Hilal Dance Week 2013
Hilal Dance Week 2013 - 21st of July - 27th of July Tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf
Hilal Dance Week is a fantastic opportunity for an inspirational course of dancing and training with Suraya Hilal and Alessandro Bascioni. We welcome people from all backgrounds and different abilities, especially new comers.
Programme events for the week
- Daily sessions begin with the wonderful Hilal Dance Bodywork (holistic integrating, aligning, relaxing and strengthening exercises accompanied by special breathing).
- Live music and rhythm accompaniment in the dance lessons...
- Lectures and discussions on the dance theory, cultural links, and music
- a performance platform
- Percussion classes from the Master drummer Ibrahim el Minyawi
- A live music concert to end the week in celebration
- Lunch and dinner in the Tanzhaus Bistro, "The Place"
- A good opportunity to meet interesting people from around the world, and to spend time with friends.
Video: Hilal Dance Week
Cost of Hilal Dance Week 2013
The cost of the week includes dance sessions, lectures, hotel, lunch and dinner. (the 21th July includes afternoon session and dinner only).
| Room | Single | Double | Triple |
| Standard Rate | € 1100 | € 950 | € 900 |
| Student Rate | € 1050 | € 900 | € 850 |
A deposit of €300 is required to secure your place. Once you have applied, we will send you information on how to pay.
Additional fee for three tablah lessons with Ibrahim el Minyawi: €70.
Travel Days
Arrive on the morning of the 21st July
Depart on the morning of 28th July
Participants are asked to travel on the morning of the 21st July. Our activities begin with relaxing bodywork from 4.30-6.30 pm, before dinner.
Pictures
Montze Frisach writes about Hilal Dance Week 2012…
Seven days between lines and curves, the ying and the yang, a complete immersion in the natural movement of the body, the magic of the music, the disciplined pleasure of the bodywork… This, and much more, is the Hilal Dance Week. A break from ordinary life just for dancing, learning, laughing and feeling the joy of movement, all shared with other people, so different, but also so much like you.
Always the same but always different, this year's week was an electric one. Düsseldorf and the Tanzhaus and the Hotel Friends of the city became a contemporary Babel. As Suraya Hilal said the first day, a lot of “tribes” were reunited just for dancing and training in Hilal Dance, most of them from European countries but also from Australia and Brazil. The Hilal Week isn’t just a dance stage, but also a kind of summer school of languages and cultures, and a venue for international friendship and celebration.
The daily routines included the morning and evening lessons' by Suraya Hilal and Alessandro Bascioni, with the essential first hour of bodywork, and warm-up, necessary to stretch and prepare the body for dancing. During hours dancers walked, jumped, turned, run and did lots of miles of Pendulums, Spirals and Scissors, the three main concepts of the Hilal Dance. After the euphoria of the arrival, the third day was the “down” day, when the fatigue or the pain might appear almost by surprise. But don’t worry, because this is the usual process and the next days are always the best ones. By the middle of the week, musicians joined the event. Ibrahim el Manyawi, an amazing tablah player with gold fingers that has been working with Suraya Hilal for 33 years, played during lessons. This year the accordionist Al Gamal did also perform during the sessions. A perfect team. The marvellous live baladi music became the soundtrack of the week.
Another tradition of the Hilal Week is when both teachers and professional dancers use the event to prepare new pieces of dance. All this work is then showed during a performance in Tanzhaus Theater. This year the performances afforded plenty of surprises. Suraya Hilal and Alaitz Arregi presented a contemporary piece, 'Time', with minimal music by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi. Music and dance, completely fused, suggested poetically the pass of time. Sometimes Suraya and Alaitz were like the hands of a clock or the pages of a calendar, passing by with their delicate movements.
Magdalena Pearson made her debut in the performances of the Hilal Week with a solo piece, accompanied by Trio Joubran's music. Extremely elegant and precise, Magdalena played with her feet and arms to the sound of the lute. The same musicians, the Trio Joubran, did perform in the next piece, 'El Hourria' (Freedom), with the three members of the Iskandar Dance Company: Alessandro Bascioni, Francesca di Ieso and Mirella Maciarello. The choreography of Bascioni was a daring one, with a theatrical proposal that used a video screen with images from the Tunisian Revolution. The dramatic steps of the dancers in this piece were a metaphor of the desire of freedom in the arabic countries, but also a cry for freedom for all mankind. Two energetic solos with Suraya Hilal closed the evening performance. Pure Hilal with the pure baladi music played by Ibrahim el Minyawi and El Gamal.
The Hilal Dance Week 2012 is now history but when the sounds of the music and laughs are still in our minds, it is inevitable to begin thinking on the next edition. Fortunately, time goes by very fast.
