Raquy and the Cavemen were in Iowa City July 17. Lucky us! Check them out at www.raquy.com.
First stop, a drum workshop and dancing hosted by Shira. The workshop was a nice intro to the doumbek starting with basic 'dum and tek'. Raquy led us through many patterns with this before adding the 'ka'. We played around with a few specific rythyms and Raquy played the kemenche while we accompanied her on our drums. With mixed levels of experience, this was a well balanced workshop that offered something for everyone.
Unfortunately, I was not able to stay for the music and dancing that followed. I heard wonderful things about it from several people.

Later that evening was more music and dancing at a club in town. This performance was hosted by Maleeha and the Kahraman Near East Dance Ensemble. My journey as a spoiled baby dancer continues! What a rush to dance to live music. I danced to Caravan. Also improvised, this was such a great experience for me! They have so much energy in their music, it really drove my dance. I hope to get more pictures or video from this night soon.
The rest of the evening I got to enjoy watching other dancers and joining in the social dancing while the band rocked out! It was awesome!

If you get a chance to see Raquy and the Cavemen live, go!