Suheir

I'm perplexed by "A multi-cultural cast presents..." - this is London, one of the most ethnically-diverse cities in the world!

Caroline_afifi

Did anyone see 'Oscillations' recently by Suraya Hilal? I went to see it in Birmingham with some friends. It truly brought out the worst in me!

Aisha Azar

Dear Caroline,
What did you not like about Suraya Hilal and company? I am not appalled by their work. there are those who others highly credit that I feel are doing far worse things to the dance. But, I also do not think of it as authentic in any way... and it sort of seems, well.... boring and simplistic. I am always sure I must be missing some important element of her work somehow, so I am interested in what others think. I always think its ME and that I am not understanding it on some level. She does not seem like a shallow presenter, but something just does not quite work for me.
Regards,
A'isha

lizaj

I think they were having fun

Caroline_afifi

I studied with the Raqs Sharqi society back in the mid-nineties. Then they were the most organised teachers with precisse technique that has inflenced me kin a positive way. However, i eventually realised I was becoming a clone of all the others and the range of technique was so limited it strangeld me.
I have not been to see a Hilal show since Spirit of the heart in 1997 so I went with friends, one of who is still a Hilal supporter. Here is what happend.
One friend slept all the way through, My other friend cried tears at the end with disapointment and I felt mad. I dont know why and I cant really explain but i felt angry.
There was not one single hip movement and it was one hour of swaying and scissor walks. The music was very boring and even when the usually brilliant musicians came on it was still very boring. Her husband danced alot and wore identical costumes to Suraya and the other two girls. It was all very weird.
He actually made me laugh as he was a 50 something over weight version of her but at times her looked like he was desperate to burst out into some kind of belly dance and say to hell with it. The expressions on the faces was dead.
Stepford wives and husband.

deelybopper

Couldn't watch all the way to the end of the clip...got bored...I feel like I've seen it so many times before - like that Raqs Sharqi Society interpretation of Egyptian dance just hasn't moved on. I liked the tahtib-off between the male/female dancers, but other than that...these things are always better live!

Like Caroline (*waves to Caroline*) I was involved with the RSS back in the day. By the time I got involved with them they and Suraya Hilal had parted company, but it was still her stuff she was teaching. I got sick of their rigid interpretation of what was 'raqs sharqi' and what was authentic. I also got sick of the teaching methods of some of their principal teachers (i.e., getting me up in front of a group of people to ridicule my posture).

As far as what Suraya Hilal is doing now...a couple of years ago someone lent me a copy of El Aseel (I think that's what it was called). It was just Suraya and her husband dancing, with non-expressions, in these grey/blue costumes with an occasional change in lighting. I can't remember much else cos it was so uninspiring, but also sooooooooo sad - she used to be such an energetic and joyful dancer - what happened...?

But...back to the clip...Suheir - what did you think wasn't multicultural about it?

Suheir

My teacher went to the 1997 show with her Egyptian husband and she had to keep poking him because he couldn't stop laughing.

The British Museum in London had an Arabic celebration a couple of years ago; I attended a talk and workshop by Suraya Hilal. The illustrated talk was in one of the huge lecture theatres and there were about ten people in the audience. She talked about her dance philosophy and showed several clips from her recent shows - I found it very hard to contain my snorting and laughter, the dancing was very dull, po-faced and appeared utterly self-indulgent and pretentious with no connection to the audience. I had to leave the workshop as I couldn't take any more of either the lady herself or her downright dangerous warm-up, peculiar technique and ugly choreography. My hips ached for days afterwards and in seven years of attending workshops I had never experienced any pain after a workshop.

Suraya (in red), with her husband in action:

Caroline_afifi

[quote=Suheir;66465]
' the dancing was very dull, po-faced and appeared utterly self-indulgent and pretentious with no connection to the audience.'

In a perfect nutshell.

PS I could sit through an hour of those youtube clips... Oscillations was nothing like this!

Suheir

My response is "Why wouldn't it be?!" I would expect the cast of any stage production in London to be multi-ethnic.

deelybopper

Oh, I see - sorry, I misunderstood!