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MEDANZ News MEDANZ News MEDANZ News ISSN 2230-357X (Online) ISSN 1177-2808 (Print) Middle Eastern Dance Association of New Zealand June/July 2012 Information Centre 2 Presidential Ponderings 3 Meet the Committee 4-6 Raves ‘n’ Reviews: Workshops 6 Raves ‘n’ Reviews: The Show 7 Raves ‘n’ Reviews: “Wanted” 8-9 Andalusian or Muwashshah? 10 Raves ‘n’ Reviews Cont’d 12 Raqs Samimi DVD Order Form 13 What’s On 14 Thanks & Congrats 15 Important Notices 16 INSERT - AGM Minutes A BIG THANK YOU - Rather than include this in the president’s report I wanted to put in a special big thank you! To all of the Organisers and Participants who made festival happen this year, a big thank you. I would especially like to thank Suzey who donated the bindis to this year’s welcome pack and to the teachers who sent in business cards for part of the welcome pack too. Special thanks to Bron and Petra, our on the ground Committee members from last year who worked together on such a big project and roped in dancers in the wider Dunedin community to help out - and to the dancers who got roped into helping out, a big thanks also! Karen/Adilah MY FIRST MEDANZ FESTIVAL By Mary Sharp I joined the Unfortunate Repercussions weeks before the festival and as the weeks moved forward I became very excited that I would be involved in performing with them, on stage and at the hafla. There was always a thought that it would be a large event and that there would be many dancers and musicians sharing one thing in common and the same stage. I put up posters and told as many folk I could about what fortune Dunedin was to experience once the festival was underway. At the meet and greet I met so many wonderful goddesses and had the pleasure of immersing myself in sequins and jewels and great conversation. I watched while many of the dancers had their Henna done and giggled a little while they walked around stiff armed while it dried. The Saturday of the stage performance and I swear all day I was close to fainting with excitement, I didn't. I prepared myself and had a lovely day. I dressed and went over my beats for our performance. Dress rehearsal brought the reality of what was about to happen very close to my reality and my heart began to flutter, with excitement. We opened the show and then took a seat in the audience to watch the beauty unfold on stage. Never have I had the pleasure of being part of something so big, it took my breath away. Cont’d Page 12

2012 June July Newsletter

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Page 1: 2012 June July Newsletter

MEDANZ NewsMEDANZ NewsMEDANZ NewsISSN 2230-357X (Online) ISSN 1177-2808 (Print)

Middle Eastern Dance Association of New Zealand

June/July 2012

Information Centre 2

Presidential Ponderings 3

Meet the Committee 4-6

Raves ‘n’ Reviews: Workshops 6

Raves ‘n’ Reviews: The Show 7

Raves ‘n’ Reviews: “Wanted” 8-9

Andalusian or Muwashshah? 10

Raves ‘n’ Reviews Cont’d 12

Raqs Samimi DVD Order Form 13

What’s On 14

Thanks & Congrats 15

Important Notices 16

INSERT - AGM Minutes

A BIG THANK YOU -Rather than include this in the president’s report I wanted to put in a special big thank you!

To all of the Organisers and Participants who made festival happen this year, a big thank you. I would especiallylike to thank Suzey who donated the bindis to this year’s welcome pack and to the teachers who sent in

business cards for part of the welcome pack too.

Special thanks to Bron and Petra, our on the ground Committee members from last year who worked togetheron such a big project and roped in dancers in the wider Dunedin community to help out - and to the dancers

who got roped into helping out, a big thanks also! Karen/Adilah

MY FIRST MEDANZ FESTIVALBy Mary Sharp

I joined the Unfortunate Repercussions weeks before the festival andas the weeks moved forward I became very excited that I would beinvolved in performing with them, on stage and at the hafla. Therewas always a thought that it would be a large event and that therewould be many dancers and musicians sharing one thing in commonand the same stage. I put up posters and told as many folk I couldabout what fortune Dunedin was to experience once the festival was

underway.

At the meet and greet I met so many wonderful goddesses and hadthe pleasure of immersing myself in sequins and jewels and greatconversation. I watched while many of the dancers had their Hennadone and giggled a little while they walked around stiff armed while it

dried.

The Saturday of the stage performance and I swear all day I wasclose to fainting with excitement, I didn't. I prepared myself and had alovely day. I dressed and went over my beats for our performance.Dress rehearsal brought the reality of what was about to happen veryclose to my reality and my heart began to flutter, with excitement. Weopened the show and then took a seat in the audience to watch the

beauty unfold on stage.

Never have I had the pleasure of being part of something so big, it

took my breath away. Cont’d Page 12

Page 2: 2012 June July Newsletter

Page 2

Web Site

www.medanz.org.nz

User Name: medanz

Password: bellyroll

Committee Details

President - Karen Walworth

[email protected]

(027) 448 9001

Vice-President - Dori Bestmann

[email protected]

(021) 029 78803

Secretary—Beverley Dowling

[email protected]

(027) 218 2820

Treasurer /Membership- Lynley Murphy

[email protected]

(027) 454 0478

Vicki ten Velde

[email protected]

(021) 346 498

Liz Irvine

[email protected]

(021) 254 2779

Diane James

[email protected]

(027) 273 1258

Brigid Kelly

[email protected]

(027) 308 9713

How to contact usMEDANZ

Suite 3051

P O Box 13-240

Johnsonville

Wellington 6440

Committee :

[email protected]

Librarian:

[email protected]

Membership :

[email protected]

Treasurer :

[email protected]

Newsletter :

[email protected] or

[email protected]

Bank Account Details: 12-3011-0758507- 51 Include your name and reason (ie: sub / festival /DVD etc)

Contributions, including original articles, photos, reviews and letters are VERY welcome

Email to: [email protected], or [email protected]

(All contributions will be deemed to be authorised to be reprinted on the website.

Material does not necessarily represent the views of MEDANZ members, or those of the MEDANZ committee.)

The cut off date for the August/September newsletter is: 15 July, 2012

Page 3: 2012 June July Newsletter

Page 3

President’s Report

We have just gotten through April, our festival and AGM. I am pleased with

how Festival this year turned out.

Our Dunedin Ladies did a FANTASTIC job down there – so much so that people who attended nowwant to go there again. The crew in Dunedin have indicated that they are willing to do this all again

with the same venue as last year.

It was great to see the show was packed with audience at the Mayfair. The promotional effort and

work that went on in Dunedin obviously paid off.

We tried a different schedule for this last year. Whilst some of it paid off – the smaller number ofworkshops, including a lunch break and free to member workshops – others did not, such as the tim-ing of the AGM. For 2013 I will be recommending the AGM proceeds earlier in the festival then wecan all enjoy the remainder of the festival. Having pre- submitted motions to the meeting was good,

and as this worked out well we will be using pre-submitted motions again for next year’s meeting.

The ladies in Dunedin provided some wonderful little touches – The Hudra, whilst small was still vi-brant and full of goodies for the dancer to look through and buy. The café there was well received

and used by members.

The Hafla: general comments of the attendees was it was a good venue but too much like a secondshow, the food was nice – but it would have been nice if it was not all vegetarian. The Dunedin Crewhad a very unusual but fun way of wrapping up the Hafla, they “chair- wrangled” This is where youpick up a seat when it is vacated and put it away so the number of seats goes from being quite a fewto not many and the dance floor continues to grow in size until there are basically no chairs left andit becomes time to say goodnight. The musicians–the Unfortunate Repercussions wound up the eve-

ning.

We have a full committee again and a lot of experience returns to our committee this year both withreturning members of last year’s committee back on board and also with some of our older members

returning to the committee. Our first meeting was in May and the next one will be in June.

Yours in Dance,

Karen /Adilah

Special request

MEMBERS who attended THE WHOLE AGM can you please send me an email to [email protected] saying your name, member # and “Yes- I was there the whole time,” so we can

check the accuracy of our minutes thank you.

Page 4: 2012 June July Newsletter

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Karen Walworth – President

Hi I am Karen also known as Adilah and I am the current president forMEDANZ, this is my second and final term in this role. I am looking forwardto a busy and productive year with our having a full committee for the sec-ond year in a row with returning members from last year’s committee andnew members to the committee, members who have been on past commit-

tees and have returned again to the committee

About me personally – I am first and foremost a mother to two girls, one ispossibly a future belly dancer possibly a ballerina or cheerleader and theother a Surgeon! I teach dance classes in the evenings and perform andduring the days throughout the week and I spend time working on MEDANZrelated things, I also am the founding member of the Desert Gypsys BellyDance group (& yes that is how Gypsys in the name is meant to be spelt it

is a deliberate grammatical error!)

Doreen Bestmann — Vice-President

My dance name is Dori and this will be my 12th year of belly dancing. I am anoriental dancer at heart, however I have studied both folk and tribal group im-

provisation styles and have dabbled in the odd fusion style.

For a number of years I was a Level 4 dancer and teacher with the School ofContemporary Belly Dance in Christchurch where I did the bulk of my earlytraining and teacher training. I have also spent 4 years in England teaching,learning and attending major festivals with dancers from all over the world forfurther development. Some of these include Fifi Abdou, Raquia Hassan, RandaKamal (Egypt), Artemesia (Belgium), Leila Haddad (France), Horacio and Beata

Cifuentes (Germany), Jim Boz and Fatheim (USA.)

I have performed professionally in NZ, the UK, Germany and France, both in

staged and restaurant settings.

Since returning to NZ in 2012 I have been based in Auckland where I have been immersing myself inthe local dance community, attending classes and performing throughout Auckland when there is

time to fit it all in.

I have previously been on the MEDANZ committee for 2 years as the membership person, then againlast year. I think it’s important to be involved in national dance community, get to know people andkeep improving what MEDANZ has to offer its membership, which is why I am back. If you have anyquestions, queries or heaven forbid complaint, please do feel free to contact me as your MEDANZrepresentative. (Note that nagging is best appreciated over coffee/wine so Auckland invites would be

most welcome! :) .)

Page 5: 2012 June July Newsletter

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Beverley Dowling — Secretary

Hi

I’m Beverley, some may know me better as Moonjelly. I put my hand up for committee again

(Secretary role) as life on the farm, house build, and working the mobile farm petting zoo has qui-

etened down a bit. Due to a chronic knee condition I can no longer

dance which just rips my soul out but I do have time and energy to

sink back into committee work again.

I am one of the original members of MEDANZ and have already

served on committee for four years, during which time I did a num-

ber of jobs including librarian, and President for two years, Vice

President for one year. Over the years I have seen MEDANZ de-

velop and grow, and have already been part of making big changes

in how we do things.

Right now I feel it is time to revisit past, look at the present and

consider the future. I want to ensure that the necessary legal obli-

gations of our Association are always met, look at how committee

can focus on core committee work while ensuring great festivals

involving greater membership involvement, and workshops around

NZ with terrific teachers. Most important my big question of the year is ‘ what is the value of belong-

ing to MEDANZ?’ and from exploring this question we may take steps towards real improvement.

I’m looking forward to what the year brings.

Beverley/Moonjelly

Secretary

Brigid Kelly/Zumarrad

I’m Zumarrad, aka Brigid Kelly, and I am happy to be joining committeeagain as an ordinary member this year. I’m based in Christchurch, stillstudy and perform with Yurie at El Yasmine Bellydance School and havebeen exploring this wonderful art form since 1998. I taught regularweekly classes for seven years, but after undertaking some intensiveacademic study around our dance form and shifting to an evening job asa subeditor with Fairfax Media, now stick to workshops, lectures and pri-

vates.

My passion is for Egyptian oriental dance and all things folkloric, musicalgeekery and academic analysis. This year I’m making a return pilgrimageto the final IBCC in Toronto (Cairo will have to wait!) and hosting NYC’s

star Ranya Renee in broken but undaunted Christchurch.

Like almost all of your 2012 representatives, I’m also a past MEDANZ president. Email is best, or if

you want to phone, please do so during the day before 4pm!

Brigid/Zumarrad

MEET THE COMMITTEE

cont’d

Page 6: 2012 June July Newsletter

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Review of Festival Show ‘Raqs Samimi’ 14th April 2012Westpac Mayfair Theatre, Dunedin

By Andrea Gill /Maia of Thames, Waikato.

As a Festival veteran (since 1999) I have seen many MEDANZ Shows and performedat several. As a Performer you get a special thrill but nerves can blank stuff out, andof course you miss seeing items in your part of the show…. these days I seem toprefer the gentler thrill of being an Audience member, and you do get to watch thewhole show in a leisurely fashion without butterflies!

This Show was DEFINITELY one of the best MEDANZ Shows I have ever attended.The reasons I rate it so highly are: much thought was given to the TOTAL effect ofthe show including variety of styles and performers, length of items and and totalduration of the show. I was particularly pleased by this, as I had with me my hubbyAND his MUM (who is 88)! For the record, afterwards he said to me “I GENUINELYenjoyed that one!” and she said “OOHH it was so DIFFERENT! All the COLOURS…itmust be difficult but they were so skilled, and the older ladies were great .”

The live music and drumming was fantastic with the magnificent Unfortunate Repercus-sions from Dunedin accompanying Tribal Echo and Khamzin Tribe opening Part One,and opening Part Two the awesome multitalented Andy Busuttill from Blue Moun-tains in NSW (accompanied by the versatile virtuoso Tanara Stedman of Dunedin),not only performing wonderfully complex drumming, but some Arabic mawwal-stylesinging that made all the hair stand up on my neck!

The dance-styles represented were (forgive me if I get the classification wrong orleft anything out!)… American Cabaret (With Isis Wings): upbeat and sassy with Petraand Collette from Dunedin. American Cabaret Solo Beautiful, flowing, precise yet lyricalmovement from Rachael from ChCh (I could watch her for hours). Baladi Solo: thelovely Tais delivered another classy performance with real earthy Egyptian flavour;Bellydance Fun/ Fusion :The Sisters of the Sands from Timaru gave us colourful andlively fun dance to an old-favourite song. The Desert Gypsys (Waikato) gave us agenuinely entertaining and funny ‘rivalry’ based dance culminating in one being tiedto a chair! Phoenix Group gave us a very diverse piece with theatricality, drama andvarious props and ending on a lighter note, always good to see groups attemptingsomething different (Mother-in-law was entranced). Modern Egyptian Cabaret: pre-cisely delivered by the seemingly-ageless Farida of Christchurch; The gorgeous(costume-envy-inspiring) Zumarrad and Belinda with a Choreography by Yurie alsoof ChCh. The wonderful Kenny performed an original choreography showing ele-gance and skill and humour.

Folkloric/Traditional: Dallia romped her way through a cheeky ‘Melaya Leff’ with pa-nache and attitude. Pop: Liquorice Allsorts gave us bright costumes and a fresh de-livery. Latin Fusion: The smokin’ hot Victoria (ChCh) showed off a steamy Meren-gue/Bellydance fusion, very engaging! Tribal Solo (Gypsy Caravan) The regal bearing ofIman (Auckland) inspired admiration, and her audience rapport was lovely to watchduring this lively and original improvisational piece. Tribal Group (Gypsy Caravan)Khamzin Tribe danced to live drumming, and showed their lively colourful engagingstyle. Tribal Group (ATS) Turban Sprawl (great name btw) showed their delight indancing together using Tribal style improvisation to unite dancers from all over thecountry. Cont’d on Page 12

Page 7: 2012 June July Newsletter

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WANTED!

By Christine Gordon /Kadriya of Mirage of Taupo

Wanted!!! Isolating Agent urgently required!!

I have decided that my body is a bit like a car & now that it’s past the 1st/2nd?? flush of youth it needsa bit more looking after, and one of the things I definitely need is an isolating agent!

I was lucky enough to attend Tais’s Oriental Workshops in Taupo recently (Sat 18th & Sun 19th Feb) &had a blast! We had dancers from Turangi, Whakatane, Hawkes Bay & even one lovely young lady,Anastasia who just saw the workshops on the net that morning & came all the way down from Hamil-ton for one workshop!!

There would have been approx 12/13 people in the first class which focussed on technique. How yourarms come into play - how your facial expressions & even how you hold your head make a differenceto how you express yourself in a dance & how your audience perceives you. We were given some ex-cellent grounding techniques which will come in very handy!

Our next workshop – Shimmies/Diverse techniques, layering, combinations & steps is where the Iso-lating Agent needs to come in! We went over all sorts of shimmies, chest, shoulder, hip, ¾ shimmies,shimmying on one leg, shimmying from the knees, from the hips, using our muscles to see what differ-ence it made in different types of shimmies. Tensing part of your body while doing twist shimmies sothat your top half is free to do different moves – this is where I struck trouble!! I find it extremely hardto do a twist shimmy without quite a lot of residual movement in my arms which means my ‘wingdings’ (my name for the flabby bits under my arms) are also joining in big time!! Note to self – makesure to wear sleeves at least to the elbows!! Funny how it doesn’t look quite as bad when it’s covered!Apart from grimacing in concentration at that part of the class, it was lots of fun & we learnt some gor-geous shimmy layering combinations.

Darbouka Solo – drum choreography to Darbouka Solo 11 from the album Harem, Rhythm Colour,was our last workshop for the day. Cool music with cool choreography! Lots of lovely accents in this &a fun dance to learn - which we decided we would have a go at dancing at the Hafla! (Don’t knowwhat Tais thought of our attempt but we had fun trying to remember it all!)

We had a small intimate Hafla but what may have been lacking in numbers we sure made up for indancing!! Tais very kindly performed for us a few times, with her first dance being an interactive onewith the audience – I was busy clapping away enjoying watching whileTais was dancing & signalingshe would like me to join her – did I get that?? No, I had to get told to go join her – doesn’t take me

long to catch on does it, ha,ha! We had performances from Zuhrah(dancing Drama Queen, a zill choreography Tais taught last year) & Mi-rage, Melody & Selina from Hawkes Bay, with Sylvia & Selina also per-forming a veil dance that Tais had taught them in a workshop a few yearsago. Petro, our drummer was also there as well as his daughter whogave us a lovely solo improv & Tais also danced to his drumming. Wedanced our little hearts out & had a great time!

Sunday’s workshop was another choreography New Balady from the songNew Balady by Mario Kirlis. This is a delightful choreography with im-provisation at the start & part way through. Excellent for those who arekeen to improve their improv & a challenge for those who are perhapsnot so experienced. It will be very interesting to see all the different inter-pretations of the music!

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To finish off the day, those that could, met for lunch at our favourite Turkish Café, then Tais went off

with Sue for a refreshing swim in the lake.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, & a pleasure to have Tais in Taupo. A big thanks to MEDANZ

for helping her get here!

from the New Editor

Sue Graham/Zuhrah

Firstly, welcome to the first MEDANZ NEWSafter the wonderful Raqs Samimi Festival2012! Apologies for the lateness of publica-tion due to the changeover. I agreed to takethe job on to take a load off the hard-workingcommittee, plus I must admit to enjoying therelaxing pursuit of proof-reading, changingfonts, putting words into little boxes and Iespecially like nagging people via email! (Ofcourse, you’ll all be trying hard to spot anyerrors in this publication now, which I canassure you were put there absolutely on pur-pose for all the other proof-reading geeksout there!!) More from me later...

WANTED! cont’d

luxurious 100% silk

mesmerising

exotic

Individually hand dyed and made in New Zealand

[email protected]

021 20 60 333

The Wandering Snail Café at the Raqs Samimi Hudra,

Kazbah Studios, Dunedin, 2012

Page 9: 2012 June July Newsletter

MINUTES of the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

of the

MIDDLE EASTERN DANCE ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND

held in the Tahuna Intermediate School Staffroom - Dunedin

15 April 2012

Prior to commencement of the meeting, Karen Walworth allowed 10 minutes for members to read the agenda and associated reports and to lodge in writing anymotions to be discussed under general business.

Meeting started 1.41pm

Attendees

Apologies

ProxiesBeverley Dowling - Michaela Hunter, Carol Hunt, Julie Duffy, Angela MottCandice Frankland - Sophie Kaulima, Gretchen Howard, Lynette Marchant Melissa CharbonneauKathryn Gilligan - Robyn SenecalKaren Walworth - Lucinda O’BrianPip Bennington - Judith Varga

Confirmation of previous minutes:

Correspondence pertaining to the minutes from Judith Varga and Angela Mott was read by Dianne Thompson – (see Page 12)

Moved acceptance of the minutes as they stand - K Walworth / V ten Velde - DEFEATED

Moved acceptance of the minutes with the amendments proposed by Angela Mott - K Walworth / B Dowling - CARRIED

Abstentions - 2

Presidents report “Welcome to the MEDANZ AGM for 2012 thank you for coming, I am Karen the current President Also here today we have… Lynley (Both Treasurerand membership secretary) Dianne This year’s Secretary, & Dori and our outgoing members Amanda, Pip and Vice president Bronwyn. This is the president’s reportfor MEDANZ 2012I have enjoyed my time as your president this year and look forward to serving you for another year. It has been a pleasure to work with this year’s committee, thankyou to them for the time they have put in this year and I look forward to carrying on working with those members staying on committee also a big thank you tothose who are leaving us this yearOver the year the committee has been working on projects both old and new, which will be discussed in general business. Some of what the committee have donethis year is we now have a poster for teachers to display in their dance areas and a membership three fold brochure which includes our membership form forteachers to be able to hand out or have for students to be able to take.The committee members are here to help you – please feel free to ask us any questions you have in regards to MEDANZ – To work out who your committee are lookfor those of us wearing a sash to easily identify your committee, at this and future festivalsI will be facilitating this year’s meeting we want to try to keep things running quickly so please try to include all you need to in your questions as we will not keepcoming back to the same person due to limited time.

Moved to accept the President’s report with the addition of Petra Cowell’s name as a resigning committee member.

- K Walworth / B Mohring - CARRIED

Amanda Bound 193 Emma Jordan 491 Petra Colwell 128

Amanda O’Connor 481 Iphigenie Amoutzias 145 Rachel Olson 391

Angela Hughes 125 Jan Grant 105 Sheau Lan Sim 483

Anna Walsh 407 Jeena Monk 220 Shelly Dawson 257

Beverley Dowling 111 John ten Velde - 532 Stefanie Kalmakoff 144

Brigid Kelly 126 Jude Hutton 412 Sue Graham 156

Bronwyn Mohring 140 Karen Walworth 132 Suzanne Robertson 174

Candice Frankland 450 Karyn Jordan 302 Sylvia Edge-Perkins 149

Carol Wald 120 Kathryn Gilligan 160 Tanara Stedman 346

Catherine Corcoran 409 Kaveeta Bhavsaar 520 Toni Blincoe 177

Christine Gordon 305 Kaye Barrie 218 Tracy Skene 509

Christine Haviland 456 Lisa Lawford 523 Vicki ten Velde 414

Cindy Baker 470 Liz Irvine 108 Victoria Escaip 134

Diane James 101 Lynley Murphy 390 Pip Elysaah 300

Dianne Thompson 381 Martin Fastier 314

Doreen Bestmann 419 Nicola Collie 505

Angela Mott 118 Judith Varga 114 Michaela Hunter 246

Belinda King 202 Julie Duffy 200 Melissa Charbonneau 216

Carol Hunt 316 Kenny Chan 331 Penny McCormach 518

Glennis Jones 102 Lucinda O’Brien 423 Robyn Senecal 500

Gretchen Howard 107 Lynette Marchant 130 Sophie Kaulima 482

Page 10: 2012 June July Newsletter

Financial Report : Lynley Murphy presented the Treasurer’s report (see Page 11) and expanded on individual expenses. Correspondence pertaining to theTreasurer’s report from Angela Mott and Judith Varga were read to the meeting by Dianne Thompson – see Page 12 . Treasurer’s Reponses set out below:

The Accommodation costs break down as: Allowance for out of town committee members $50 per person per night. Allowance for local committeemembers $25 per person per night . All accommodation costs for the key note tutors

DVD loss Complimentary DVD’s for each performance in the MEDANZ show were included in the figure

T Shirts Historically committee members have received 2 t shirts each with the word COMMITTEE printed on the back to easily identify them atfestival, free of charge. This has been discontinued and one sash per committee member printed with the word COMMITTEE has been purchased as aone off cost and these will be passed forward to incoming committee members.

Bank Fees Bank fees include all the charges incurred by MEDANZ by offering payment by credit card. Only $192.46 of this total relates to internetbanking fees.

Travel Costs Committee had one face to face meeting in Rotorua to co ordinate festival. All other meetings were conducted via Skype. Committeepointed out that this meeting was invaluable and would strongly advise future committees to follow their example. Included in error, was aprepayment figure for $705. The Treasurer’s report will be adjusted to reflect this

Membership: Membership is down. North Island members in particular are not renewing their memberships.

Welcome Packs: Committee are aware that the cost of welcome packs has been rising over the past 3 years. This has been rectified for the 2012festival.

Reduction in postal costs Postage was pre paid in the last financial year prior to an increase in the price of postage. More newsletters are sent outelectronically. As Discussed: Any members wishing to receive their newsletter electronically, email [email protected] (email problems havenow been corrected) and make their request.

Deposit in the 51 account. Following festival, some of the additional funds currently held in the 51 account will be transferred to a term deposit for abetter interest rate.

Grants Treasurers report shows a $237.20 grant to Tais for assistance with travel costs to Wellington where she was speaking on the Good Morningshow. The report should have read that a request from Tais for this funding was turned down. That $237.20 was granted to the organiser of Tais’ 3centre workshop tour. The Financial report will be adjusted to reflect this.

Moved that the members accept the treasurer’s report with the above mentioned 2 adjustments - L Murphy / V ten Velde - CARRIEDAbstentions – 9

Election of committee Nominations were called from the floor for the vacant positions on committee. These being the position of Secretary and the 2remaining general committee positions. However this was amended to a call for 4 general committee members following a point raised by Dianne James as tothe initial filling of 2 positions by postal nomination.Nominations for Secretary : Beverley Dowling Proposer: Doreen Bestmann Seconder: Rachel OlsenAs the only nomination received for this position, Beverley Dowling is new Secretary for MEDANZNominations for general committee members

Dianne Thompson Proposer: Dianne Thompson Seconder: Christine GordonVickie ten Velde Proposer: Lynley Murphy Seconder: Karen WalworthDiane James Proposer: Brigid Kelly Seconder: Pip BenningtonBrigid Kelly Proposer: Diane James Seconder: Amanda BoundJudith Varga Proposer: Beverley Dowling Seconder: Doreen BestmannLiz Irvine Proposer: Karen Walworth Seconder: Kathryn Gilligan

Each nominee spoke briefly to the meeting. Beverley Dowling spoke on Behalf of Judith Varga who had submitted her apologies (see above) A secret ballotwas carried out. Each candidate was asked to nominate an attendee at the AGM to be part of the team to count the votes to ensure impartiality.Successful candidates for general committee positions: Liz Irvine, Diane James, Brigid Kelly, Vickie ten Velde

Moved voting slips be destroyed: J ten Velde /K Barrie - CARRIEDGeneral Business

Life Memberships Liz Irvine Judith VargaThe meeting was asked by Karen Walworth to vote acceptance

Liz Irvine – carried with 2 abstentions Judith Varga - carried with 3 abstentionsBeverley Dowling presented Life membership certificates

(At this point a number of members left the meeting to attend/teach the final workshops of the day.)Four motions were submitted to the meeting in advance and presented to all present in hard copy format for discussion.Motion 1 : “For the benefit of teachers, that the key note tutor maintain one advanced/high level workshop which is to be made available only to teachers onthe MEDANZ register.”

Moved: B Dowling / K Walworth - CARRIED - Abstentions - 1Motion 2: “The Executive committee give precedence to core services for members including good record keeping, fiscal transparency and responsibility,maintenance of MEDANZ resources, communication with the membership, timely production of the newsletter, and organisation and publication of AGM in amanner which allows all members to participate as per the constitution; and that additional projects such as the Festival is handed over to sub-committees.”

Moved: Beverley DowlingGeneral discussion regarding this motion concluded that the meeting should consider a new motion which combined motions 2 and 4. Motions 4 as presentedto the meeting reads:Motion 4 “MEDANZ committee form a formal sub-committee to manage the MDEANZ festival that does not include executive committee members, allowingexecutive committee to focus on forward planning and leadership of the MEDANZ community.”

Moved: Pip Bennington

The wording for the combined motion as put forward for vote was as follows:

Motion 2/4 “That additional projects, such as festival, are handed over to sub committee’s that do not include the executive committee members, allowingexecutive committee to focus on the forward planning and leadership of the MEDANZ community.”

Moved: K Walworth / P Bennington - CARRIED (majority) - Abstentions - 3

Motion 3 “That the festival continues to be in the same city 2 years in a row, therefore in Dunedin 2013”

Moved : J Monk / K Jordan - DEFEATED (majority)

Motion 5 “MEDANZ has 2 funding rounds spread through the year of $1000 each for travel grants for local teachers, with special consideration forinternational tutors.”

Moved : C Frankland / L Murphy - CARRIED (majority) - Abstentions - 10

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New Initiative: A quick presentation of a new idea initiated by the committee for use by the teachers within MEDANZ to help promote both their business andMEDANZ was to be presented by Dori but unfortunately she had left to teach scheduled workshops so Karen and Bronwyn jointly presented it to members. Itconsists of a poster that can be individualised by each teacher promoting MEDANZ together with the contact details of the teacher. Also to be available (butunfortunately no example was available to show members) was a threefold pamphlet that teachers could again personalise which had an application formembership to MEDANZ attached. These were warmly received by members – questions concerning costs etc were asked – those teachers registered on theMEDANZ site would get both items for the cost for printing. Or the teachers could be sent a PDF of the form s that they could alter themselves and get printed.

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From: Angela Mott <[email protected]: MEDANZ AGM 2012To: MEDANZ Committee <[email protected] CommitteeHaving now read the official record of the minutes from 2011, I would like to make a couple of comments:1. I am unhappy that the President's Report is noted as 'tabled' but has not been included. Is it possible to rectify this so that a complete record of themeeting is recorded either by attachment or inclusion in the document? Same goes for Financial Report.2. My comments regarding the discussion on Rabo Bank term investments.I think it highly unlikely that I said that "internet bank account not solid for 2 signatories to easily change". :-( . As I have had some experience with usingRabo Bank for term investments and their associated individual key pad dongles, I would have said that it is unlikely that Rabo Bank was 'set up' formanagement of accounts that required 2 signatories.3 Re lifetime membership report detailing the 3 options voted on - why was this not attached to the minutes? without it the minutes do not make a greatdeal of sense.4 Discussion re pay rates for Teachers - my quote should read: “MEDANZ was brought about by like minded restaurant dancers looking for similar pay ratesand a reasonable amount. What example does our society set if we choose to offer our teachers a below cost payment? Should the teachers be vilified forasking for a reasonable rate of pay?”A further question for you, Karen indicates in her report that there are other matters up for discussion at this AGM in General Business, however the agendaonly lists the Life Membership. Is there something I else I should know about so that I can discuss this with my proxy? Apologies, but there are a number ofpersonal reasons I am unable to attend this AGM, the first I have missed in over 11 years.Re the financial reports: Festival Income and Expenditure: Would it be possible to get some feedback from festival attendees regarding the importance ofthe expenses relating to festival: ie a sheet handed out at festival with each expense item and rank it from 1-5 as to how important this cost is to be coveredat festival and how important it is to members for this service to be provided? Two items of immediate consideration for me would be Tshirts and Welcomepacks. The DVD production should be looked at again - maybe the cost of the performance tickets need to increase to cover the DVD production costs?Financial Performance statement: Do we have any knowledge of why the subscriptions have almost halved in the past year?Congratulations on the significant decrease in the cost of the Newsletter & Postage in 2011.Thank you for taking the time to send these details through. I wish you all a wonderful weekend in dance.Joy with shimmies :-)Angela MottMEDANCE LIMITEDMiddle Eastern Dance School

From: Kashmir <[email protected]>Subject: Submissions for AGMTo: Karen Adilah <[email protected]>

Input for AGM from Judith VargaAs emailed 7 April 2012 Pip Elysaah (member 300) has my proxy. Voting as follows:

Accept the previous minutes Pip’s decision (but I’m inclined to say “no” – see below)Accept the financial report Pip’s decision depending on answers to questions belowLifetime nomination Liz YesLifetime nomination Judith Yes

In addition I would also like the following read by the secretary at the appropriate time in the meeting (as provided for in section 12.4).3: MinutesI am unable to accept the minutes as much of it appears to be incomprehensible. I would like to suggest that notes taken in the meeting are expanded and setout so as to be understandable by members. I would also suggest the committee returns to the practice of printing the minutes in the newsletter followingthe AGM so that people may read them while they still remember the discussions.5: Treasurer’s ReportWhat do the “accommodations costs” in the Festival cover?I see that both the DVD and T-shirt costs/sales ran negative. Do we have any stock left for sale? (they are not mentioned in the main financial report) If not,were the T-shirts under priced?Why are the bank fees so high? What do they cover?What does the travel costs cover?7: Election of CommitteeThe paperwork for electronic voting does not list the nominations received as at the cut off date. It should.Members have the right to nominate committee members for unfilled positions – either from the floor or electronically (the constitution wording isdeliberate). The nominations cannot be limited to just a top up – ie if there are four ordinary committee positions to fill and only three have been nominatedby the cut off date then as many nominations as there are have to be accepted – and then a vote is held on all nominations not just those on the day.8: General Business1: I would like to formally register my protest at the late arrival of the AGM materials. People need to be given time to read and consider it. Many membersmay not have checked their email in time. Some may not have email. I would like it be on record, that future committees should ensure members have this atleast a week in advance – which is what we intended when we altered the constitution in 1999 and matches best practice of other bodies.2: I suggest the committee return to the previous practice of providing a full membership list to members – including contact details. This requires thecollection of members’ permission to print these details – which used to be a part of the renewal process.

Letters received and read out at the Annual General Meeting

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Lynley Murphy

Hi – I am Lyn Murphy aka Jehanara. For the third year in a row I have thehonour of being your Chancellor of the Exchequer. Married with no children,my husband and I run a Boutique Dairy Farm in Tokoroa. Sick of being a“Bowls Widow” I looked for something of my own and discovered it in bellydancing. Even though officially I am in my 5th year of dancing it must havebeen in my blood from birth because it seems like it has been a part of meforever. I am a member of both the Desert Gypsys Dance Troupe based inCambridge and the Tokoroa troupe Keshet Sorellenza. This year I have also made tentative forays intosharing my passion and love of bellydance with others.

In addition to belly dancing I am also a theatre buff, being on the committee of our local dramatic society.

I am looking forward to this year, working with so many lovely ladies who hitherto have been just legendsto me in the MEDANZ community but in reality simply share this passion for all things Middle EasternDance.

I'm sitting staring at my computer thinking back over what seems much longer than a month wondering what Ican say about a part of Festival. It's funny but I've realised that I go and get the most out of the socialising/networking side than I do the Workshops but then I will persist in attending said workshops after a night of talk-ing and drinking (cups of tea haha). Thanks heaps for the memories roomies and neighbours, you know who you

are!!!

I got a lot from all my Workshops - even if it was just to find out than in a certain area I am not a "beginner" any-more although Dori's Back to Basics should be mandatory for all dancers as we all can get into bad habits andeven lazy with our movements and Tribal with Ziva showed me why I love the ATS Improv style but I am thinking

about Andy Busuttil's Beginner Drum on the Sunday morning.

Andy welcomed everyone and made a real effort to remember our names. Admittedly there was more talkingthan the original overview lead me to believe and so there was less actual drumming drilling but everything hesaid was interesting and relevant and I could have listened to him all day. He certainly gave the few of us withdifferent instruments time and knowledge of our 'drums' and extra tips for getting the most from our individualplaying. Mostly he gave me permission to have a go, relax and just drum. Always at home I think I'm holding orstriking it wrong but I see that it's more important to start than to have my drum gathering dust in the corner of

the spare room!!!

My goal for this Workshop was to kindle a flame of love for playing that would carry me home where I am mostlyplaying on my own or honestly I was going to give even the thought of it up but I'm not putting my drum up forsale just yet. Andy made me feel that I could let the drummer inside of me out to play and so it exceeded my an-

ticipation.

. . . P.S. Best part was at the end when we were sounding a rhythm with our voices and he gave groups different

parts to carry. It was magic to be a small part of making music visible.

More Raves & Reviews

Raqs Samimi: The Workshops:

By Shelley Dawson/Shehrazade, of Hamilton

MEET THE COMMITTEE, Cont’d

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Page 14

Is it Andalusian or Muwashshah?

From Kashmir (Judith Varga) of Christchurch

Andalusia is in southern Spain. Spain (along with Portugal and southernFrance) was Al-Andalus- part of the Arabic Empire from the 8th to 15th centu-ries. This was ruled by the Moors – North African Berbers - and Arabs. Thereis no evidence of “belly dance” as we know it but Arabic music and poetry wasadopted. And from time to time you will see “Andalusian” belly dance offeredin workshops.

The first time I was introduced to “Andalusian” as a belly dance genre was by Yousry Sharif in1997. He presented us with a fiery fusion of belly dance and flamenco. When I was later to per-form it I really needed a couple of months with a flamenco teacher to give justice to some of theturns and footwork!

Imagine my surprise when the next time I came across it, with Aida Nour, it was all wafting han-kies and arabesques. The next two workshops were similar; lots of graceful turns, good carriage,pointed feet, hip work – and hankies. Fortunately over the years Aida’s English has improved sowe could ask more about this dance style she was teaching us (the last one was choreographedto the theme tune of an Arabic soap!)

As expected, Andalusian dance had not been preserved for centuries. Rather, what she wasteaching was a theatrical construction from Mahmoud Reda. As part of Egypt re-creating itselfafter the 1952 revolution, it looked back to the greatness of the past. The Arabic (not Ottoman)Empire was one aspect they were proud to be associated with. Part of the classical Arabic cul-ture was a style of poetry call muwashshah – which originated in 10th century Spain. The so-called “Andalusian” style of dance was an interpretation of this poetry – which is sophisticatedwith complex scansion, repeating choruses and themes.

More detail can be found in Farida Fahmy’s 1987 thesis*. For instance, she comments that theoriginal complex rhythms were replaced with shorter ones while maintaining the feel of a chorusand repeating themes; the images being woven like a lace sash.

These days, I use the term Muwashshah – even though it is “foreign” – because it is foreign andpeople don’t get the mistaken belief that they are about to see belly dance from Spain – or forthe more sophisticated – a belly dance reconstruction from Al-Andalus.

And you may see/have seen Aida’s choreography to the theme of“The Morning and Evening Talk” in my student show on 26 May.

*Fahmy, Farida (1987). The Creative De-velopment of Mahmoud Reda, a Contem-porary Egyptian Choreographer(University of California Thesis)

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When are the next

Committee Meetings ?

SKYPE

Saturday 16 June - 7pm

Saturday 21 July - 7pm

If you have anything you would like

discussed by the Committee or

would like to sit in

Email the Secretary

Page 16: 2012 June July Newsletter

Page 16

Festival Show Review, cont’d from page 7

Dark Tribal Fusion Solo: Melusina from Melbourne demonstrated exquisite control in apiece with the most complex electronica rhythmic structure known to woman! Thewoman was a machine! (In a good way) Dark Tribal Fusion Sword Solo: Cydonia of Dune-din was stunning and original -her little mask and dreads reminded me of the Preda-tor, and she was suitably dangerous. Tribal Fusion Group: Tribal Echo (Dunedin)worked seamlessly with the Unfortunate Repercussions to show the art of blendinglive music with dancers (not that easy even when you know how!) Tribal Fusion GroupSword: School of Contemporary Bellydance performed a smooth improvised piece withswords and the difficulty factor of floorwork (impressed the Mother-in-law!).

Western Classical music/Bellydance Fusion: Melusina from Melbourne in complete style con-trast with her other item showed all the fluid grace, nuance and romance to close theshow with sighs of delight from the audience, the Mother-in-law, my Hubby and Me!

In summary, it was a great blend of styles, props and music. The dancers and groupsselected ranged from new-ish to seasoned professionals, satisfying MEDANZ criteriawhilst providing a good range of entertainment. The Mayfair Theatre had great ambi-ence, the sound levels were good -nothing deafening or too weak (and that is a BIGDEAL). The introductions were brief but informative, the audience were supportiveand well behaved and it was almost a full house. There was a high proportion ofdancers from ChCh, and everyone showed great solidarity with them, and I admirethe consistently good standard of dancers to come out of there.

Dunedin was a great host-city for the Festival, and I really enjoyed the Workshopsand the Hafla also…(doing the eye-shimmy with Moonjelly! ) ...but that’s anotherstory…

YALLA! WELL DONE TEAM! LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT YEAR!

My First MEDANZ Festival, cont’d from cover

The dancers had me doing little shimmies in my seat and Andy brought tears to my eyes, joy to my heart and

the realisation of why I love what was happening around me.

I attended workshops and bought many treasures from the hudra, I shared the joy I was feeling with many

that I was meeting for the first time and likewise did they.

At the hafla I was to sing so my nerves were a little on the up side and I practised as much as I could withoutburning myself out, I wanted to get it just right. I ate lovely food, chatted with more dancers and watched

again as the goddesses of Belly Dance graced us with their talent and love for their craft.

Our time came to sing and my tummy jumped with nervous excitement, up on the stage things looked sodifferent and very real. My first ever performance singing went very well. The Unfortunate Repercussions,laid down their rhythms, I sang and Pip came out on the floor and danced, that is when emotion caught me.

I was so overcome with love and joy from my time at the festival that it is still carrying me on the high.

Thank you to Dunedin for turning on such beautiful weather, to the Kazbah members for doing a fantasticjob of hosting and to all those who took part for the whole festival to become one of the most heart-felt en-

joyable times I have had. I hope to be dancing at the next one. Much love to all, Namaste

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Page 17

Middle Eastern Dance Association of New Zealand Inc.www.medanz.org.nz

RAKS SAMIMI & HAFLA – DVDIf you enjoyed the show and/or Hafla -

order a DVD

$35 each (incl postage)

Please send this form together with your paymentto MEDANZ , Suite 3051, PO Box 13-240, Johnson-ville Wellington 6440

I am paying by:

o cheque attached OR

o direct credit

To MEDANZ A/C 12-3011-0758507-51

(Ref: DVD/your name) OR

o credit card

Expiry Date: ____/_____

Your DetailsYour Details

Name

Postal Address

Number Ordered

Amount Paid

OOrrddeerrss mmuusstt bbee rreecceeiivveeddbbyy

30 June 2012

Our guest dance tutor for

Raqs Samimi, 2012,

Melusina

with Candice of Auckland

Henna &

Costumes

at the Hudra!

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Page 18

WHAT’S ON?

FOR UP TO DATE LISTINGS CHECK OUT “RAKS NZ - WHAT’S ON” ON FACEBOOKFOR UP TO DATE LISTINGS CHECK OUT “RAKS NZ - WHAT’S ON” ON FACEBOOK

Weekend Belly Dance Retreat in 2012!!!

The Belly Dance Retreat is an incredible weekend full of thrilling workshops, making new belly dancefriends, non-stop fun and activities, loads of relaxation time, and an all-round stunning weekend away

at the tranquil Otimai Lodge Bush Retreat in Auckland!

There are early bird prices valid until the end of July!

Three Belly Dance Workshops ~ with Zuhrah & Mirage in Taupo, June 23-24, 2012

If you think variety is the spice of life, come along for a weekend of fun,

to learn three very different belly dance choreographies, featuring

a classic Egyptian song, a fun drum solo with zills and a dreamy veil dance!

You will receive a warm winter welcome in Taupo with tea, coffee, snacks, lunch & hafla

supper

all provided to make your special weekend incredibly relaxing!

CONTACT tutor for class details: Sue Graham (Zuhrah) [email protected]. 07 377 0469, 027 242 1547

If anyone is keen to find out more or to get aregistration form, please contact Candice at

[email protected] / 0211704183 /www.phoenixbellydance.co.nz

“Spice of Life”

Dunedin’s Coastline in

beautiful weather (L)

Two “NEW” committeemembers! (R)

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WHAT’S ON POLICY

1. All MED related events are entitled to an entry in the WHAT’S ON CALENDAR

2. Maximum entry is half a page.

3. Brochures, registrations forms, etc may be included in the newsletter if sufficient copies are supplied in a timely man-ner. Limit of one full A4 sheet per person/event in any one newsletter. Membership numbers available on request.

4. Information received after the cut off date may not be included.

We attempt to have the newsletter out in the first week of the month but this is not always possible

CONGRATULATIONS!TO OUR NEW LIFETIME MEDANZ MEMBERS

Liz Irvine aka Fatina

& Judith Varga aka Kashmir

From The Outgoing Secretary and Chief AngelDianne Thompson/Thomasina of Taupo

Firstly a great big thank you to the Angels!I thoroughly enjoyed coordinating the “angels” over the past two years and you did awonderful job at both the 2011 Tauranga and the Dunedin Festivals so give that haloa final polish and keep in mind that next year there will once again be a ‘Chief Angel’looking for volunteers.

I also enjoyed serving MEDANZ as a committee member for two years. I would like toconvey to the members of MEDANZ however that being on the Committee is not an easy job given thedistances between everyone and the difficulties with modern technology can be very challenging.

I would also like to recommend that the new Committee continues with the yearly ‘face to face’ meet-ing as it is not a holiday junket at the expense of the members but a really useful tool to the successfulmanagement of the incorporation. It is forward thinking as is the use of Skype in communication be-tween your chosen representatives. Using both these modes of communication the Committee hasover the last two years actually done quite a bit of work towards modernizing and sorting out somequite complicated issues which unfortunately did not get “trumpeted out” to the members who I canunderstand have at times thought that the Committee wasn’t actually achieving anything!

So see you next festival wherever it may be? Bye for now!

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MEDANZ NEWS

MEDANZ Newsnow available ON LINE

If you would rather receive your edition of

MEDANZ News electronically

Send your email address to [email protected]

YES - YOU CAN ADVERTISE IN THE NEWSLETTER !

In addition to keeping a list of available services which MEDANZ will print

from time to time, MEDANZ accepts paid advertisements for the newsletter

at very reasonable rates:

A4 : $20 / issue - $80 per year

A5 (landscape): $10 / issue - $40 per year

Business Card Size: $5 / issue - $20 per year

The printed version is Black & White only - Email Version in glorious colour!!Text and/or graphics should be emailed at least ten (10) days before issuedeadline. Acceptable formats are (in preferred order): pub, tif, jpeg, doc,

pdf. Resolution must be no more than 200 dpi.The Committee reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to refuse to accept

any advertisement for publication.

SUBSCRIPTION NOTICES SOONSUBSCRIPTIONS TO 30 JUNE 2013 ARE ALMOST DUE

BEAT THE RUSH!!!!!FULL MEMBER — $35

FAMILY MEMBER — $15 EACH

3 CONVENIENT METHODS TO PAY

DIRECT CREDIT—12—3011—0758507—51 (our preferred method)

POST YOUR CHEQUE, or EMAIL YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILSALWAYS REMEMBER TO INCLUDE YOUR MEMBERSHIP NUMBER WHEN PAYING