Saturday was the big dance show of the year for Habibi Dancers. It went very well, we all were pleased.

I was lucky enough that I was done dancing in the first act, so that I got to put on civilian clothes and sit in the balcony for the second act. It was wonderful.

Here are three photos from the show. First is a large group number, eight dancers. Four were working with swords (yes, they are real but they are not sharpened) and four with veils. Halfway through the dance, they trade, and the sword dancers become the veil dancers and vice-versa. That point is what you are seeing in this photo. It’s a very impressive dance (there were two choreographers working together, one on veilwork and one on sword work) and was very well received.

The second photo is a “scrim” dance. A scrim is a fabric screen. A dancer is placed between a bright directional light and the scrim, and her shadow shows to the audience. In this dance she was the “shadow” of the dancer in front of the scrim. It’s very difficult to do this sort of dance, since the performers can not see one another. We had two excellent dancers and they did a wonderful job.

The last photo is Yasmina Amal, the creative director of the Habibi Dancers and my outstanding dance teacher. She is absolutely electric on stage, she really keeps the attention of the audience. Isn’t she beautiful?