Thread: First male dancer you ever saw

first male dancer I saw was a local San Antonio guy named Zack who dances/danced tribal fusion. He taught a local class, some old biddy got offended when he subbed for a local teach and split because she had too much pride to learn dance from a guy... her loss. Killer class... abs hurt for days.

A few months back I started looking and sneaking the wife's DVDs (in my head, this was so much better than owning up to wanting to dance) and about a week later I said I was acting like a boy stealing his daddy's playboys and just told her I wanted to start dancing, too.

As for mixed duos - wife and I are slated to perform a dance together for our school district convocation at the beginning of the year... and were planning to keep it flirty but PG... no bump-and-grind... LOL I've seen tasteful and I've seen sleazy... as a guy, I could see how sleazy is tempting... and a dancer, I like tasteful.

Originally Posted by duskshade

As for mixed duos - wife and I are slated to perform a dance together for our school district convocation at the beginning of the year... and were planning to keep it flirty but PG... no bump-and-grind... LOL I've seen tasteful and I've seen sleazy... as a guy, I could see how sleazy is tempting... and a dancer, I like tasteful.

If someone gets that on video I'm sure there are many here who would like to see you and your wife performing together. I like tasteful too, and I never went in much for sleazy even when I was young. Been laughed at by other males over the years for my puritanical views, but oh well.

For a male dancer, aren't male/female duets unavoidable - in class/haflas/shows. I've only ever dueted with a man once (impromptu at a workshop). A powerful connection between two dancers is tangible whatever the gender.
Hope you knock 'em dead Duskshade. And share with us.

I think first ever male Oriental dancer I saw live is my teacher Tarik Sultan when I took his class.

Since then I took WS with: Tarik, Tito, Mohamed Shahin, Ahmed Hussien, Nath Keo

Saw live performance: Tarik, Tito, Mohamed Shahin, Andras (Miami), Sal (TX), Lebanese Simon (TX), Jamil (OZ), David of Scandinavia, Frank Farinaro, Ozgen, Nath Keo (Canada), Karim Nagi (if consider him as dancer)

I cant remember the first male belly-dancer that i saw. it was probably in this forum when Ricoh and a few other guys used to post videos. I remember watching Tarik's video (from his performance in Ahlan Wa Sahlan ) and thought wow ! I think that clip is still one of my favourites to date. Then I saw Jamils first video , another wow .I am quite proud to say I was the first one to give Jamil his first break on the workshop circuit, and he was the first male belly dancer that I had seen perform live. I saw Saidi dancer Md. Kazaffy next in Sydney and i was fortunate enough to bring Tarik to Australia which was an absolute delight to watch him live.

Of the dancers whose names were dropped in this thread I recognized most of them from my previous readings on the Internet. I wasn't specifically looking for male dancers, just dancers in general, but their names appeared as I jumped around. It may be unscientific but I tend to judge significance by the frequency of a name appearing in a search.

Thanks everyone. I did not expect so many replies on what I worried might be a dumb question shortly after posting it.

To Duvet: Yeah, you are right about dancing with a female in a duet, but I would never have thought of it that way until you mentioned it.

Erik You have posted your question in Male Dancers thread. And there are not many male dancers in this profession.

Dev, I couldn't think of a better place to post it. Agreed, there are not many now, but there were even less who made a name for themselves in the past. Before I saw that one in 1978 or whenever it was, I had no idea there were any. Everyone who has posted, except for perhaps Aniseteph, seems to have been familiar with the fact that this dance was practiced by some males, and I was not. I wish that a clip of it would surface someday. I'm tellin' ya, he was the real deal. It wasn't another Harold Lloyd comedy act. It was something different in those days, at least on my side of the world.

Actually now I think about it I remember years ago seeing clips of guys social dancing doing what looked pretty much like belly dance, in a documentary about Cairo. It had Fifi Abdo in too, being paid big money for dancing at a wedding, and refusing to dance in a two piece costume for the cameras because she knew how they'd portray it. Clive James was quite snarky about that IIRC but I know who I'd back in a fight...

Anyhoo, that was way before I started learning belly dance. The classes I went to were about dancing, not wimmins politics. I'd never seen any belly dance IRL, there wasn't much male belly dance on YT unless you went looking, I wasn't on the forums... I really didn't have any fixed ideas about who did and didn't belly dance (or where). I didn't know that tribal was a different thing either.

So it wasn't so much an "OMG! some guys do this I had no idea". More woah, he's dancing on a whole different level to anyone I've seen, and he's dancing in a feminine style which is kinda weird when you aren't used to it but who cares because this is awesome.

The first male dancer I saw was a fellow student in my class. I wonder if he still dances, I think he was quite promising, apparently he moved to America, his name was Said and he was Iranian. Anyone heard of him?