Gypsy Fire

About a year ago I was asked to dance at a fundraising event for asylum seekers in Sunderland.  It was a Tuesday night so I asked my Peterlee class if they would like to come along and we could do a bit of a show – some group numbers and some solos.  They were up for it so on the specified Tuesday night, we turned up at Crowtree Leisure Centre and did our bit.  We went down a storm.  A lot of the asylum seekers are from Middle Eastern countries so really appreciated some Egyptian dancing.  Though it must have also seemed a bit odd – a group of sparkly English women trying to do their dance!  One of the organisers came and grabbed me afterwards – ‘I want you to meet someone’.  ‘This is Sylvia, she does gypsy dance and is from Poland’.  At this time Sylvia’s English was not good and my Polish non-existant.  She managed to convey how much she had enjoyed it and how similar some of the movements were to her own gypsy dance.  Could we get together some time?  We swapped phone numbers and that was that.

Life got busier and I never quite got round to calling Sylvia …. But she called me.  It took a few seconds to place the foreign accent on the phone then it all clicked into place.  She came to my house with her daughter Nicole.  I showed her costumes and we had fun dressing up.  Nicole thought it was all great fun too!  She asked about dance classes and I invited her to come along to some of mine.  Sylvia was studying English intensively and her English had already improved since we had first met.  It was getting easier to communicate.  I hadn’t seen Sylvia dance but had heard she was very good and I really wanted to see her.  She showed me her costumes.  A dress which she made herself.  A fitted bodice with sleeves and a skirt which had 18 metres of material in it.  Apparently the flounce around the hem is 27 metres long!  I couldn’t wait to see this in action.  Sylvia started coming to some of my classes and picked things up really quickly – you could tell she was a trained dancer.  Towards Christmas last year, I was getting lots of bookings.  Sylvia wanted to see me dance in a restaurant so I asked her to the Istanbul in Morpeth where I was booked to dance … and would she do a demo too? 

The Istanbul is not a big restaurant.  Sylvia looked at the logistics of it saying she didn’t know if it would be possible but she would try.  I did my first set and Sylvia watched as I danced, doing some combinations and steps where there was space then moving round the tables to interact with the customers.  Most were dancers who had booked because I was dancing.  Sylvia was a surprise for them.  And she was a surprise.  It was like a tornado passed through.  Starting slow then building up to a passionate crescendo.  The skirt was kicked and twirled – though with restraint as there really wasn’t a lot of space!  Everyone was mesmerised.  What a show.  How different, like a breath of fresh air.  And she was right there are a lot of similarities.

As we got to know each other better, I found out more about her history.  She started dancing when she was 7 years old.  Her mother created a children’s troupe for traditional gypsy dancing.  Over time they became really good and would enter competitions normally coming first or second.  The children’s group disbanded when Sylvia was 15 years old.  They were all growing up and moving onto ‘proper jobs’.  Not Sylvia.  She loved dancing and joined another troupe to continue developing her dance skills.  Over the years she moved from company to company until she became a solo dancer with ‘Terno’.  Terno were the top gypsy dance troupe in Poland and often invited to travel and perform in different countries.  Sylvia loved her time with the troupe and danced professionally with them for 5 years before coming to England.  

I asked Sylvia if she would teach us some of the dance steps so one day when she came to my house she gave me, Yasmien and Christine an hours tuition.  Welllll!  We were like a herd of left footed elephants!  ‘Can you just show us that again?’  ‘And again?’  Eventually we felt we could just about follow along.  But it was really refreshing to do something so different yet in a strange way familiar.  Sylvia was also good at explaining and breaking the steps down.  She did have a rather disconcerting way of looking at us which could have been interpreted as ‘are you all stupid?’ but I think was just concentration on her part as she tried to figure out how to explain something!

I decided it would be fab to offer this at the Northern Residential Course at Ford Castle.  Sylvia and her daughter Nicole came up on the Saturday.  She taught a workshop on the Saturday afternoon and one on the Sunday morning.  People were inspired.  They found it really hard but stretching in an inspirational way.  Her performance on the Saturday night at the hafla was breathtaking.  Here, there were no space restraints.  She had loads of room to twirl and kick her skirts out for effect.  You could see why she needed so much material as the skirts swirled round in a mass of yellow satin.  Her arms in particular impressed me – so full of life, precise and passionate.  At one point, she threw herself on the floor, sitting backwards with a tiny shoulder quiver which had everyone spell bound.

I ask people to fill in feedback forms on the weekend and these were some of the comments on Sylvia’s classes.

Very very tiring but very very rewarding.  Good to have a go at something completely different.

My god, what can I say?  I was hopeless but it was great fun.

Something new and energising.

Excellent – totally inspiring.

I also ask people what was the highlight of their weekend – quite a few people said it was Sylvia’s performance on the Saturday night.  What can I say?  Should the rest of us pack our bags and go home?

No, seriously, she is a fabulous dancer and, if she stays in England will start to teach more classes and workshops.  It wasn’t until I started writing this that I realised I didn’t even know Sylvia’s full name, apparently it is Sylwia Zalas – the Polish ‘w’ is the equivalent of our ‘v’.  I suggest you watch out for it and if possible try to see a performance and definitely have a go at a dance class!  I hope to have her back at Ford Castle next March.

Stop Press:  Sylwia has just joined the dance troupe ‘Tarab’ and will be touring with them through the summer.