ATS World Wide Flash Mob 2013
As last year, we did it in Brighton, and again, Phil Thornton, the author of the music, came to press play and to add some percussion. In our mob, We had a few people that had never done ATS before, and some that had never even done any belly dancing at all, so we had a small ATS 101 session before the mob, and kept the moves to the basics. Part of me wishes we would have gone in full costume and all out, but it was very nice to see people picking it up and able to take part.
We did it in two places, at the Pavillion Gardens and later on at the sea front. We did gather quite a bit of a crowd, and I am very happy with how it worked out. Also happy that I was allowed to take the lead for the first time in public. Although I have to say, while Phil Thornton was a lovely guy, taking the lead with him looking was a bit unnerving! And the bit I found the hardest was to restrict myself to the basics, I think I kept cueing Turkish Shimmies instead of standard shimmy steps both times, just because I am so much more used to it, and I wanted to do something more flashing and eye catching and going into twirls and turns and all sort of other stuff… But overall, I am happy, as I didn’t loose the nerve, not even when my hip shawl decided to fall onto the grass in the middle of the group, and I spent the rest of the song trying to kick it away so that nobody got tangled with it.
Also, as it will become very obvious if you watch both performances, we were improvising fully both times, so all of it was done on the fly, as should be for ATS.
Here are the videos, although I suggest you go to YouTube and watch the HD versions. And when the final compilation -which will probably also include shots from the practice session- comes up, I’ll be linking to it. Enjoy!