Second note from Berlin -The S Bahn and Ziya Azazi , the dancer

I just had the extraordinary privilege of wandering back to the conference venue to photograph Ziya Azazi rehearse his performance for tomorrow's opening of the Persian Dancescripts installation here in Berlin.

I could either continue to play the chicken and catch taxis, guaranteeing arrival, or work out how to use one of 2 S Bahns near my hotel and be less certain about arrival...

So I worked out the S Bahn on my return from the conference, with a little help from the German professor of literature and the Palestinian professor who gave a truly interesting lecture this afternoon.

A quick shower - did I mention the heat here ... and the S Bahn negotiated alone.

I popped up in the right place and set to work with the new flash which has been great for conference shots however this was tricky light and Ziya was dancing.

You can read more of Ziya at his website.

The performance was stunning, truly stunning and this was only rehearsal. I'm not allowed to use the camera flash tomorrow and it will be nice to just watch him at work.

I wandered 'home', thinking I might pop into the same pub for dinner, having saved so much by using the S Bahn but it's Sunday night Germany and everything round here is closed.

Yum ... Pringles and cola for dinner at 9.30pm, just what I never dreamed of but being here is worth going hungry and eating nasty things. Today's speakers spoke on 'Letter and Body: Qur'anic Investigations', 'The Sufi's Dance', and 'Negotiating Choreography and Law in Contemporary Dance'. I didn't realise how much I had missed listening in on academic discussions but this is surely food for my soul.

Tomorrow is looking even more delightful, although long. It begins at 10am and ends with a night-talk by the two artists starting 10pm.

Anyway, it's back to my Pringles and downloading today's work.
Auf Wiedersehen from this kiwi in Germany.