Phew

WELL - so much for starting a blog when I'm not even writing on it! My 3-month absence is all due to Raqia one morning bursting into the studio, exclaiming "We have to work hard because I want you to dance in Cairo!" and then swishing out again, leaving me in shock. Of course I was practically flying with joy to hear that Raqia Hassan - RAQIA HASSAN - considers me a good enough dancer to work here, but I was also t-e-r-r-i-f-i-e-d that I would let her down.

So that one sentence sent me into a 3-month frenzy of 6 hours practise a day, a very traumatic photo shoot, wild stress to fix costumes, 2 auditions, and weeks and weeks of waiting. Waiting for auditions, waiting for the agents to show up, waiting for papers to be fixed and most of all waiting for all this shimmy practise to finally pay off grrrrr.
In addition to the abovementioned, poor Raqia fell and broke her leg (and no, this did NOT include "something awful" happening to her dog, I don't know where that rumor came from) and I got the job of showing all the new students her choreographies and being her "puppet" in creating new ones. So I have my excuses for not having time to write, but to everybody who has been asking about new blog entries - sorrrrrrry! I will make it up to you! I have been writing lots of notes that need spellchecking but insha'allah, now that Raqia is leaving for Washington I might finally have time to sort out this blog business.