Who are your favourite dancers? And why? What do you find captivating about their performances?
Need some new inspiration...my favourites up till now have been Didem, Ansuya and Suhaila, but recently discovered Lia Verra (greece) and Helene (Norway) and am also loving them!
Do we have time to list them all? :lol: For starters, the classical dames like Samia Gamal, Fifi Abdo, Sohair Zaki, Zahra Zuhar(sp?), as well as Sah'ra Saeeda, Amaya, Randa Kamal, Jillina, Amar Gamal, Princess Farhana and so on and so on. Then there are the male dancers - Mohamed Shahin, Tito, Jamil, Ozgen Ahmet(sp?).
Haha, also, Raqia Hassan (doesn't perform), Fifi Abdo, Diana Tarkhan, Soraya Zaed and Aziza (Cairo one). Mo Geddawi for his teachings and dance method and Farida Fahmy for her muwashahat. Mercedes Niéto from Hungary I'm starting to like more and more. Two very beautiful dancers I found in youtube, one named Molly from Shanghai who has only been dancing for 3 (!) years and is absolutely gorgeous (look for "channelwy"), and the other named Dariya Mitskevich from Ukraine.
Classical dancers like Samia Gamal, Naima Akif and Suheir Zaki.
American dancers Ranya Renee and Salome (the one up left ).
My fellow dancers Annette, Ana and Femke, and Dutch teachers Laetana, Zafira and Farouq.
The Golden Agers: Samia, Tahia and Naima and Zeina Olwi (?)
Fifi and Nagwa ( as a show-woman in particular ). Camelia ..fabulous in real life and Randa ..although I prefered her when I saw her in Cairo in 2002 to the way she dances now. I also enjoyed Asmahan as a successor to Nagwa as a great entertainer. Here in England I do love to watch Nawarra of Leeds..she's such fun..a dynamo on legs..and just what a feisty belly dancer should be.
Current in Egypt: Asmahan (for the spectacle!), Nour, Sureiya
For general inspiration and friendship: Lorna (could have put her in above list too) and Vashti, London's treasure and my belly dance fairy godmother! And of course, Nafiseh, my best friend in the world!
Current inspiration right now as in today: Randa, Mercedes Nieto (still all dreamy from watching her Saturday, so elegant!)
I'm leaving out the UK right now, have to really think about our homegrowns and my brain's not kicking in right now!
favorite here in Bay Area: Ahava
favorite in U.S.: Ava Fleming
current favorite worldwide: Orit Maftsir
Of course there are others, e.g. Sahra Saeeda, Randa Kamel, Fifi, plus all the Golden Age stars, but it looks like others have already covered that territory.