1997: Birth of the Bazaar
by Ruth
Two very positive things emerged from the demise of the Bellydance-a-thon: the Gypsy Bazaar was born, and Leonie discovered the Addison Rd Centre venue.
Bazaar Times 1997-2002
by Nabila aka Libby
Strange fascination of mine. But I love to speak into a microphone.. so when Leonie asked, it didn't take much persuading for me to volunteer as the MC for the Gypsy Bazaar.
This usually meant arriving at 9.30am with a slight hangover from the dinner dance the night before, then having a 5 minute crash course in the sound system from Claude before he vanished for the day. This was probably why it took the first two - three gigs to get the 'system working right'. I was always curious why he said "Don't touch those buttons".
Then it was onto waiting for each troupe to turn up. Someone from each troupe would give me their cassette tape... or tapes. A performance CD was a rare occurrence back then. This meant I had to run onstage mid - performance, as discreetly as possible, and swap the tapes over. I really don't think I was that noticeable, but it must have prompted a lot of teachers into taking that new techological step of making a performance tape.
Often I'd receive a tape from a troupe not scheduled for hours... but would have nothing from the troupe due on next, till they all came bounding round the back of the loos, puffing and panting... "we're here! we're here!! Are we on yet???". "YES!!" I'd whisper back (probably not very quietly) "I'll buy you some time". Beauty. Here come the community announcements. These ranged from "don't forget to get a massage / cariacture drawing / turkish tea / visit the stalls outside" to "will the owner of the blue barina, number plate blah blah blah, please move your car.. it is blocking three cars who want to go home." That was my favourite. I'm only sorry I never got to say "number 72, your seafood basket and chips is still waiting at the bistro".
But mostly the day was collect the tapes, introduce the troupe, start the music, run offstage while they ran on, watch some incredible performers having a ball, then run back onstage, thank them, grab the tape, introduce the next troupe, run offstage, go into the change room, return the tape and give them their Festival certificates, see if anybody new had turned up and then do that twenty times over throughout the day or for how ever many performers there were. Sheesh!!!
One year I decided to wear my Elvis costume to MC (2000 - ed). I think it made it easier for everyone else. "Just give your tape to Elvis" was the go. I was easy to spot. By the end of that day, I was happy to leave the building.
Not sure if that was the year I made the big faux pas gaffe of commenting how "great Rose (from Perth) was for a beginner", when she'd been dancing for years (2002 - ed). Somebody from Perth was so offended they bought it to my attention and I had to apologise to all and clarify that it was her "first time performing... in Sydney". Well I did say she was pretty good.
But overall, being the MC was great fun, and I do recommend volunteering as a great insight to the Festival. The best bit is seeing the action backstage, seeing a troupe getting ready, nervous, catching their excitement and enthusiasm for performing. Then the even higher shrieks and laughter afterwards as it's all replayed seconds after getting offstage. Then the contrast of the seasoned solists, who are all ready, calm, quiet, collecting themselves before they go onstage and then suddenly they're all larger than life with energy, sass and dancing.
The worst bit?? Asking anyone in the change room to be quiet while someone was performing onstage or trying to stop the change room door from slamming. That ruddy door! Bane of my MC life. We made laminated signs to try and alert people to the sound dangers of that door.
Sigh.. it's all different now... there's someone back stage permanently collecting music and checking the troupes in, the MC's rotate on a 2 hour shift with breaks... (do they get meals???). The music is all on CD. A sound guy works the sound. It's all TOO EASY!!! Thank goodness too, I made plenty of mistakes, introduced troupes from Wollongong when they were really from the Central Coast. I do apologise for those gaffes and hope you'll be understanding. Volunteering is fun, but we're also human and just want to dance too... or speak into a microphone, as the case may be.
The closure and renovation of its venue, the APIA Club in Leichhardt, caused the demise of the Bellydance-a-thon. But the stalls and performances that had been part of the day in previous years were a popular part of the Festival, and Leonie decided it was time to feature those. Addison Rd Centre, Marrickville, proved a perfect venue for a day of shopping and shows, and the Gypsy Bazaar was born, featuring much to buy, performances all day and some very handsome camels. For some years afterwards, the Addison Rd Centre remained the main Festival venue.
Above from left (click to enlarge): At the first Gypsy Bazaar - handsome camels and stalls.
Workshop participants were spoiled for choice with three options offered in each Friday and Saturday timeslot. New teachers included Maria Sangiorgi from Melbourne teaching Zar, and Shamira from Adelaide teaching Hands and Arms. Workshops were held at two venues in Newtown Theatre, and at Leonie's studio.
According to the annotations on a 1997 program dug from Leonie's files, both of their workshops sold out, as did those by Sue Bracewell, Belyssa, Amera and Gina Whitfield.
Above (click to enlarge): Workshops - Margot McManus' Positive Power of Mincing, Desiree Sheldrake's Gypsy Dance.
Both Layali Sharq concerts were held at Newtown Theatre. The Friday night concert featured a live band and kicked off with a catastrophic sound failure which considerably delayed the start of the show. Ultimately the show did go on, but without foldback, meaning that neither musicians nor dancers could hear the live music satisfactorily. The performers all danced on nonetheless, including Shamira, Khadidja (Kerry Taylor) who did baladi, Azziza formerly of NZ and now settled in Sydney, Belyssa and a very young Jrisi in her first Festival solo.
If you look carefully you can spot Caroleena among the Newtown Middle Eastern Dance Centre ensemble. She has been living and dancing in Cairo for many years now but the Festival can claim to have supported her performance debut! Although we keep inviting Caroleena back to perform in the Festival we have been unsuccessful so far ... but we keep hoping!
Above from left (click to enlarge): Friday concert performers Shamira, Dounia, Khadidja, and Newtown Middle Eastern Dance Centre with Caroleena at the far right front
Dounia, who, in addition to the sound issues, also experienced a musician moment at the end of her act (see 1994, 1999 and 2003 for more such moments), was as polished at the start of her career as she is now.
During the show, a potted palm intended to add colour to the stage attacked MC Maria Masselos' head, but being a true professional, she carried on without skipping a syllable.
Above from left (click to enlarge): Friday concert performers Azizza, Leonie and Zeina, and Leonie after the show. Saturday concert performers Gypsy Flames.
The Saturday concert featured Elenie, El Zaffa from the Blue Mountains, Desiree, Canberra's Veils of Baghdad and the Gypsy Flames of Wollongong. Gypsy Hips of Melbourne included Melissa Cristina who was one of a trio performing a techno Arabic number under ultraviolet lights.
There was also a tinsel incident .. Hi There Miss Goodthighs (Nabila and Jo) who danced a funky Salametha, threw copious amounts of tinsel at the audience, and Leonie claims that it took four hours after the show to clean up the mess - and the Theatre still wasn't satisfied and charged a cleaning fee!
Above from left (click to enlarge): Saturday concert performers El Zaffa, Elenie and the tinsel incident from Hi There Miss Goodthighs.
One more important development occurred in 1997 - Libby (aka Nabila, one of the perpetrators of the tinsel incident) took over the job of designing the Festival Program and made it her own. With the sole exception of 2002, Lib has designed our Program ever since. (There's a lesson to be learned there somewhere ..!)
Doing the Program is a pretty thankless task - there is a lot of chasing up to be done to collect the copy, images and ads, there are always last-minute changes to make, and all this has to be done at the most inconvenient time of the year - smack bang in the Christmas period.
To top it off, most people look at the publication without really seeing it, despite spending hours poring over it to make their workshop choices. The Program is much more than a list of the Festival events. Its appearance and tone sets the scene for the festival itself and is crucial to building excitement and anticipation. But it achieves this almost "invisibly" - which, of course, is a hallmark of good design.
And so Lib has worked her invisible magic for all these years, making a crucial behind-the-scenes contribution. She's only failed us once, in 2002 - by neglecting to properly time her pregnancy, with the result that she rudely went into labour and gave birth the very day she was supposed to be finalising the 2003 publication.
As Lib says, her job has few perks, but one is being able to get lots of pictures of herself in there. She started as she meant to go on by putting herself on the 1997 cover - Lib is standing, third from right, directly behind Leonie. Now, pull out your post-97 programs and play Where's Libby for yourself!
Ever versatile, Libby also MC'd the Gypsy Bazaar performances for many years - you can read her reminiscences, right.
| Program Extract: Workshop Timetable 1997 | Program Extract: Layali Sharq Concert |
| Program Extract: Gypsy Bazaar | Concert Program: Pages 1 & 4 | Concert Program: Pages 2 & 3 |
| Return to top |