How The Hafla Went

It's been ages since the hafla, and I'm only just getting around to writing about it! I'm sorry for the delay, but my mind has really been a bit scattered the past few weeks. I've been doing hardly any knitting until very recently, I haven't even been queueing patterns on Ravelry!!! (I'll have to get back to that soon, lol) I think I'm starting to get back to normal now, so I'm updating everything, including this blog :)

The hafla went really well! It was a really good night, with lots of fab dancing. No hiccups of any kind, everything went totally smoothly, and it seems everyone had a good time. Yay!!!

We got to the hall a couple of hours early to set up. I had thought we wouldn't need the time, but we did! A couple of friends very graciously offered to help decorate the hall, and it wouldn't have been half as lovely without those ladies helping. I've been thanking them over and over every time I see them because they did such a great job, and were total life-savers! Here's a shot of how the hall was decorated:



They put up veils and saris and hip belts on the walls of the hall, and it really made the place feel cozy and inviting.

I took the job of checking and selling tickets, which was very social for me! I had to rope another friend into selling raffle tickets though, because it was all getting a bit confusing. It was good to have someone there to talk to during quiet bits when no-one was coming in :)

I had made up the running order of dancers pretty much at random, then tweaked it a bit to make sure solos weren't next to any group performances the dancer might be in to give them time to change. Surprisingly, it all ran very well together. The music flowed well from one track to another, and there was a good mix of dance styles.

We had people doing sword dances (one with my tribal teacher doing double swords!!), bollywood, Tribal Style fans, Celtic fusion, and of course straight-forward bellydance. We started off with a follow along to get things going, had one before the break to encourage people to get up and dance, and another one at the end.

And I did my very first drum solo!





I was shaking before I went on, I don't know if I've ever been so nervous! but it went very well, I got lots of lovely compliments (I'm such an attention whore lol). I did forget a bit right at the beginning, and was just panicing in my head thinking "Oh my God, I'm going to have to improvise this whole drum solo!" Thankfully the music I'd chosen (Groove Sanctuary by Hossam Ramzy) has lots of clearly defined sections, so the next one came up, and I knew where I was. Phew!

The part that I was stressing most about the night was the socialising. I am by no means a social butterfly, and get very nervous having to talk to people. But I made an effort to go round and talk to everyone, and that part went quite well too. I must be coming out of my shell a little, lol! It's only taken 30 years!

All in all, it went very, very well. There was a lot of help from people around us, of course, which made it all go very smoothly. These people were invaluable, and so much help!! **bowing down at their awesomeness** And we raised £400 for charity! I totally want to have another one now, but we'll wait till next year, I think!

OMG It's TONIGHT!!!!!

OK, the hafla is on tonight, and I am officially ______ myself (insert your own verb in the blank, I think you know what I mean!) I don't think it's so much because things need organised - they don't. Me and my friend (the main organisers) have had so much help from people around us. People have been incredibly generous with their time and energy, it's surprised me just how lovely people can be! I'm more nervous because it's a social event that I will have to be social at. (i can haz soshul ishoos!) Normally, I'm not stressed about haflas because someone else is doing all the organising and I just have to sit there and enjoy myself. Tonight, I'm sure I'll be running around like a headless chicken doing stuff :)

We went to the house of the people we're borrowing the sound system off, and they were very reassuring. They've organised tons of events, and have lots of practice at this sort of thing, so they had lots of ideas to help.

Getting all the dancers and the sound system seems to have been the easy parts, it's all the little things. It's a "BOYB" event, but we're putting out little bowls of bombay mix (we were going to put out nuts, but didn't want to set off anyone with an allergy), and candles on the tables, little decorations like that. We're getting a bunch of veils and saris and putting them on the wall, so it doesn't look like a bare hall.

I had to get all the music and short intros for each of the dancers, so that was a challenge for me. I opened my inbox the other day and there was all these emails from REAL PEOPLE! Not just the crap I've signed up to to make myself feel popular! So I had to read them all and answer them all, and that's one of my social issues, is that I tend to put off that kind of thing. But I made myself do it that night instead of closing firefox like I wanted to, and I'm very proud of myself for that! It's a small thing, but for me, it's quite an achievement! :)

We've learned a bunch of things from organsiing this first hafla. First, the end of summer is maybe not the best time cos everyone's off class and hard to get hold of! We just thought that nobody has one in August, so that's when we'd have ours. :) Also, next time (if there is one!) we'd invite more classes to dance as groups. We've got a lot of solos and duets, but only a few groups. I made up the running order too, and it's quite hard deciding who to put where. Especially the very first act! We're going to have a follow along dance for that, to an upbeat song, to get things going. I just couldn't decide who would want to be on first!!

(To any other hafla organisers, what kinds of acts do you put on first? Solos, duets, groups? It's something I had never even noticed when going to haflas, but it's really quite important to setting up the whole night)

We're going along to the hall early to set up. I thought at first that it would be too much time (1.5 hours before start) but now I'm thinking it's probably about right. I need to practice my drum solo before I go as well, and make up little fliers for the tables with the running order. Oh, and have a bath and do my hair :) Leaving everything to the last minute as usual!

Update On The Hafla

There has been a lot of organising going on to do with the hafla (which is now less than 2 weeks away, eek!). Me, and two friends in particular, have been busy little bees, but we've emlisted help from lots of other people, which has made it much easier.

We've got all of our dancers booked (around 15 acts). This was actually the easy part, just walk up to people at class or wherever and ask "do you want to dance at our hafla?" Worked amazingly well ;) We have a nice mix of new and experienced dancers, which will be good to see. We emhpasised the casualness of the hafla, so that newer people, or people who haven't performed so often, wouldn't feel intimidated. I like to encourage new people to perform. It's good to see different dancers, and I get such a buzz from it myself, that I just want everyone to feel that way :)

We've got a sound system, lights and MC, all from the same source, yay! As we're having the hafla in a church hall, the lighting that is there already isn't great for performances, just flourescent light strips on the ceiling. So we've arranged for some standing lights. Just need to find out where all the plug sockets are in the hall, lol!

We've got an idea of how it's going to be laid out with the tables and chairs etc, and have made sure they're in the hall and available for the night. It's going to be an informal night, bring your own food and drinks, so it's nice to have tables for everyone to sit at, instead of just rows of chairs.

We went to Glasgow last weekend to get raffle prizes, lots of sparklies and goodies! And we've put the word out that we're looking for donations, so hopefully there'll be lots of stuff for people to win.

My friend made up fantastic fliers and tickets! We've been distributing fliers locally, and now the main thing we have to do before the night is sell all the tickets. That seems to be the hardest part in a way, pinning everyone down and getting them to commit to coming, and obtaining their tickets! But there seems to be enthusiasm for it, it's just pinning everyone down, like I said.

The proceeds are all going to a charity run by our dance teacher - confidance for life. It's about encouraging self esteem through dance, and building confidence. Belly dance really is amazing for building confidence, I'm a very, very shy person at heart, but over the past five years, I've really come into my own (if I do say so myself), because I feel more comfortable in my body and myself, and I have a way to express myself now. I'm a bit rubbish at expressing how I feel verbally, so it's wonderful to have a way to do that without having to speak :) And really, five years ago, would I have been so involved in organising anything like this? No, I would not! I'd have been hiding in my room, trying to think of an excuse not to go, because I wouldn't have been able to face all those people. But recently I've had to talk to people to organise things, and it's not been that bad, actually! So, if belly dance has been so good for me, I'd like to encourage other people, and that's why the proceeds are going to this charity.

So yeah, mostly just selling tickets to go. Oh, and we have to get everyone's music off them so we can prepare as much as possible before the night. But the main organising seems to be done. Yay! I'm getting very excited about it now :)

What Is A Hafla?

It occurs to me that some (probably most) people reading the above post might not know what a hafla is. After all, before I started bellydancing, I had no ideas such events existed, or that there was even a bellydance community to have events!

Haflas in the UK are basically bellydance parties. There are varying degrees of formality with these parties, ranging from big stage shows starring professional dancers to groups of people dancing together in a living room. Most of the ones I've been to are midway in this scale, with performances from students (and sometimes professionals) from nearby areas. Class performances, solo performances, duets and groups. Egyptian/cabaret style, tribal, fusion. The audience is usually filled with people from nearby classes, and their families and friends, and one performer will get up and do their bit, then the next, etc. There's usually a half-time break for more casual dancing to music and sometimes a buffet is put on at this interval. Then there are more performances and another time to dance at the end.

Sometimes time to dance is interspersed with the performances, so there will be one or two performers, then everyone can dance for a couple of songs, and so on through the night. (We haven't decided which version the August hafla will be yet, with two halves or this more casual arrangement. They both have their good points!)

Sometimes people set up stalls around the edge of the hall, or somewhere at the edge of the venue, whatever it's set up like. They'll sell bellydance costumes, hip belts, jewellery - basically anything sparkly. Bellydancers love sparkly!!!

The proceeds from the ticket sales (at least around here, in this area of Scotland, I can't speak for the rest of the UK) generally go to charity. Sometimes a local one, sometimes something close to the organiser's heart (again, no idea yet what charity will be getting the proceeds from this event!)

Sometimes there's a raffle in the interval. People donate prizes like bottles of wine, or cosmetics, or chocolates, or anything else you can think of (someone I know won a thigh-master once!) and the proceeds from raffle ticket sales go to the charity too. (Guess what? I have no idea if we'll be having a raffle either! I guess writing this post is worth it if only to make a list of all the things I haven't decided!)

And that, in a nutshell, is haflas in the UK, at least this part of Scotland. Does it differ where you live? Or have I forgotton anything important? Leave a comment and let me know what your haflas are like! :D I needs all the help I can get!

Organizing A Hafla

EEP! I have just committed to organizing a hafla (bellydance party) for the end of August. This is scary. I am not an organizer. I procrastinate, put things off, generally I am not good with dealing with things like dates, deadlines, anything like that. And somehow, I have become involved in organizing a large get-together.

This isn't like I've been forced into it. It's actually long been a secret dream of mine to organise a hafla, to have one locally instead of having to travel miles to the nearest event. It's just that, my mouth seems to have run off with itself and decided to make concrete plans where before there was just idle day-dreaming.

Me and a group of friends have been talking about organizing a local hafla for what feels like ages. But it's always been that idle day-dreaming, with nothing getting planned. Well, someone else tried to book a hall in a nearby town, but it was full till November, and since we had already talked about it, they spoke to us about having one here at the end of summer. More idle day-dreaming followed, but I began to see that it could actually happen, and all it would take is a few easy steps in the beginning (like every journey!)

And that's where my mouth started running off. I spoke to some people at the class I attend last night about it, and they were all really keen. So I said I'd phone up the guy who's in charge of the local church hall and book it. And this morning, I did. The first "easy" step, taken care of. Done. The hall is officially booked for August 29th, 6 till 11.

Now though, I am terrified. Everyone keeps saying there is so much to organise when having a hafla. Tickets, performers, sound systems - those are just the ones I can think of now. I'm sure there are a lot more I'm forgetting. There must be. I have a terrible feeling it'll get to the night, and I'll have forgotten some intergral part of the event. :)

I won't be alone in organising it though. I have that group of friends I talked about who I'm sure I can "organise" out of day-dreaming mode, if need be. But I've got a feeling it just took someone to take that first step, and everyone else will jump in with me. I hope so, anyway.

We (me and my friend) have already decided that we're not going to have a buffet or anything at this hafla, just to make it less trouble to organise. Some haflas do have buffets for the half-time interval, as it were, but I think it would just be too much. So the tickets will say "Bring your own drinks and snacks!" Another thing taken care of.

Next week I'll ask people from the class if they want to dance at it, and I've got a list of people I can email to ask to perform. It's all starting to take shape, and it's scary and exciting at the same time!

I thought as it leads up to the hafla, I'd write here about it. About all of the things that need doing, as they need done, and as they get done. It might be useful for other people to have a resource of what another person did to organise a bellydance event. And it lets me write out the adrenaline! I'll tag all the relevant posts "organising a hafla", so later it'll be easy to find all these posts.

(Blimey, I seem to have gone into full organisation mode! What on earth is up with me!!!!)