KNYSNA NEWS  - Ladies from the Knysna and Plettenberg Bay units of Charlena's Oriental and Belly Dance Studio traveled to Cape Town for the International Oriental Dance Festival held on October 28 -31.
Having attended 2009's festival these ladies have spent the last 12 months "raising the bar" and left Knysna with confidence and a set of performances to wow their audience!

A gala show at the Camp's Bay Hotel Theatre kicked off the event on Thursday evening, October 28 with two hours of performances by professional dancers from abroad and some of South Africa's more noted dancers, setting the scene and the standard for the festivities to come.

A South African belly dancer opened the Festival on the V & A Waterfront Amphitheatre stage with her dance performance to the very popular World Cup 2010 song, Waka Waka by Shakira.
Some may not know that Shakira is an excellent and avid belly dancer, and if one pays attention to her moves in performance one will notice the very defined hip and upper-body isolation moves that she makes. Isolation and muscle control are an integral part of the technique necessary to belly dance.

Even in such professional surroundings with hi-tech equipment and the like, things can go wrong. After the opening number the music system refused to play the music required for the next performers. Although only scheduled to dance some 40 minutes later, the Knysna ladies rushed to the rescue and quickly took the stage to dance their first number, Belimo, choreographed by Patricia Varga, an Arabic-Flamenco dance piece which all six ladies performed. Barely a hip had been raised when the audience already started applauding and cheering, carried away by the rousing Spanish themed music and flamboyant Flamenco skirts.

Later in the day Knysna’s dancers performed Lali's Song, choreographed by Charline Hall, to a full and most appreciative audience.

This somewhat cheeky dance with a lovely beat and good pace has challenging movements, which were well applauded. The last performance for Knysna for the day was Belly Beat, choreographed by Sheila Wood and its title says it all!
The principals of both the PE and Knysna studios were trained by Cape Town studio, Palace of the Wind's principal, Asja Samia. As part of their training they were taught Haduni, which in turn they taught their students. The dance is lively and fun and approximately 40 ladies from the three studios performed it to an equally lively audience.

Knysna dancer Lize Wagenaar had prepared her own choreography to perform a solo piece to popular Amy Winehouse’s song, You Know I'm no Good, but when it came to performance time technical hitches were again experienced and the music could not be played. However, her fellow Knysna dancers urged her to dance without music while they clapped the beat. Within seconds the entire audience joined in the clapping and Lize bravely completed her dance.

The Knysna ladies were congratulated by fellow dancers and audience members alike for their stunning performances and were many times complimented on their lovely costumes. It was the feedback they had been working so hard and long for to receive. And it doesn't stop here… they know they have far to go, much to learn and plenty of improvements to make, but they have already vowed to be at the festival again next year - only much better!

For more information contact Patricia Varga at 084 7033 455.

ARTICLE: ANOESCHKA VON MECK