I'll tell you all about it over coffee...........:) But of course by that time you will be so much wiser than I, you dedicated student!! Many congrats on your commitment to your education,
it's an accomplishment you will be able to keep close and also brag about for years to come,
We will all honor your degree over a beverage, maybe?? Anyway, I'm quite sure you will receive dispensation from Madame Raqia

I'd never met her.............she was sensastional............she made me cry.(so beautiful!)...............and I learned alot
Seriously, missed you, but your spirit was there,
Graduation Day is within reach!
Salena

She was great, and she gave it the whole time. Every time she repeated the choreography she would put 100% of energy in emotion to it. I found myself just watching more than actually trying to remember stuff. But it was money well spent.

But the bad part? There was a seriously FUNKY person there. I almost gagged at one point and Sandra left early because she felt ill. It was gross.

We missed you. :)

I think it's been about the same time since I took a workshop with her. Her material has definetly gotten more complex, but not too difficult IMO. (unless she kept it simpler for us gringos..haha)

Each day was a different choreography. The first was more bright and lively, to an old Farid Al Atrache song, and the Sunday choreo was a really dramatic piece to a more current breakup song. She even had wrist slitting motions in it... heh.

I did not take detailed notes on the choreographies because that's just not what I do, but I noticed that many people did. Instead I took away about 6 or 8 things, including a step that I think is a huge key to unlocking another step that Fifi and Soheir Zaki do. I have been trying to decipher it for about 6 years so this is really exciting to me. Now I have to go back and watch some of their footage to see if I'm right. :)

I also spent a lot of time watching Raqia's upper body and torso. I carry a lot of tension in my upper body (I get anxious and stressed out easily) and it affects what happens in my lower body, especially acheiving a nice big loose Egyptian shimmy.... which I can only seem to really get and hold when I'm more relaxed and just screwing around. I noticed some things that I think are really key in that regard... and with that and also by watching other dancers in the workshops.... I noticed some reasons why I think American (or maybe just non-Egyptian) women have a harder time acheiving the Egyptian look.

My only gripe was that I wished for more structure in the class. There were a lot of people and it was difficult to see. It would have been better to split people into groups like Aziza did last weekend. At the end of the day on Saturday I suggested this to Hala but unfortunately it didn't really happen until the very end of class on Sunday. They did swap lines but it didn't happen often enough. Because of that I only started to be able to put it all together at the very end, and that was frustrating.

Otherwise Raqia was a very generous teacher. Based on some of the questions people asked I think it was hard for many to get the "follow the bouncing butt" method but she was always willing to answer any questions and careful to stop and make any individual corrections that she saw. I also appreciated that she said to take things from her or from others and see what you can do with them, to become your own dancer.

I picked up the latest technique DVD and watched just the opening last night.. it has a choreo by Randa Kamel. This was the first opportunity I had to see her dance where I could actually SEE. Man... amazing.

And Tabitha is right... I was next to funky girl for a while and I thought I was going to DIE. She was sweating her ass off and smelled like rotten onions, old cheese and nasty feet. FOUL. I swear I'm going to start bringing an aspersorium full of perfume or lysol or *something* to these things.

I also went to the evening show and really enjoyed the two cane/stick pieces by Tamra Henna and Mohammed Shahin. I'm hoping that Tamra Henna will teach some when she is here in August.

After that we drove up to Marrakech to stalk Tabitha. ;) Unfortunately we missed her show but a good time was had by all. :)

THANKS for all the info, ladies...I am soaking it in virtually, from afar.
My roommate was there helping out (not taking workshops)...poor thing got home Sunday night and was exhausted, but I made him walk me through the program, the music, and all the details and minutiae he could remember. :)
He did not mention the funk. That sounds...not fun(ky).
M.