A brief review of the Westwoodside
Hafla(28.10.07).
"We went to a Hafla at Westwoodside in aid
of the air ambulance and thought you'd like our thoughts on the evening.
The Arabian Party was organised by Donna Conway using all her talents for fun,
professionalism and detail. Donna's Westwoodside ladies have only been
learning for 6/7 months and continue to improve in ability and confidence. The
children, however, stole the whole evening with their performances and
apparently they have only been learning for 20 weeks (only 5 months).
The children really made the night a family friendly occasion - the atmosphere
was fantastic and the music brilliant.
The whole layout of the evening’s programme was different from any I’ve been to
before with performances intermittently from local dancers and the chance to get
up and boogie ourselves in between. It opened with the children on the stage who
were the cutest little girls looking drop dead gorgeous in their handmade
costumes and glowing smiles. They brought the house down and for each of the
dancers, including the guest performers, they were presented with a single rose
as personal thank you. It was a lovely and most unusual and unexpected touch,
which all the dancers obviously appreciated.
As for the food one lady said it ‘was the best (she) had ever seen at any hafla'.
The authentic cuisine was so popular the platters were left absolutely empty!!
We obviously just couldn’t get enough of it!!
The soft drinks were all free of charge with people taking with them whatever
alcohol they wanted - it made the evening more cost effective for the families
and brought people together in a true party atmosphere. This also meant
that when the two ladies dancing went around collecting money for Air Ambulance
everyone was very generous and dipped deep into their pockets.
At the end of the evening the unanimous comment from everyone we spoke to was "
fantastic - when's the next one!"……….Well done to all those involved you should
be very proud of yourselves!!
Jeff, Debby, Dan and Sarah
The Duggies...."
EXCELLENT (ZUBAIDAH) ARABIC DANCE
GROUP
I recently
encountered a reasonably local dance group, who I thoroughly enjoyed
watching. It's not often I say that....I am a very difficult customer to
please!! This is no reflection on many other dance groups I see, just that I
have some rather specific boxes I like to see ticked!!
This group ticked more than most........ZUBAIDAH.
They are exactly what their name means....EXCELLENT.
When I say excellent, I don't necessarily
mean, the most technically perfect dancers, as this is only a minor element
(nice if you are, but not entirely the be all and end all) They absolutely
love what they do, they work as a very close team (the chemistry is amazing)
and above all are very professional in their execution of a performance and
attention to detail.
Their teacher
Lynne Fletcher is based in Sheffield 07960319389
zubaidah.lynne@yahoo.co.uk
and is a lovely performer and dancer in her own right.......please keep an
eye on this lady in the future she has real potential!!
DONNA (12/04/09)
14th July 2007 by Donna Conway
I am exhausted, but thrilled as once more my
ladies were there with smiles and encouragement all the way. The girls are
turning out to be fabulous dancers and some have real talent. Watch these
little ones as they have the potential to go along way in the dance world!!
Fereshteh was as fabulous as she is gorgeous,
with her obvious Persian roots shining through every move that she made. Her
professionalism is an asset rarely seen these days, with her costume
shrouded until the very last second that she performs. She has an ability to
command both her audience and class' attention with no words and yet still
be warm and very genuine. She will spend time breaking down and repeating
steps and combinations provided the student can be bothered to ask!! Those
of you that missed her this time, don't fret I have made her promise to come
back very soon! She is everything this dance form should
be................sensual, fun and appreciative of the music. I'm very
pleased to say she is so skilled and professional there is none of this
overcompensation with sexual overtones for poor technique or lack of skill,
as we see so often!
The turn out for the Hafla was well attended
by many locals and our
click
the genie to go back to HOME page
lovely resident 'Daniels' family again. Not
many of us can say we have danced for Paul & Martin Daniels family can we?!
Even Fereshteh was thrilled at the thought.
The crockery was kindly given to us by the
the local wine bar 'The Loco' who also cooked and supplied free of charge,
some 60 onion bhajis, many thanks Zagheer (Ziggy) for that.
A very generous sum of cash was donated by
Mrs P Chipp which went along way to making the days events a make or break
situation financially, for this I am exceptionally grateful.
I would also like to acknowledge all the
dancers, you all earned your roses! My lovely Chef's you all earned your
sprays of carnations & especially Siobhan who having lived in the Arabic
countries for a time is a real perfectionist with her cuisine as we all
sampled. Not to forget our DJ who lived and worked in Iran some years ago so
also has a real feel for the music. Thank You!!! (And don't worry, I always
pay for the flowers that I give and I don't take it out of the Air Ambulance
profit!!)
Love as always and Thanks to all involved
Donna
Saturday 28th October 2006
At Westwoodside Village Hall
Profits
to Air Ambulance (£172 to date)
For
another fantastic Review of this evening
please
read this!
"I
attended my first Haflah on Saturday evening and have to say I had the
best
time.
It was a lovely family evening out, and I am very proud to say that three
generations of my family performed (some a little better then others).
Both my
girls (aged 5 and 3) danced and perhaps with a little bias I
thought
they were wonderful, but more importantly they had a great time.
In this age of emaciated role models for women, and young girls
developing eating disorders younger and younger in an effort to emulate
the
painfully thin women portrayed in the media, it was refreshing to see
ladies
of all ages and sizes celebrate their sensuality and bodies through
the
media of dance.
With the exception of my wonderful children, there were two others that
were completely spellbinding and their names were Connie and Siobhan.
If
everyone else there saw a little of the magic that these two created,
then
the evening should be hailed as a resounding success.
It was also nice to see ladies from different classes/groups dancing
together
and the spirit of the whole night was one of fun and for the
children it portrayed glamour and excitement.
I hope my children grow with these experiences and learn to appreciate
themselves and their bodies for what they are. What wonderful role models
the
ladies on Saturday are for girls the world over!
Congratulations to Donna for a fabulous night and to all the ladies who took
part,
you are helping to inspire my children!
Kindest Regards
Emma"
