Barefoot Festival & Goddess Camp
By Connie
The 2008 Barefoot Festival took place in Leicestershire, over a three-day period, out in a farmer’s field. Mark and I were only able to attend on Sunday because we had Jacky’s Hafla on Friday night and were booked in to watch Candi dance at a Turkish restaurant Saturday night. The festival grounds were dotted with tents selling tribal belly dance clothing and jewelry, Egyptian belly dance costumes, beads and sequined appliqués, magic lanterns, giant hoops for adults, food stalls, a children’s activity tent, a “chill out” tent, and a large central tent for lessons.
We arrived Sunday morning just before 10 AM, and weren’t able to get a copy of the programme, so I do not have all the teachers’ names and contact information. However, we arrived in time for me to take part in the Tribal Flamenco lesson taught by Lynn. The lesson lasted an hour and was really enjoyable. Lynn warmed us up with stretching exercises, then taught us basic Flamenco style hand florios and some basic Tribal moves. She wore melodias so we could see her legs well as she taught, but later put on her full ruffled skirt so we could see the dramatic effect of the turns and hem-flicks she had taught us. She taught us a sequence of moves to gives us a taste of Tribal Flamenco which was delightful and left me wanting more! It was all very graceful and elegant.
After a short break I went back into the tent for an Egyptian belly dance lesson with Ishtar of Liverpool. She was vivacious and fun, and made all the ladies (and one gentleman learner) feel comfortable. The routine she taught us was full of little surprises like coming out of a turn, putting our weight on our back foot and giving a quick clap before doing a shoulder shimmy as we do a level change downward, then coming back up and ending with a chest pop. Her floor work was very exotic and most of us had a laugh doing it with her. I enjoyed myself with her and learned some new moves.
For lunch we ate our pack-up picnic sitting on a bale of hay. Mark had spent his morning going to all the tents and getting to know people. He saw everything there, but I didn’t because I went to all the workshops except for the Morris dancing! There was a good mix of people there. We met up with Khaled who merchandises belly dance gear, Meera, from Leicester who markets belly dance sewing notions, scarves, jewelry and custom made belly dance bra tops, and all sorts of diverse peoples, from belly dancers I had met before at J.O.Y. to new age-type people who live alternative lifestyles as nomads here in the U.K. It was interesting!
In the afternoon I attended a Poi workshop led by a lady who has been developing her Poi skills for eight years now. Poi is a dance style native to New Zealand and the Maori people. They swing balls on the end of strings as they dance (tennis balls in long socks work well too). I found it much harder than it looks and a number of us had fits of laughter as the poi balls bonked us on the heads or on the rears, or got all tangled up! Poi is amazing because for many of us, if we think about it too much, we can’t do it, but if we just relax and start spinning the balls, it sometimes works!
Finally, the people with the Hoops came out. Hey! When I was a kid I could do the Hula-hoop pretty well, but as an adult I tried our children’s hoops and I couldn’t get it to go round and stay up at all. Aha! Kids’ hoops are too small and light weight for grown-ups! These hoops are hand-made in England and are large enough and heavy enough to work on big people! What a kick it was spinning it on my wrist, then onto the neck, then down to the waist, keeping it round my waist, then down to the knees and back up! Whee! I felt like a child again! These hoops could be used in a dance sometime, so hmmm, just maybe I’ll be buying one!
The Goddess Camp wasn’t really a belly dance event, but was rather an eclectic mix of all sorts of fun things to do, with belly dance and tribal belly dance figuring largely in the schedule of events. It was relaxing and a whole lot of fun. Mark and I were treated to a curry dinner by Meera who cooked the meal on a camp stove for her family. What a perfect ending that was to a fun afternoon.
Louisa, who was 8 ½ months pregnant during the event, organized the Goddess Camp and would love to have some help next year if anyone fancies giving her a hand and most likely getting in for free! She did a brilliant job of it, in spite of being the mother of little ones with one more on the way!
Mark’s comment:
The only negative I’m forced to mention is the loos. Three portaloos for that number of people over a three day weekend didn’t cut it. By Sunday morning when we arrived only one of the three wasn’t clogged and by the end of the day all three smelled and looked as bad as anything I’ve ever experienced in my world wide travels… and I spent 7 years in Hong Kong as well as having a summer job at 17 as a sewer maintenance labourer! As a male I had the advantage that I could walk a couple of hundred yards to some bushes instead. If I was organizing I’d double the number for next year.
Otherwise I agree with Connie, an excellent day out and I’m sorry we missed the show around the campfire on Saturday night. They were extremely lucky with the weather (considering this is the year that summer failed to arrive) and my visions of wading around in knee deep mud failed to come to pass. In fact, we only had one light shower all day and there were no mud puddles anywhere to be seen. All in all, Kudos to Louisa and those who were there for a very friendly and enjoyable event.
By Connie
The 2008 Barefoot Festival took place in Leicestershire, over a three-day period, out in a farmer’s field. Mark and I were only able to attend on Sunday because we had Jacky’s Hafla on Friday night and were booked in to watch Candi dance at a Turkish restaurant Saturday night. The festival grounds were dotted with tents selling tribal belly dance clothing and jewelry, Egyptian belly dance costumes, beads and sequined appliqués, magic lanterns, giant hoops for adults, food stalls, a children’s activity tent, a “chill out” tent, and a large central tent for lessons.
We arrived Sunday morning just before 10 AM, and weren’t able to get a copy of the programme, so I do not have all the teachers’ names and contact information. However, we arrived in time for me to take part in the Tribal Flamenco lesson taught by Lynn. The lesson lasted an hour and was really enjoyable. Lynn warmed us up with stretching exercises, then taught us basic Flamenco style hand florios and some basic Tribal moves. She wore melodias so we could see her legs well as she taught, but later put on her full ruffled skirt so we could see the dramatic effect of the turns and hem-flicks she had taught us. She taught us a sequence of moves to gives us a taste of Tribal Flamenco which was delightful and left me wanting more! It was all very graceful and elegant.
After a short break I went back into the tent for an Egyptian belly dance lesson with Ishtar of Liverpool. She was vivacious and fun, and made all the ladies (and one gentleman learner) feel comfortable. The routine she taught us was full of little surprises like coming out of a turn, putting our weight on our back foot and giving a quick clap before doing a shoulder shimmy as we do a level change downward, then coming back up and ending with a chest pop. Her floor work was very exotic and most of us had a laugh doing it with her. I enjoyed myself with her and learned some new moves.
For lunch we ate our pack-up picnic sitting on a bale of hay. Mark had spent his morning going to all the tents and getting to know people. He saw everything there, but I didn’t because I went to all the workshops except for the Morris dancing! There was a good mix of people there. We met up with Khaled who merchandises belly dance gear, Meera, from Leicester who markets belly dance sewing notions, scarves, jewelry and custom made belly dance bra tops, and all sorts of diverse peoples, from belly dancers I had met before at J.O.Y. to new age-type people who live alternative lifestyles as nomads here in the U.K. It was interesting!
In the afternoon I attended a Poi workshop led by a lady who has been developing her Poi skills for eight years now. Poi is a dance style native to New Zealand and the Maori people. They swing balls on the end of strings as they dance (tennis balls in long socks work well too). I found it much harder than it looks and a number of us had fits of laughter as the poi balls bonked us on the heads or on the rears, or got all tangled up! Poi is amazing because for many of us, if we think about it too much, we can’t do it, but if we just relax and start spinning the balls, it sometimes works!
Finally, the people with the Hoops came out. Hey! When I was a kid I could do the Hula-hoop pretty well, but as an adult I tried our children’s hoops and I couldn’t get it to go round and stay up at all. Aha! Kids’ hoops are too small and light weight for grown-ups! These hoops are hand-made in England and are large enough and heavy enough to work on big people! What a kick it was spinning it on my wrist, then onto the neck, then down to the waist, keeping it round my waist, then down to the knees and back up! Whee! I felt like a child again! These hoops could be used in a dance sometime, so hmmm, just maybe I’ll be buying one!
The Goddess Camp wasn’t really a belly dance event, but was rather an eclectic mix of all sorts of fun things to do, with belly dance and tribal belly dance figuring largely in the schedule of events. It was relaxing and a whole lot of fun. Mark and I were treated to a curry dinner by Meera who cooked the meal on a camp stove for her family. What a perfect ending that was to a fun afternoon.
Louisa, who was 8 ½ months pregnant during the event, organized the Goddess Camp and would love to have some help next year if anyone fancies giving her a hand and most likely getting in for free! She did a brilliant job of it, in spite of being the mother of little ones with one more on the way!
Mark’s comment:
The only negative I’m forced to mention is the loos. Three portaloos for that number of people over a three day weekend didn’t cut it. By Sunday morning when we arrived only one of the three wasn’t clogged and by the end of the day all three smelled and looked as bad as anything I’ve ever experienced in my world wide travels… and I spent 7 years in Hong Kong as well as having a summer job at 17 as a sewer maintenance labourer! As a male I had the advantage that I could walk a couple of hundred yards to some bushes instead. If I was organizing I’d double the number for next year.
Otherwise I agree with Connie, an excellent day out and I’m sorry we missed the show around the campfire on Saturday night. They were extremely lucky with the weather (considering this is the year that summer failed to arrive) and my visions of wading around in knee deep mud failed to come to pass. In fact, we only had one light shower all day and there were no mud puddles anywhere to be seen. All in all, Kudos to Louisa and those who were there for a very friendly and enjoyable event.