FANS OF dance are in for a treat next week when two of the most passionate and powerful dance forms, flamenco and Eastern dance come together in a vibrant and thrilling show at the Town Hall.
This two hours show features native dancers from Spain, France, Algeria, Brazil, France and Ireland performing in amazing costumes from ancient to modern style with flamenco fusion performances, Arabic dance and tribal fusion, which is the latest dance craze to emerge from California. It will also have sword and double veil dance in groups and solo. Yolanda, the main dancer from the company Les Oriantales en Couleurs, is coming specially from France to participate in this show in Galway.
The show is being produced by French-Algerian bellydancer Yasmina whose many credits include appearances with U2 and Demis Roussos. Speaking ahead of her forthcoming appearance in Galway she discloses it was only after she moved to Ireland that she started studying bellydancing, or Raqs Sharqi to give it its proper name. “I came here as an au pair to learn English but then met an Irish man and stayed,” she reveals. “I had already studied jazz and ballet but it was after I came to Ireland that I began seriously studying Middle-Eastern dance from Persia and Egypt. Since then one of my main aims has been to try to get bellydancing afforded the same kind of respect that other dance forms enjoy – to that end I only perform in theatres, never in bars or hotels for instance. Raqs Sharqi requires a lot of technique, it’s not easy to learn, even today I am still learning it myself.”
Yasmina goes on to talk about the show at the Town Hall. “Flamenco has elements of African and Indian dance within it so that makes it easy to blend these different dance forms together in this fusion show. Flamenco is only about three hundred years old, whereas Egyptian dance goes back thousands of years. These are dances that are full of passion. The show features 10 dancers and will be roughly half flamenco and half Arabic dance in its content. We set out to show the traditonal origins of these dances and then move on to the more modern fusion types, such as the tribal fusion that has emerged in recent years from America. It’s a very colourful, energetic, show with amazing, funky costumes and terrific music. I think audiences will really enjoy it.”
Flamenco meets Eastern Dance is at the Town Hall Theatre for one night only on Sunday, August 30, at 8pm. Tickets are €18.
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