Hossam and Serena Ramzy course in Cardiff

Hossam and Serena Ramzy are planning to bring their professional development course for bellydancers to Cardiff.

They've chosen Cardiff because it's a central point for all the dancers they have met in south Wales over the last few years.

The course will run over 12 months with 4 intensive sessions a year (one a quarter). Each class will include both drumming and dancing in order to fully connect with the rhythms and music.

You will learn bellydance technique with Serena as well as choreography and developing our individual style. Between each session there will be homework which needs to be filmed on a camcorder or digital camera and sent via email or post to be assessed.

There will be a certificate at the end but more exciting than that, the course works you towards dancing in a final show with a full live Egyptian Orchestra. The perfect way to show all the hard work you have done over the last 12 months!

Costs for the course are £400 for the year which includes all tuition on the quarterly sessions and continual contact and assessment in between. The first £200 is to be paid in advance (by beginning of June) and the second amount is payable at the first session which will be sometime in July.

Please note that there will be a few extra costs for rehearsing for the show - room hire, hotel and petrol expenses for Hossam and Serena - which can be split between the dancers.

There are only 16 places so please reply as soon as possible. To give you an idea of what the course entails, check out their Advanced Dancers Course. The Cardiff course is intended to be a shorter and less version of this:

www.hossamramzy.com/courses/advance_dancers.htm

For those who are unable to do the year long training, Hossam and Serena will be holding open workshops on the Sundays that they are in Cardiff doing the professional development.

If you're interested, please reply to Hannah Corr on hanitacorr @ yahoo.co.uk with any thoughts and feedback.

Le Trio Joubran on tour

Three Palestinian brothers bring their fusion of classical, jazz and world music to Wales for a short tour in May.

Le Trio Joubran - Samir, Wissam and Adnan - are the sons of a master oud craftsman from the Biblical city of Nazareth.

Samir, the eldest, was inspired to form an oud trio after listening to contemporary flamenco and jazz fusion guitarists and wondering why the oud couldn't sound as "shiny".

The dates are as follows:

Saturday 2 May - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Sunday 3 May - Cardigan Theatr Mwldan
Tuesday 5 May - Cardiff St David's Hall
Weds 6 May - Pontardawe Arts Centre
Thurs 7 May - Milford Haven Torch Theatre
Friday 8 May - Caernarfon Galeri
Saturday 9 May - Theatr Harlech
Sunday 10 May - Brecon Theatr Brycheiniog

See www.letriojoubran.com for more details.

Safeena gets married

Wedding congratulations go out to Safeena, who was married on Wednesday 25th February in Cairo.

The lucky guy is Mohamed Soliman - the happy couple spent their honeymoon in the luxury complex of New Cairo, and in the bazaars of Khan-al-khalili.

They intend to celebrate with Safeena's family and friends as soon as Mohamed is able to move to the UK so look out for your special invite.

Feel free to contact Safeena direct with any messages.