Hello #dancewithSL fam!
I’m back from my 3-week tour of Australia including 7 performances with Farhan Shah & Brothers, 1 solo show, 2 workshops, 2 collab videos, and an infinite amount of learnings.
A chunk of these performances and workshops happened at the Woodford Folk Festival over 6 days where I was accompanying Farhan Shah & Brothers Qawwali group, and I’m so grateful for the experience. I learned so much about the significance of what I do and how it’s meant to shape the meaning of the qawwalis performed, about the history and structure of qawwali, and got to experience the impact it has on people. I was so surprised to see people at Woodford dancing in a complete trance and in pure joy over the music. For the most part, they didn’t understand the meaning, but it was the soul of the music that found its way into their souls. It was absolutely magical.
Thank you to the Woodford Folk Festival team for being so amazing and helpful, to the beautiful creatures of Woodford for being so engaged and giving us so much life on stage, to the brothers for their amazing gift in music, to Suella & Jim for opening their home to us, to Nadyah & Keith for teaching me so much, and most of all to Farhan Shah, for his talent, for the learnings, and for believing in me :)
Stay tuned for the collab videos I got to do with Dance Masala in Brisbane & video from the Woodford shows!
xo, SL
