them to other Teachers to help them individuate as their experience of dance was that you don’t
themselves. trust others, they were the competition. It took a
long time to win people over, as there had never
What advice do you have for belly dance stu- been such a concept before.
dents to aid their development as perform-
ing artists? Tell me a bit about the shows and how you con-
trol the talent that is showcased at each show?
(Anne) To be as fully informed as they can be. Not sure what you mean by control the talent!
Research what is out there. Learn with different I schedule and programme shows according to
teachers. This will enable them to find a way to the dancers being featured and to reflect our
develop and grow. aims: to provide a live experience, showcasing
the best UK / international dancers that we can
(Evete) So what inspired you to create Planet find and to promote diversity of style and train-
Egypt? ing. I use my own judgement and long experi-
ence to do all this.
(Anne) In the 1980s, the Dance Scene in Lon-
don was extremely polarized. But I believe that (Evete) What are the criteria?
if we love the dance then we are united as there
is common ground. All my work with Arab bands (Anne) In order to participate in our shows:
and in the Arabic community was on recommen-
dation and I never was in competition with any As a fledgling dancer – only with Teacher’s sup-
other dancers. I also did not work in restaurants port and involvement. I always liaise with the
either. So when I did meet other dancers I was Teacher involved. This is Professional courtesy.
curious and wanted to engage with them as we
already had common interests and its good to As a Professional – I only feature people who
meet colleagues and exchange advice and help, are widely endorsed and well established or
and of course make new friends. So my overrid- whom I have seen myself. That way I manage
ing experience was that we could collaborate. I the staging and quality to the best of my ability.
believed that we could create a united commu-
nity and that would serve the dance a lot better. (Evete) Why are the waiting lists so long?
There were big staged collaborative belly dance
events at that time in Covent Garden and also at (Anne) Yes, this is a source of frustration for
the Rheingold Club. So the seeds had already those that want to dance for us. I appreciate
been planted. that. Initially we held our events every week.
This nearly killed me especially as the first three
In the late 90s, I began networking a lot more years all our events were free. We could not
with dancers from other disciplines and forged continue with weekly events so they became
lasting friendships. Planet Egypt was conceived monthly. Staging free events for so long was
in early 2001, when I began liaising and work- crucial in raising our awareness and building
ing even more with Yvette Cowles and Vashti our trust and reputation. This also demonstrated
and suggested an Official collaboration- uniting that our desire to stage events was not a com-
3 different disciplines Yvette (Jo Wise trained), mercial venture, it was done out of love for the
Vashti (independently trained and danced on the dance. This attracted even more people to us.
Arab nightclub circuit) and myself (Suraya Hilal Awareness led to demand to participate in our
trained) . In 2002, we started monthly events to events. Being featured in our events is seen as
showcase oriental dance in London. I brought a strategic manoeuvre in raising dancer’s pro-
to this collaboration 10 years of Teaching prac- files as we are the number one at what we do.
tice (10 classes a week), a huge mailing list, 15 Funnily enough, other events using our formu-
years of dance training and about 12 years of las have driven demand even higher.
performance experience. Plus as an outgoing
and very sociable person, it would be within my I participate in many national events and as a
skills and capabilities to make it work. It was result of publicity, coach loads of dancers drive
very hard in the beginning as few trusted me down from Leeds and elsewhere for our shows.
81
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111