One of the key aims of the Shimmy & Share belly dance community group I’m part of is collaboration. Earlier this month we decided to truly test this by running our first ever meet-up in Bosnia with ‘Sahara Sahara’ dance school – what an amazing experience!

Ines, leader of Sahara Sahara school, has been a massive support to Shimmy and Share over the last couple of years by volunteering at our hafla and sharing her knowledge at countless meet-ups. When we were invited to join her dance school for a long weekend, we simply couldn’t say no.

Workshop planning

We arrived at Ines’ home slightly dazed and dreamy from travelling in the late morning. After some seriously strong Bosnian coffee, (so good), we sat down together to plan the weekend out.

We decided to run our ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ workshop which focuses on character development in belly dance and improvisation techniques. Although it’s a structured session it allows for plenty of self-expression and creativity – which we felt would be interesting to facilitate as it gave us the chance to learn from students too.

We planned how we’d communicate as I don’t speak Bosnian and some of the students didn’t speak English. I had never ran a workshop alongside a translator before, so it was definitely an exciting challenge! We wrote up some additional translation notes for Ines and she taught us some Bosnian bare essentials Zdravo (hello) Hvala (thank you) and ljepota (beautiful).

The workshop touched on how to portray different emotions in dance (joy, fear, strength and sassiness). So, we discussed how to ask students to access emotion in a safe way – where they felt comfortable enough to explore  but also so it didn’t touch previous trauma (given the history of the war). It turned out that both me and Danika in a freakish coincidence had been reading The Body Keeps The Score ahead of the trip, which is about the neuropsychology of trauma and how it effects the body. Ines also shared insight into teaching her students with us. The beauty of being a ‘guest’ teacher for someone else’s school is that you have all of the knowledge and experience from the school leader at your finger tips.

Orientation

Later that evening, we went out for dinner in picturesque Sarajevo – a blended vibe of European and Turkish culture with quaint tea houses, market stalls in side-streets and tucked-away Shisha lounges. Ines introduced us to some of her friends and we soaked up some lively rock music at Oktoberfest.

At this point, Danika and I had been awake for nearly 24 hours and so everything felt surreal and dreamlike. The combination of a beer with warm-hearted hospitality left us in a happy daze.

Although we were encouraged to stay out longer by the locals “Bosnian people do not sleep!” (which I totally understand after the awesome coffee!), we decided to rest-up with an early night to be fresh for the morning.

Workshop day

The day to deliver the workshop was finally here! After some final tweaks of playlists, dancing around the kitchen whilst drinking more coffee and technology checks (always bring that back-up mini speaker!) we walked over to the studio.

We had a good turn out on the day, with 9 Bosnian students plus London Shimmy and Share member Danika. I felt really REALLY grateful that people had decided to take a chance on trying a collaborative-style workshop with someone they’d never heard of – in a foreign language!

Although a little shy at first, everyone warmed up towards the end and connected. The workshop culminated in students creating a short piece of improvised Baladi choreography, from the perception of a particular character. Most were at the beginning of their belly dance journey and it was AMAZING to see the courage of some performing by themselves to the group.

We were on a complete high and after wolfing down some lunch were ready for the next adventure of the day – The Competition.

Rules and regulations

As a thank you, Ines arranged for us to dance in a competition. As well as teaching  with a translator, performing in a competition overseas, was a complete first for me. Being on the shyer side (shhhh, don’t tell anyone), I usually prefer to perform in community environments where I feel safe and connected.

This was definitely a healthy stretch! The day before, we found out that were quite a few rules and regulations to abide by, that we just didn’t have a clue about; no floor work, specifications over when/where props could be used and strict style categorisations. We’d both planned fusions or styles that didn’t neatly fit into the categories we had been entered into.

And, the music had to be exactly 2.15 and so had been pre-cut. On an imperfect cadence (which translated to it ending mid-turn). Uh-oh! Vital lesson learnt in researching as much as possible beforehand if performing overseas…

However, watching the beginner’s share their improvised dance had been really inspiring and gave us the kick up the bum we needed. So, we spent the hour before rehearsing our dance socks-off, re-jigging choreos and coaching one another.

Guest teaching

After  a night of celebrations and MORE dancing we had a leisurely Sunday morning. Chilling in a mountain restaurant to enjoy the scenic hills and fresh air breathed life into my aching muscles.

Feeling refreshed, that afternoon we joined Ines’ weekly classes from beginners to advanced with a chance to try some guest teaching. We did a mini takeover and taught a snippet of drum solo choreography, shimmy drills and fanveils.

It was great to attend a dance class in a different cultural context. For example, students arrived in full costume. As there are fewer casual performance opportunities available in Sarajevo than London, class is deemed a good chance to feel glamorous and dress-up. It created a lovely vibe. As there are also fewer classes to choose from in Sarajevo, I felt the bond students had together seemed a lot tighter than London, where we have endless choice! It was beautiful to see the deep connection they had with one another.

Farewell Sarajevo!

On the final night we had a feast of chickpea salad, pomegranate and fresh bread. With a total of 6 hours dancing each day, we were blissfully worn out.

What an amazing experience and opportunity, and I cannot thank Ines enough for the warm invitation.

Farewell Sarajevo! And, as we drank from the town fountain the legend is that we’ll return. Next time with more London shimmyers