable for all levels of ability, but I would say that the choreography was perhaps a little too much for the absolute beginner. Also, when you are learning a choreography, there is always a tendency to be a split second (or more!) behind the teacher, rendering it difficult to be as precise as he wanted. Nevertheless, I think we all understood the principles we were learning. Looking good on the day was not the ultimate aim, but taking his ideas forward with us into our future dancing.

I had heard before from experienced Egyptian dance teachers that many Western dancers have been to Egypt and been ignored by an Egyptian audience or laughed off the stage, and why. At this workshop Hossam gave us a unique and personal insight into the Egyptian mind with regard to music and dance. I will never dance, nor view other dancers, the same way again.

Tessa Kirkpatrick

Serena is a beautiful dancer and broke down the dance into easy sections. She is very sweet-natured but it was amusing to witness her quietly putting the Master in his place if he interrupted her choreography!

The hafla afterwards included a number of performances from local groups and solos, and the most amazing raffle prizes I have ever seen at any kind of event. Many of Hossam and Serena’s CDs and videos were included in the raffle and on sale throughout the weekend. A very tempting bazaar was provided by WiggleIt.

Hossam and Jane
give raffle prizes

As I said at the start, this was an amazing event for a dance group in a small Norfolk town to put on. Enormous credit is due to the organisers of North Walsham Dance who took a chance on quite an ambitious project. The organisation was truly excellent, and not only on the actual weekend. A great deal of liaison between North Walsham, the Ramzys and the dance students had to take place beforehand, ensuring that the weekend was everything we could have wanted.

Check out the other photos below to see some more of the great atmosphere and performances we enjoyed on the Hafla night
(nb: Click on any of the photos on this site to enlarge):

Click this link for more past North Norfolk bellydance events!

Sisters of the Nile

Tessa's Norwich Group

Lucy Rayner, Tribal Belly dancer

Jenny Levin of Daughters of the East (Anglia) (Great name!)

Isolde Mackay from Scotland

Faye Disley

Sisters of the Nile

Bellydance Home

About Us

Classes

Workshops

Haflas

Upcoming
Workshops/
Haflas

What's New

Egyptian Dance Teachers & Friends

Past Events

Fun

Find Venues

Contact Us

Website Design by Message Marketing Ltd
small businesswebsiteservices.co.uk