I got more info about the weekend in a four-hour phone call last night!
I'm so sorry I couldn't go, the shows sound utterly amazing, more like the quality of shows I've seen in Scandinavia. Last year's show was great, just a few performers who let the side down but they were culled for this year (mercy killings
).
The Estonian girls were very busy, coming here early to learn group choreographies just for the shows!
Your group dances sound wonderful, I hope the show was videoed. I look forward to Khaira's review!
It sounds as though the workshops were pretty poorly attended, which makes me very sad. It makes me very angry, actually, that students here flock to workshops with visiting non-Egyptians yet classes with the "real deal" are not as popular as they should be. I think there's an awful lot of "sanitising" here, teachers who use non-Arabic music (Shakira
) and so on. To use one of Maria Aya's favourite comments, GRRRRRRRR!