Belly dance workshop in Bristol, UK, with Hossam & Serena Ramzy

In spring last year, when I was living in Bristol, I went to a belly dance workshop with Hossam and Serena Ramzy. Hossam Ramzy is a world famous Arabic musician and percussionist, who helped bringing Arabic music to the attention of the whole world. Hossam Ramzy also played with western musicians such as Jimmy Page (ex Led Zeppelin) with whom he recorded an album, called ‘No Quarter’, in 1994.

I still remember when I first heard that album, many years ago in 1996. At the time I did not know anything about bellydancing or Arabic music, but I was struck by the beauty of that music and, from that moment onwards, the wish was born in me to learn how to dance Arabic music and belly dance. Serena Ramzy is Hossam’s wife and she is a wonderful and very graceful bellydancer.

During Hossam’s and Serena’s workshop on belly dance I learnt many things. First of all, I learnt the importance of recognising and knowing the main Arabic rhythms. Up to that point none of my belly dance teachers had taught me how to recognise Arabic rhythms and how to really understand Arabic music. Hossam Ramzy spent time explaining how Arabic rhythms work and the choreography that Serena taught exemplified beautifully how to dance to Arabic music. Also, Hossam Ramzy explained to his audience his famous belly dance equation ‘E=E in its size and direction’. This basically means that the belly dancer needs to move more around the stage and do more ample movements when an orchestra is playing, while her movements will be more contained and closer to her body when, for example, just one instrument, such as a drum, is playing.

Following this belly dance workshop, I found very useful two resources to keep learning by myself. One is a double CD by Hossam Ramzy, ‘Rhythms of the Nile’, in which he explains the main Arabic rhythms and the other one is an instructional belly dance DVD, called ‘Visual Melodies’ and featuring three belly dance choreographies by Serena Ramzy. Hossam and Serena Ramzy at the moment live and work in the UK and more information can be found on the website hossamramzy.com.
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