Quote:
Originally Posted by fatinah
I don't think its a case of people not making the effort. I think thats a bit unfair. I know a few local bellydance students now who have mentioned they would of liked to of attended but could not afford to do everything. The show was £14 and the confrence was another £30. Obviously people would rather watch the dancing. I couldnt afford to pay for everything and I know alot of others couldnt too. £44 quid doesnt sound much but its a big chunk out of some people's budget each month when they run a mortgage, kids, bills, dance classes.
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I think it's a question of priorities - I've been to an awful lot of workshops/performances in my BD lifetime, and I do a huge amount of thinking about the kinds of subjects discussed at the conference...so much that sometimes I think it would be kinder to everyone to just chop my head off
So, for me, the main thing was the conference, and it *was* disappointing that not a lot of people went. It's not at all obvious to me that people would rather go to the performances - I'd rather have gone to everything, but circumstances and finances wouldn't allow, so I had to make a choice.
I totally agree that £44 is a lot out of your budget, but conferences are usually a lot more than £30! I *personally* feel that if you're going to take middle eastern/arabic/belly dance seriously, you owe it to yourself to try and do some of the 'talky' stuff to get some cultural background / context and learn about different perspectives. YMMV.