AUTUMN 09 NEWSLETTER

Into it!

Hello everyone xox We hope that you enjoyed your Easter holiday if you had one. This newsletter is late! Sorry if you have received it multiple times and *thank you* if you had to do the 'opt-in' process required by our host.
Below are the news and events happening in Ghawaziland... hope you enjoy reading all about it and if you can make it to a gig or workshop, we would absolutely love to see you there!

News...

Devi co-teaching with La Carolena: Devi was honoured to be asked by Carolena Nericcio to co-teach General Skills certificate in Taiwan as Megha was sick. She was away for a week in March and came back full of joy that, nerve-wracking as it was, the workshops went smoothly and were lots of fun. They put on a big fancy performance night where Devi, Carolena, Lucie from Red Lotus successfully performed improv with only an hour (that's ONE hour) to rehearse and get to know each other again. Hopefully we'll get some footage soon. Carolena's blog: fcbdblog.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html Click photos for larger size.

'Intertwine': Over the past few months, our 'big show' has been brewing! It's nearly ready to go and it's called 'Intertwine'. Yeah, we know it's a song, but it's a really cool word too and sums up the organic process of working with different kinds of musicians and dancers. Here's the blurrrrb:

Devi Mamak has drawn together dancers, musicians and artists, braiding their talents together into a compelling and cohesive whole, creating a joyful, mysterious, colorful and diverse show that intertwines cultural traditions and an ebullient creative spirit.
Experience a visual and auditory feast of dances and music from around the world... from current re workings of the ancient Middle East, through to the gypsy dances of India, the raw energy of African dance, passionate flamenco, right through to modern day hip hop and back again.
Devi and her Tribal Belly Dance troupe, Ghawazi Caravan from the Blue Mountains, have been working with artists including Emily Cooper from Hands Heart and Feet; Jrisi Jusakos of Hathor Dance Company; Tarek Sawires & Jamie Bohm, Egyptian percussionists; Bronwyn Kirkpatrick, shakuhachi master and Colin Berryman, sitar player.
“It has been a dream of Ghawazi Caravan’s to not only work with other inspiring dancers but to also work with fantastic musicians. Everyone in the show is so hugely talented and this project has been so much fun to work on. These mixes of dance styles and musical instruments have never before been put together in this way so we all feel extremely excited about it”, says Devi.
On Saturday 13th June, "Intertwine" will be hosted in the beautiful Carrington Hotel Dining Room, Katoomba. The 2009 Winter Magic Month programme will feature the première showing of this exciting production.
Watch the Winter Magic website www.wintermagic.com.au for ticketing details and times. Direct enquiries to Mr Michael Brischetto c/o Carrington Hotel, Katoomba 02 4782 1111 or email: michael@wintermagic.com.au

Very limited tix so ROLL UP ROLL UP!

Bellydance Oasis Magazine. April - June Issue is out now. Oasis is an excellent mag dedicated to Middle Eastern Dance in Australia... in all it's incarnations. Devi writes the regular 'Tribal Corner' article and this time it's about Gothic Bellydance ...shpooky! Check www.bellydanceoasis.com

Comings and Goings...

Ghawazi Caravan's April Erzetich is BACK HOME! Namasté! She's been 4 months in Pushkar intensively learning Odissi Classical Dance with Colleena and Khalbelia 'gypsy' dance from the ladies themselves. It's fascinating to hear her stories and see her dance! She immersed herself in the culture and the work. You should see what she has learnt - some will be in 'Intertwine' - and take part in some of the workshops that she is planning to run. (Drop Devi a line if you are interested.) So fun to see her open suitcases of sparkling, colourful, tinkling SHOPPING!!!!!! Maybe next newsletter we can have her write a little bit about her grand trip to India. Photo right: April and Queen Harish. Click for link.

Miss Barbara has been an absolute pleasure to have with us but she is on the road again. Oh so soon! Barb has been a welcome member of Ghaziya this year, performing at the soiree and a number of other events... she so has the x-factor on stage! Have a wonderful time and bring your sweet smile back when you can. xox

Upcoming Public Performances...

Saturday 2nd May: Sydney Middle Eastern Dance Festival Concert.
Starlight Auditorium, Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL, $35.00 starts 7.30pm.
Ghawazi Caravan will be performing with special guest Hilary Cinis ('cause Hil and Devi will be conducting the fest workshop together, see below). The theme this year is 'Twenty Years of Talent - Looking back with nostalgia and forward with excitement'. We will be performing ATS and takin' it back to the old school. Guess what we will wear on our heads? www.sydmedfest.com (see workshops section also).

Sunday 3rd May: Sydney Middle Eastern Dance Festival Follies. Marrickville Town Hall $10 entry. Ghawazi Caravan, Ghaziya and Ghawazi Girls will be performing in the morning of the all-day show case. Inside, there's also the Bellydance Souk with stalls of new and second-hand costumes, jewellery, music and bric-a-brac. www.sydmedfest.com

Saturday 9th May: Dance Week.
Springwood High School 6.00 pm. Alex and Kate of Ghawazi Caravan (aka 'the little ones') will be performing there. So will Ghaziya and Ghawazi Girls along with many Blue Mountains dance schools and troupes.

Saturday 30th May: Western Australia Middle Eastern Dance Festival.
Devi will perform solo at the gala concert, 'Tapestry', at St Mary's Theatre, Karrinyup.www.wamedfestival.com (see workshops section also)

Saturday 6th May: Ararat, Victoria.
Devi performs . For bookings and more info, contact Patsy at Nomadic Passions Dance www.nomadicpassionsdance.com.au (see workshops section also)

Sunday 31st May: Media Launch for Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba Imax Theatre.
Ghawazi Caravan help promote Winter Magic Festival.

Saturday 13th June: 'Intertwine'.
The Carrington Hotel, Katoomba. See 'News' above for all the info!
devimamak@ghawazicaravan.com
www.wintermagic.com.au

Saturday 20th June: Winter Magic Festival - the big parade day!
Ghawazi Caravan with special guest artists will perform snippets from 'Intertwine'.  Time and venue tba.
Winter Magic is the funnest, biggest and best fest in the Mountains so dress up (colourful and warm) and come up! www.wintermagic.com.au

Upcoming Workshops...

Devi is no longer booking 'away' workshops for 2009...she’s full, but has started booking for 2010!

We have been getting many requests from people to help prepare them for General skills or Teacher Training with Carolena. Devi is coming up with a new series of intensive workshops entilted 'ATS Drills and Individual Critique' designed to help you get all that you can out of GS and TT. There would be different levels starting at basic ATS and going right through all levels, including 'Ghawazi Caravan' moves, focussing on drilling time and individual critique as there'd always be two Ghawazi teachers present.

Are you interested in doing workshops in the Blue Mountains later this year? What would you like to do them on?! Give Devi a yell with your preferences on 02 47587264 or devimamak@ghawazicaravan.com

18th and 19th of April: Adelaide. Hosted by Sacred Tribal Dance Studio.
Devi's workshops include: Slow Stuff, Drum Choreography, Stage Presence and New Moves.
Contact : acushla@sacredtribalbellydance.com www.sacredtribalbellydance.com

1st-3rd May 2009: Sydney Middle Eastern Dance Festival.
"Interactive Duets", taught by both Devi Mamak and Hilary Cinis on Friday 1st May. (Ooo that will be a good day... Melusina's "Indian Spices" workshop is in the morning too). www.sydmedfest.com Photos at left by Suzanne Brown

May 29th - June 1st 2009: WA Middle Eastern Dance Festival.
Devi will be teaching workshops, "Slow and Slinky Tribal" and "Beyond Beginners for ATS" on Saturday May 29 "New Moves for Tribal" and "Tribal Drum Solo" on Sunday 30th May.
On the Sunday evening, Devi will be giving a short presentation on the origins of Tribal at Cafe Ashra, a great new event for the festival featuring seminars and performance. She will be presenting along side of Artemis Mourat and Khaled Mahmoud, who will speak about Turkish dance and Egyptian dance respectively. WOW. www.wamedfestival.com

6th and 7th June: Ararat, Victoria.
For bookings and more info, contact Patsy at Nomadic Passions Dance www.nomadicpassionsdance.com.au

18th and 19th July: Newcastle Festival Mystique
"Khalbelia Gypsy Workshop with Ghawazi Caravan" taught by April Erzetich.
"ATS New Moves with Ghawazi Caravan" taught by Cristie Fuller.
www.festivalmystique.com

7th - 9th August: Tribal Mosaic presented by Jacqueline Pepercamp, director of Tribal Jewels.
Devi's workshop will be "ATS New Moves"... (Get 'em straight from the horse's mouth and yep, the 'Medusa Combo' will be in there).
Tribal Mosaic is the 1st Tribal Bellydance retreat to be held in NSW. It's at Govinda Valley Spiritual Retreat Centre, Otford. This is a fantastic community event with workshops on some interesting subjects such as Dance as Art Therapy and Tribal Fusion Choreography Toolkit. www.tribaljewels.com.au

22nd and 23rd August: Gympie QLD hosted by Celestial Gems. Devi's workshops are "Beyond Beginners to Intermediate ATS" and "Improvisational Choreography with Cues & Transitions". Amera Eid will be there too teaching Modern Khaleegy and Raks Galabaya (Shabbi). www.celestialgemsbellydance.com.au

Into the Future...

September: Our Devi is off to Belgium to teach! Mmmm... Belgian chocolate....

October: Fire in the Belly Festival in Albury/Wodonga. Dev's going. Are you?

November: Carolena Nericcio comes to the Blue Mountains conduct Teacher Training. Woohoo! Anyone can do it now. (If you've done GS that is). She is also very likely to do General Skills again as there is plenty of interest. Bookings are being taken now so don't miss out. devimamak@ghawazicaravan.com www.fcbd.com

Some Recentish Public Events...

Tribal Student Soiree.
Super-mega-tribal-day was in Springwood, 1st of March. We had new troupes, old troupes, interstate troupes, kidlets, soloists, mums... the only thing not on stage was the dads....maybe next time?!
So much talent, energy and sheer enjoyment to share and see what each other is up to. Thank you to all of the amazing Tribal Bellydance performers and our guests, Samba Parrot and Hands Heart and Feet AND our MC with mostest, Dayl.
For us, it was really special to see 'Ghawazi Girls'...since in the little girls troupe there are: Devi's daughter, Rachelle's neice, our friend and drummer Tarek's daughter, and in the older group, Diane of Ghaziya's daughter.
The next Soiree will be hosted by Tribalista in Canberra, Saturday 27th June. Noice. Kind of off-topic, but while you're there... the exhibition at the NGA  will be 'Soft Sculpture', sounds cool! Really off-topic but really exciting... the exhibition December to next April will be Ballets Russes: the art of costume... *taps fingers in anticipation*
Photos of Ghawazi Caravan by Rod Murphy. Top left: Catherine, bottom left Devi and Diamanda, right: Rachelle and Cristie.

Devi's Travels. In Melbourne last month, some of Devi's students felt that her teaching really 'moved' them. No, silly! It was an earthquake!! They kept up as the earth moved under their feet and also had a great time at the performance night at Club Rakkasah where the only earth tremors were caused by all the dancers on the floor.
After returning from Taiwan (see News...), the Newcastle workshops hosted by Susan Gleeson were a roaring success. Sometimes we wonder why we'd live in the mountains when there is such beautiful weather to be had 'down there'.

Ironfest, Lithgow.
Cristie, Rachelle and April battled the raging elements before and after, but were blessed with a little patch of blue during their set. They also contended with the sound system dropping out... thank you Jaime and Tarek who stepped in and played while they did improv. ATS wins again! April did a totally gorgeous and uplifting Khalbelia dance at the end of the set in full gypsy costume. As far as we know... Lithgow just hosted the first public performance of Khalbelia gypsy dance in Australia. Other rad stuff that day included Melbourne's The Woohoo Revue; The Spooky Men's Chorale, Toydeath, pole dancers (!!), Lithgow BDers Belly D, Sally Charlton, blacksmithing demos, jousting and Napoleonic re-enactments! Whoa, what a show!

Holi Festival.
Ghawazi Caravan performed at the 'Indian festival of colour, harmony and friendship' at Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour. As usual, a lot of fun... and we didn't even get rained on which was a pleasant surprise! Yummy vego food and Kate had gorgeous henna designs put on. Bit of dancing, bit of bindi shopping, bit of marsala tea sipping...good day out!

Foundation Day.
Ghaziya tore up Springwood with a fantastic set last Saturday and they didn't get rained on either! Ghaziya have been invited to dance all over the place lately including 'High Tea' at the Carrington and the Penrith Festival and looking great doing it. Beautiful formations, great music and gorgeous smiles. Love the cat's eyes bit, Barb and Nina!
Photo left of Ghaziya by Kate Sowerby.

Well, I guess that's it. Must get away from the computer and into the lounge room for boogie. Hmmm.... what dvd shall I do tonight? Suhaila Buns... Advanced Workshop 7... Jane Fonda....

Quotes of the season:

"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning' - Unknown

"Don't dream it, BE it!" - Tim Curry