Yame
New member
On another note...
When I read this last week, I didn't really like this kind of spin. I still don't because as an atheist, I think it would be misleading for me to advertise my dancing as a dance of the Holy Land, however, this weekend something reminded me of it.
I performed at a senior club and brought my grandma (who is a very religious Catholic and goes to church multiple times a week) who was visiting to watch me perform for the first time. I was a bit nervous about dancing for a crowd composed almost entirely of older people, who come from a time when this type of dancing was considered much more risqué here than it is nowadays... still, I gave everybody the benefit of the doubt and wore a "normal" costume (my normal costumes aren't very revealing, so by some belly dancers' standards it was quite conservative) and danced a drum solo without holding myself back out of fear of people's perceptions... and it was one of my best-received performances yet! If you want to see what it looked like, here is the video for reference: YouTube - Yame Performs to Drum Solo
I also did a Khaliji piece... with the full thobe and an introduction explaining what they were about to see. I didn't just assume they'd hate it because it's an Arab Gulf dance done to weird music. I danced it because I am a Middle Eastern dancer, and this is what I do. There were other dancers as well and this was my way of adding variety to the show.
I actually thought they'd be more open to the Khaliji piece since I was so covered and did no visible hipwork, but although they enjoyed that piece as well, they wanted more of the belly dance stuff...
Well, in any case, back to what I was originally going to say, at the end of the show my grandma (who, again, is very religious, although she has become more open-minded with time) was very happy with what she saw. She talked about references in the Bible to dancing, and said this is how she believes people danced in biblical times. Although no, people didn't do raqs sharqi in biblical times, with two-piece bedleh and a veil entrance and the whole nine yards, I could see what she was talking about. She was talking about the roots and essence of the dance, the hipwork, which probably existed at that place and time. I found it interesting that she made that connection on her own, especially considering the fact that she doesn't like liturgical dancing and can't stand churches that feature fun music and dancing... :lol:
When I read this last week, I didn't really like this kind of spin. I still don't because as an atheist, I think it would be misleading for me to advertise my dancing as a dance of the Holy Land, however, this weekend something reminded me of it.
I performed at a senior club and brought my grandma (who is a very religious Catholic and goes to church multiple times a week) who was visiting to watch me perform for the first time. I was a bit nervous about dancing for a crowd composed almost entirely of older people, who come from a time when this type of dancing was considered much more risqué here than it is nowadays... still, I gave everybody the benefit of the doubt and wore a "normal" costume (my normal costumes aren't very revealing, so by some belly dancers' standards it was quite conservative) and danced a drum solo without holding myself back out of fear of people's perceptions... and it was one of my best-received performances yet! If you want to see what it looked like, here is the video for reference: YouTube - Yame Performs to Drum Solo
I also did a Khaliji piece... with the full thobe and an introduction explaining what they were about to see. I didn't just assume they'd hate it because it's an Arab Gulf dance done to weird music. I danced it because I am a Middle Eastern dancer, and this is what I do. There were other dancers as well and this was my way of adding variety to the show.
I actually thought they'd be more open to the Khaliji piece since I was so covered and did no visible hipwork, but although they enjoyed that piece as well, they wanted more of the belly dance stuff...
Well, in any case, back to what I was originally going to say, at the end of the show my grandma (who, again, is very religious, although she has become more open-minded with time) was very happy with what she saw. She talked about references in the Bible to dancing, and said this is how she believes people danced in biblical times. Although no, people didn't do raqs sharqi in biblical times, with two-piece bedleh and a veil entrance and the whole nine yards, I could see what she was talking about. She was talking about the roots and essence of the dance, the hipwork, which probably existed at that place and time. I found it interesting that she made that connection on her own, especially considering the fact that she doesn't like liturgical dancing and can't stand churches that feature fun music and dancing... :lol:
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So I only have the first 2 choices.
