Lorna!

So my next blog was going to be a continuation of the awesomeness that was Gothla, but I'm waiting for some pictures to go up, because it's all about the pictures, and in the meantime, I have been evening things out like a good Black Sheep dancer, and flexing my cabaret muscles.

And where better to do that than in a workshop with a lady straight off the boat from Cairo, the lovely Lorna of Cairo

Some of you may remember what happened last time I tried to go to a workshop with Lorna. Mashallah, this time no one tried to run my little Fiat off the road, and I got to the venue with time to spare. The workshops were hosted by teacher Diana Mehira, who has a purpose-built studio, complete with lots of mirrors. I've long overcome my fear of mirrors, and as Lorna favours the 'follow the bouncing bum (FTBB)' style of teaching, I was very pleased to see these.

The first workshop was on Cairo technique, and involved short sections of improv FTBB, after which Lorna would break down whatever we'd struggled with. At first I was completely poleaxed - there appeared to be arms and hips and attitude all over the place, and I couldn't work out what to focus on, but I soon got into the swing of it, and if I wasn't getting everything, I was at least getting enough to have lots of new ideas for adding interest and authenticity to my dance.

During the lunch break, we got a bonus impromptue debate on the state of Egyptian politics - a complicated subject that was broken down into neat bite-size pieces. I feel like I may actually have a clue about things over there now!

Back on the floor, this time to tackle the tricky subject of accents and how to, well, accent them! Lorna has an incredible 16 different types of move or element to mark an accent, and we went through all of them. My head was spinning by the end of it, but in a good way, jam packed with new ways to think about and respond to music. I can't wait to put them into practice!

Hotter than hell, but still smiling!