In praise of good practitioners!

Kay Taylor would be high on my list - she is a very generous, supportive and friendly teacher who deals fairly and professionally with all. I live too far from her to have ever been able to take regular lessons with Kay, just workshops, but despite this I can honestly say that she was the person who really kick-started my dance at a higher level - and made me realise I could get to that level.

Her lessons are always fun, well paced and well delivered. She is always happy to give direct, honest critique - delivered gently and with a smile - and has a great breadth of knowledge about the dance thanks to her research and regular trips to Cairo. It wasn't till I studied with her that I realised how much I had been missing out on in that regard.

I have also particularly enjoyed taking classes with Aida Noor and with Randa. Aida was just so warm and lovely, again a very generous teacher and had such poise and grace. At the last JoY festival in Saltaire I ended up swapping other classes so I could take more with her! Randa was genuinely inspirational and immensely thorough, going over phrases time and again, making sure everyone had the weight change, balance, posture, arms etc just right rather than just doing a rough approximation of the hip work. Luckily the class I took with her wasn't too large!

Finally I will mention Yasmina - I have taken workshops with her every year since I started dancing. She is such an amazing dancer and also very beautiful, so when you first meet her she can seem quite intimidating...but then the workshop starts and she turns out to be a patient, kind and giving teacher. She always delivers a great lesson with lots of technique to assimilate and she is a veritable mine of information thanks to her many years in Cairo!
 

Aniseteph

New member
Finally I will mention Yasmina - I have taken workshops with her every year since I started dancing. She is such an amazing dancer and also very beautiful, so when you first meet her she can seem quite intimidating...but then the workshop starts and she turns out to be a patient, kind and giving teacher. She always delivers a great lesson with lots of technique to assimilate and she is a veritable mine of information thanks to her many years in Cairo!

Yasmina of Cairo? I went to one of her workshops last year at the Butlins thing - very worthwhile, agree with you totally.
 
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