"Hi! This is Emilia blogging from Tunisia." Oooopss, sorry - let me rewrite that.
"Hi! This is Emilia blogging from her home PC trying to recapture the moment when I went Tunisian at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre!"
Okay, that sounds better! As a huge fan of anything "Cabaret", going Tunisian is an interesting experience for me. I go astray once in awhile and Folklore dance is the path I tend to cross. When I was a member of Mayada's Banat El Sharq, a fun-filled Folklore troupe, I had an awesome, awesome time! This Tunisian Dance Duet is a reminder of those times....
It breaks the monotony of doing cabaret but hey, nice to try something different.
Here we go....
Buddies in Bad Times actually has a decent change room with lots of graffiti and posters on the wall! The room is trying to depict a run-down change room yet very artsy! The ambience makes me feel like a real dance artist, and yes, a struggling artist!
Katia, my duet partner, is the brain behind the Tunisian Dance. She approached me with her idea! She choreographed it, sewn the costume and provided me with the study materials. My contribution? I showed up at every performances (laugh!)No - okay, I did contribute in some of the staging steps but it is miniscule compared to the time and energy Katia invested on this.
Some photos are not so clear to justify the good lighting and stage at Buddies Theatre but the kind dance artist to whom I have entrusted my camera did what she could!
The learning to balance this huge freaking jar on our head was a fun-tastic experience for me.
The drama starts...My role is a Tunisian fortune teller predicting Katia's fortune.
[Wooooo....hokus....pokus...Emilia predicted that Katia will meet the love of her life and they will have a big family!]
Katia was overjoyed with my prediction of catching a dashing Tunisian man and a family of 4 kids that she started dancing!
Emilia showing her excitement by "zaghareeting" (Geez, is this a word?)
The props changed from "Jar" to "Handkerchief"
The End!
The lovely "Ioana" in the middle who did a solo Cabaret performance so as "Evyenia" (right side)
Overall? I enjoyed it. It is important to try different style of dance. It made me more aware of what kind of style I like the most; and that is, I am still a Cabaret Dancer at heart but hey, knowing me and my inability to sit still -- I will keep exploring different things and at the end of the day, I will go back to the dance that is closest to my heart.
