Banat El-Raqs Annual Hafla '09 Review

Banat El-Raqs held their 3rd hafla on the last Saturday in September.  Would we worry? Would we stress? No, not us!  Seriously the weather had been excellent all day so we were chilled, and we had the lovely Nettleham hall a whole 2 hours before the first dance was scheduled - so no pressure there then.  Having planned the event with positive military precision, Karen and Kathie and their helpers Philip and Zeta duly arrived and proceeded to transform a perfectly respectable village hall into an eastern paradise, ermm well that's what was planned, and pretty much what was achieved, despite Karen lapsing into last minute panics and convincing herself she had left the money tin at home, when it was in her bag all the time - well the best laid plans etc etc.  A tented welcome, a festival of tables and chairs gaily decorated, a huge dance space and a positively packed bazaar area with stalls provided by Egyptian dancer, Khuzama crafts, Native Pride tribal jewellery and event photography by Rick Picksley, met our guests at the allotted time, and what a lot of guests there were.  We are delighted to say that it was our biggest hafla to date and it was absolutely fantastic to see so many of our friends from all over the County.

Our dance card was smallish but perfectly formed because we believe that our friends come to dance, not just to watch, so our style is equal amounts of performance punctuated by equal amounts of free dance.  We would like to say a massive thank you to Daniella, Angela, Tanya, Siobhan and the Bellybabes for dancing for us. A huge hurrah to the friends of Banat El-Raqs (mainly our students) who opened and closed the show in stunning style and led the free dancing with aplomb and to all of you that came along and helped make it such a fun evening.  We have been extremely touched by the many thank you emails we have received and if you didn't come, then this is what you missed...

'Just to say we all enjoyed the hafla, very relaxed. The night went so quickly..'

'..it's really one of the cheeriest I've been to recently and I really did enjoy it..'

'A FANTASTIC EVENING'

' Can I just say a BIG THANK YOU to you both for last saturday evening which I thoroughly enjoyed and had a great night, thank you so much for making me feel so welcome..'

By the Banat El-Raqs Team.

Editor's comment:

I was there, it was good. If you missed it, TOUGH! You'll have to wait a year for the next one.