“It was a pleasure to share my knowledge and experience of ‘Raqs Sharqi’ with such a wonderful group” said Ann Blagden following her presentation of belly dancing to the Probus Club of Evesham on January 8.

Raqs sharqi is the classical Egyptian style of belly dancing and Ann is a qualified teacher of Egyptian Belly Dance and Bollywood classes and has a love of Asian and Middle Eastern music and dance. She lives in Cheltenham and with her group has worked with the Bedouin of the Sinai desert and has raised funds to sponsor 5 Bedouin gardens to enable them to live in their mountain homes.

When we mentioned to friends and family that we were to have a Belly Dancer at the Probus Club, there were the inevitable raised eyebrows and prejudices from the ill-informed. However, Ann’s personality, professionalism and confidence dispelled all the myths and doubts. Appearing first in an abaya which she removed to reveal an exquisite gold and electric blue outfit, she emphasised the importance of the wrist, hand and finger movements, which she even got all of us to attempt. She then demonstrated the classical hip and shoulder movements and the shimmy in dances that had us spellbound. The dances are clearly good for posture and fitness and we could tell that confidence and calmness had an obviously knock-on effect.

In response to questions, we learned that proper belly dancing, as opposed to the usual holiday-type gyrations, or seedy exotic dancing, is culturally hugely important. Stories are told through the dance and the performers are able to interpret music as well as individual musical instruments.

Jeff Jones thanked Ann for making our first meeting of 2015 so enjoyable and a challenge for our future speakers to outshine.

Our next meetings at the Rowing Club Boathouse will be on January 15 when Chris Colton will talk about Air Accident investigations and on January 22 when David Howe will talk about Prime Ministers from the Midlands.

CHRIS DONOUGH