Your relationship with Middle Eastern Dance?
- Thread starter ababalond
- Start date
Leilah
New member
Night Dancer, I love how you put that. I think some of us get so frustrated with our inability to be "Rachel Brice" or "Jamilla Salimpour", but that has never bothered me. Heck, I didn't even try to dance (any sort) until I was 40 yrs old! No way I can compete with them. But that doesn't mean I don't have fun, or don't get a charge out of performing. Besides, every troupe needs a chorus line!
MissVega
New member
Great thread
I had sort of a round-about way of coming to belly dance. My first real exposure to anything like it was Shakira and going to her Tour of the MOngoose concert. I loved it! Well I have always loved her music and dancing and I read that she had been belly dancing since childhood and that her dancing was largely inspired by that. And of course at the time I was about 16 or so and Britney Spears and everyone else was "influenced" by it (re: I'm a slave for you, which now looking back was about 5% belly dance influence.. but anyway). So I looked up belly dance online..
Still remember the first video I saw...and really really liked it
Maya Abi Saad - this exact video LOL
YouTube - Maya Abi Saad - Belly Dancer
And so I googled some more and came across the belly dance superstars...and to be honest, meh, I was on the fence about it. It seemed very different from Maya's dancing to me. The first superstar I watched was Ansuya, I didn't mind her. Then I saw Jillina, didn't like her dancing (still don't actually). Plus I'm from the country and out where I lived there was no belly dance instructor and I was showing my horse at provinicial /national level so I didn't really have the time anyway so I just tried to imitate shakira LOL and mix what she did with the caribbean social dancing I grew up with. (Ironically, a belly dance instructor finally moved into the area, but she was tribal style, as much as I can appreciate tribal and respect the work that goes into it, it's never been a style I've felt the urge to dance)
It wasn't until University that I looked at dance more seriously. Because of financial circumstances I was unable to continue showing and my horse was back home anyway so I put my energy into dance. Looked up belly dance again and came across Natalia Strelchenko (now Fadda) and fell head over heels in love and wanted to dance like her
They offered a belly dance class through the UNiversity Athletic Centre and I signed up.. went to the first class and almost hate to admit this but dropped it after the one, I didn't like it all:shok: So I just looked for more videos of Natalia and similar dancers and taught myself via watching performances.
The more I watched, the more I researched and read. Gaining a better understanding etc and learning more. I'm a fairly independent learner so maybe that is why I went the route that I did. Who knows?!?
I do feel that depending on your personalit type you can learn on your own, so long as you make an effort to educate at the same time. I looked up thedifferences in styles since to me it was obvious that there was.. Jillina, Natalia, and Didem are all classed as belly dancers yet they are all so strikingly different in style. I read who the classics in egyptian style were and watched them. And so on... lol again round about route to getting here. lol and I was trying to keep in brief and it was still a long post leaving out stuff.. ugh wish I was more concise lol.
I had sort of a round-about way of coming to belly dance. My first real exposure to anything like it was Shakira and going to her Tour of the MOngoose concert. I loved it! Well I have always loved her music and dancing and I read that she had been belly dancing since childhood and that her dancing was largely inspired by that. And of course at the time I was about 16 or so and Britney Spears and everyone else was "influenced" by it (re: I'm a slave for you, which now looking back was about 5% belly dance influence.. but anyway). So I looked up belly dance online..
Still remember the first video I saw...and really really liked it
Maya Abi Saad - this exact video LOL
YouTube - Maya Abi Saad - Belly Dancer
And so I googled some more and came across the belly dance superstars...and to be honest, meh, I was on the fence about it. It seemed very different from Maya's dancing to me. The first superstar I watched was Ansuya, I didn't mind her. Then I saw Jillina, didn't like her dancing (still don't actually). Plus I'm from the country and out where I lived there was no belly dance instructor and I was showing my horse at provinicial /national level so I didn't really have the time anyway so I just tried to imitate shakira LOL and mix what she did with the caribbean social dancing I grew up with. (Ironically, a belly dance instructor finally moved into the area, but she was tribal style, as much as I can appreciate tribal and respect the work that goes into it, it's never been a style I've felt the urge to dance)
It wasn't until University that I looked at dance more seriously. Because of financial circumstances I was unable to continue showing and my horse was back home anyway so I put my energy into dance. Looked up belly dance again and came across Natalia Strelchenko (now Fadda) and fell head over heels in love and wanted to dance like her
They offered a belly dance class through the UNiversity Athletic Centre and I signed up.. went to the first class and almost hate to admit this but dropped it after the one, I didn't like it all:shok:
So I just looked for more videos of Natalia and similar dancers and taught myself via watching performances. The more I watched, the more I researched and read. Gaining a better understanding etc and learning more. I'm a fairly independent learner so maybe that is why I went the route that I did. Who knows?!?
I do feel that depending on your personalit type you can learn on your own, so long as you make an effort to educate at the same time. I looked up thedifferences in styles since to me it was obvious that there was.. Jillina, Natalia, and Didem are all classed as belly dancers yet they are all so strikingly different in style. I read who the classics in egyptian style were and watched them. And so on... lol again round about route to getting here. lol and I was trying to keep in brief and it was still a long post leaving out stuff.. ugh wish I was more concise lol.