How to name a belly dance troupe...

YasminMay

New member
Hello everyone,

I have millions of ideas for troupe names, but nothing is entirely striking me as 'The One'. I'm not going to list them on here and bore you all, but I was wondering what others used as a method for naming a troupe?

Do you prefer Arabic names, or english names? Unusual or easy spellings? Would you prefer to let the dancers as a collective name the troupe, rather than you as the choreographer/teacher/'leader'(though i dislike that view of myself when it comes to dancing in a troupe...) naming it? What responces, if any, have you recieved about your troupe's name? Any favourite/impressive names you have heard, and why?

The list of questions goes on...

Thanks!! Yasmin x
 

shiradotnet

Well-known member
My bias is that I like local-language names. English names in English-speaking countries, French names in French-speaking countries, etc.

It makes it easier for non-Arab people (both your own members and the public) to pronounce correctly, spell correctly, and remember. It avoids the pitfalls of trying to invent a name in a language you don't speak - possible grammatical errors, possible dual meanings of words that you weren't aware of, etc.

I remember the time I formed a troupe of my students called Banat al-Qamar (daughters of the moon). We brainstormed as a group on possible names, I picked the ones I liked best (with input from a Syrian friend who was a native speaker of Arabic), and then we had a vote on the candidates to pick the final one. My Hispanic student mischievously tweaked the name to be "Las Lunaticas" and told all her friends we were "the crazy women". Hmmm, fun for a laugh, but not really the public image you want long-term!
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Our new community troupe went through the entire "What are we gonna call ourselves?" thrash. We ended up picking 'Mirage' - not exactly original, but everyone either liked the name, or could at least live with it.

I was all for something like "Sisters of the Black Rose" or somesuch...
 

Shanazel

Moderator
The best one I ever came up with was The Belly Button Jewels of the North Platte, though we only call ourselves that in private and with great glee. We've got dancers Synthetic Emerald, Rhinestone, Cubic Zirconia, Austrian Crystal, etc. :D
 

maria_harlequin

New member
The best one I ever came up with was The Belly Button Jewels of the North Platte, though we only call ourselves that in private and with great glee. We've got dancers Synthetic Emerald, Rhinestone, Cubic Zirconia, Austrian Crystal, etc. :D

Swarovski crystal!

As for troupe names, I think the less cheesier, the better. My ATS troupe was thinking about naming ourselves "Tribal Thai" but people overseas might mistake it for Tribal Taiwan or something or the other. And then we started getting silly and giving each other names that matched our skirts...the one wearing the black/white skirt was "Oreo" and I got cherry coke for my red/black skirt.

As for trad/cabaret troupe, we're pretty much hooked to our dance studio so we're just the rumPUREE belly dance department.
 

Darbla

New member
I had to come up with a troupe name to put on the paperwork for a performance opportunity that I found out about at the last minute. I looked through Arabic words and picked 'Malaika' (Arabic for 'angels') thinking that'd do for then and we'd change to something else later on. But it kind of grew on us and we haven't come up with anything better, so it's stuck. I'm even working on a fusion choreography to a song about angels that will be our last number. It being a single word, it sort of has the cache of 'Metallica', or 'Nirvana', or 'Creed'. :)
 

alosha

New member
My advice is research! There's a troupe I know of that named themselves, I went online to see what the word meant, and one of uses of the word is a black power movement in the US.

Not really what they were going for, I don't think.
 

Maria_Aya

New member
Swarovski crystal!

As for troupe names, I think the less cheesier, the better. My ATS troupe was thinking about naming ourselves "Tribal Thai" but people overseas might mistake it for Tribal Taiwan or something or the other. And then we started getting silly and giving each other names that matched our skirts...the one wearing the black/white skirt was "Oreo" and I got cherry coke for my red/black skirt.

As for trad/cabaret troupe, we're pretty much hooked to our dance studio so we're just the rumPUREE belly dance department.

Oreo in greek means beautiful... maybe this is one idea;)
 
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