Arabian Night Hafla - Program

Alrighty, as promised, here is more about the Hafla last night. If you have pics to share, please send them to me and I'll post them here. There were about 40 tables in all, I was told. Sorry, I missed out some Desert Groovers!

I bet many people will be keeping their tickets from last night as there is a lovely picture of Rania (see pic at left) on the front. Now I wish I had asked Rania to sign my ticket :)

Here is the back of the ticket. There wasn't a program sheet last night, so I wrote on some carpet brochures and the back of an envelope. So please forgive me if the info (especially on names and dances) is missing or inaccurate. My knowledge of the different Middle Eastern Dance forms is minimal at best.

If you have the accurate information or links to more on the different types of dances, etc, just drop me an e-mail and I'll update the postings.

The Program
1. Opening by the Alhambra girls - one traditional and one modern number

2. Dinner! (Which was yums, by the way)

3. Abdoul doing some mighty energetic number which involved lots of jumping (I told you I know nuts about MED)

4. Rani of Alhambra did the Saiidi dance. This was interesting as she emerged from a basket!

5. Hana (or Hannah?) of Alhambra did a more modern Egyptian-style number

6. Lucky draw!

7. Introducing .... Rania and Raed ... who made a spectacular entrance from the ballroom entrance with a modern interpretation of the cane dance.

8. Raed (I think) who did a high-energy dance which involved whirling around an object in his hand. It sounded like "dabka," but I'll need to google it to make sure.

9. Audience participation. Now everybody, do the dabka!! (This is where I was pulled in, despite trying to look busy writing)

10. Wei Ying of Alhambra (I think it was Egyptian style bellydance)

11. Rania and Isis Wings .... this was ethereal and magical

12. More Audience Participation! Two guys were hauled on stage, had hip scarves and wigs placed on them and then asked to dance. I must say they did a pretty decent job!



13. Raed returned with the "tanura" which reminded me of the whirling dervishes. This was my personal favourite. It gave me goosebumps, people.

14. Rania is back with a most interesting Persian dance. It was a tribal-ish number.

15. Audience Q&A with prizes

16. Rania did the Khaliji, a Saudi Arabian dance. LOVED it!

17. Lucky Draw

18. Rania is back with an exuberant Turkish number which also included some amazing floorwork and some technically mind-blowingly awesome dancing with a sword

19. Abdoul closed the show with a performance which left many (me included) gasping. He was HOT!

More pics coming up, with little snippets on each performance.