Spring Student Recital 2009: An International Party

Presented by Sistrum Dance
Haysboro Community Hall
Sunday April 19th, 2009

In Arabic, there is a word, hafla, which means a party with friends and family where there is dancing and food. That is what this event was! There was food and tea for the audience and performers to enjoy while they watched the dancing. However, not only Arabs have this concept. The Spanish word fiesta means a similar type of party, as does the Celtic word ceilidh (pronounced "kay-lee"). So for this event I invited students from other belly dance schools, AND from flamenco and highland dance schools as well! It was truly an international party/hafla/ fiesta/ceilidh. We celebrated the coming of spring together as well as all the accomplishments that our friends and family had made in their dancing this year. It gave dancers a supportive environment in which to obtain performance experience. Some dancers performed for the first time ever; others honed their already-developing performance skills.

The featured dancers below are Afsana; the Sistrum Dance Beginners (Carol, Robin and Shannon); the Sistrum Dance Advanced-Intermediates (Alison, Anne, Rebecca, Robin and Zahira); Shireen and her advanced group (Ashley, Olivia, Ramona, Tracey and Wendy); Samira and the City of Calgary Canyon Meadows Beyond Basics class (Maria, Samira, Tara and Yuri); Jory, Kim and Sara from the Imeson School of Highland Dancers; the Penalver sisters: Jessica, Cristina and Janeth; Anastassiia Moussatova, student of Annette Morcos at the Fineza Flamenca School; Alejandra and Katri; and Tracy. Anastasssiia was accompanied by David Matyas (guitar) and Annette Morcos (palmas). Alejandra and Katri were accompanied by Nicky (guitar) and Annette (palmas).

Images by Karl Schenk.