Where angels fear to tread…..

Initially published in NADA then Guedra 0904

When it was first suggested we take the Tarab show to the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it seemed like a good idea.  I mean the street cred associated with ‘doing the Fringe’ is pretty cool.  At the time one of our members was based in Edinburgh and offered to liaise with the Fringe people and do all the organising at that end.  Why not?

There are about 10 of us in the Tarab Dance Company, from across the North of England.  Ali Orr, our Scottish member had to drop out due to health problems.  Numbers vary as people take a year off every now and again.  Everyone is really busy in their day jobs – as well as their dance lives – so fitting in time for rehearsals and shows is no easy matter.  We have to plan a year ahead.  All of us teach Arabic / Egyptian / Belly dance in our own areas.  For us, this is a way of continuing our own development.  When you are so busy teaching, you forget that you need to continue growing and developing.  I cannot imagine ever reaching a point where I think I know it all.

Back to the Fringe experience.  We had to pay out over £1000 in deposits for the venue and advertising.  None of which were we guaranteed to get back – if we didn’t get audiences, we could loose out big time.  We managed to scrape together the finance somehow and worked hard rehearsing for the show.  The logistics in trying to all meet up was a nightmare.  Working together is one of the highlights of the whole process.  Most of us have worked on a piece of group choreography for the show at sometime – giving us chance to develop our skills as choreographers.  A far cry from putting together a beginners dance for class.  Or solos.  Having a number of adult bodies to play with – all of whom could actually dance.  Seeing your idea come alive on stage – a great experience.  Ali Whitworth, one of our members is a fab choreographer – she created both the opening & closing numbers for 2003 & 2004.  They pushed us all both in terms of technique and complexity.

To help keep costs down in 2003, we stayed with Ali Orr in Edinburgh.  We were never all there at the same time – not everyone could take the full 10 days off that we had committed to.  This meant that the line up varied every evening and we had to rework the group numbers slightly almost every day!  Some people could only make 2 or 3 nights, others 5 or 6, two brave souls Sue and Amelia were there the full 10 days.  We had to pick up changes quickly and frequently then perform them to a professional standard in the show on the night.  Poor Ali had us (or some combination of us) for the 10 days.  I slept in my van as there wasn’t a huge amount of room in the flat.  We were all really aware of invading someone’s space for that length of time and tried to be good houseguests while Ali was a very accommodating hostess.  We couldn’t have coped financially with having to pay for accommodation as well.

Our venue was the Underbelly with a performance space called ‘The Bellydancer’.  You can’t get much more perfect than that!  Actually it wasn’t in the least bit perfect.  We had a tiny stage, 12ft by 12ft.  It was a good job we were never all there at one time as we wouldn’t have fit on the stage together!  Our changing room was a cupboard to one side which also housed the PA system for the venue when it turned into a nightclub later.  We had to work our way round loads of equipment – and each other. 

We soon realised that to get good audiences, you had to go out busking and flyering everyday.  Our lowest night was 15 and our best night 86.  The venue was full and overflowing with 86.  As long as we had over 25 in, the space was cosy enough to feel like it had atmosphere – and we only dropped below that on the one night.  It was really important that we get decent numbers as we had to get enough to repay our initial outlay – and hopefully cover our expenses for the week.  Everyone worked really hard and pulled their weight.  It was exhausting – out every day, a show every night.  And yet what an experience – to be a part of the Edinburgh Fringe festival!

Stimulating, exhilarating, exhausting – we were all pushed to our limits.  We all felt we had benefited from the experience in some indefinable way.  But I for one, have never been as happy to leave a gig!  We were all somewhat shell shocked after the experience.  We hadn’t really known what we were letting ourselves in for.  Telling people about it afterwards, I heard a few horror stories:  ‘You are lucky if the audience outnumber the cast’, one person told us.  My mum came up to see us and also went to another show where, unfortunately, the cast of 6 did outnumber the audience!  ‘Only a small percentage of shows actually break even’, said someone else.  Most apparently loose money.  Fortunately none of us had actually realised the scope of the venture we were taking on.  And we did break even!  In the aftermath, we were all so excited that we had actually been a success; we agreed to do this year, 2004.

Wiser, more experienced & more ‘in the know’, we developed a show especially for the Fringe.  ‘Radio Tarab’.  A friend of Medhat Shaheen's (of the Nile Band), the actor Mego, from Cairo, recorded the voice of the DJ for us.  This helped non-dance audiences understand the context of the music and dancing.  It worked really well – we had good audiences all week.  ‘Why?’ I asked Anne Kingston, as we mulled over the figures.  ‘Maybe because it’s a later timeslot’, she suggested.  ‘Maybe it’s because this is the last week of the Fringe – and last time we were at the beginning.  Or because there are a lot of dancers in Edinburgh’, I offered.  ‘Maybe … maybe, – it’s because we’re good!’ she said quizzically.  Now, there’s a thought!

We even have an official photographer – Jason Smalley.  When he can, he joins us and takes fabulous photos.  He took such good ones at the Fringe; we felt it was a shame for them to go to waste.  So, we decided to make a calendar for 2005.  A combination of wonderful ‘arty’ shots and some humorous ones from when we were out busking.  We had particular fun doing the Halloween shots for October!  If it doesn’t sell you know what all our friends and relatives will be getting for Christmas!

Next year, Jane Leach, who is based in Liverpool is joining us.  Jane used to go to my classes in Newcastle where she palled up with two other students of mine. The three are regular helpers at my Farida Ford Castle residential weekends where they have amazed and astounded everyone with their performances as ‘The Three Disgraces’.  Claire and Amelia are already members of Tarab and can’t wait for the third disgrace to join them.  I don’t think she quite realises what she is letting herself in for!