Raqs Nerd: why I'm throwing a party instead of a rehearsal

When I was planning this year's Raqs Roots Intensive, I made a decision which seemed obvious to me at the time - but may have convinced a lot of other people that I'm crazy:

Instead of arranging for dancers to have a rehearsal with our orchestra, before performing with them in our "One Night in Old Cairo" theatre show... I told them there was going to be no rehearsal - and planned a private party with the band for them instead.

Now, I know full well that this isn't how things work at most dance festivals. Usually there are a few hours set aside for rehearsal, and performers each get a 5-10 minute time slot to run through their chosen song once or twice with the band.

And, at most dance festivals these days, musicians have become resigned to the fact that "foreign" dancers are used to performing choreography to recorded music.

They have come to expect that dancers will request for the music to be played in a predictable way, or to be arranged just the same as a certain recorded version - and that the dancers may actually be thrown off or upset, if the musicians just let loose and play improvisationally in the traditional way...

However, my thing has always been asking "what if we did things differently?"

And, the entire aim of this year's Raqs Roots Intensive as an event - and really of most of what I do as a dancer and teacher! - is to place the traditional cultural values of feeling, spontaneity, and improvisation back at the heart of how we practice Egyptian dance. I wanted everything about the event to reflect this.

And so, the party...

A question I've asked myself is - what is the point of a rehearsal, for a show where we have made the deliberate choice that both the musicians AND the dancers will be improvising their performances?

In this scenario, we absolutely do not want the band to play the same way every time. And we don't want the dancers to be expecting a specific version of their song, or trying to choreograph. All of that would just block the creative process that's trying to unfold - of both musicians and dancers responding intuitively in the moment, to create something unique

But what we do want, is for all of our artists to be able to get "into the zone"!

For our musicians to feel that they can work together as a coherent unit, and respond to each other's improvisations - and, for our dancers to feel that they get what the musicians are doing, know how to respond, and feel safe in the knowledge that the band is working with them.

I am not convinced that running through your chosen song once or twice, under time pressure, actually helps that process very much if at all...

What I think does help, a lot, is getting to just play - in the sense of playtime. To relax, experiment, and get to know each other as artists. To subconsciously absorb how everyone you'll be sharing the stage with likes to interact, respond, and ornament the music - and find your groove together. A jam session, if you will.

Even if your song is never played at all, I truly believe that doing this is a more valuable preparation for performing with a traditional Egyptian musical ensemble, playing in a traditional semi-improvised style, than any amount of Western-style formal rehearsal.

And so, yes, I have decided to throw a private party for all my performers instead of organising a rehearsal 😀 and, I fully expect that this will prove to be a sensible artistic choice, which is going to set us up for an amazing show.

If you want to see whether I'm proved right, and the people who've slightly questioned my sanity are wrong - you can get tickets here!

With Love,

PS - a very limited number of one-day tickets are now available for the Raqs Roots Intensive: Ihsas el-Musiqa with Nisaa and Reda Henkesh! A unique chance to learn about music and musicality for Egyptian dance from the perspective of traditional Egyptian performers - and to explore the full depth of cultural nuance around this glorious art - find the full event information here (and we do also have an online option!)

PPS - every part of this newsletter is written by me, a flesh and blood human being, using my own thoughts, feelings, opinions, and writing style - now and always. This is a 100% generative AI free zone 🚫🤖

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