What's happening in the world of belly dance?

Shanazel

Moderator
Since Facebook has taken over functions that forums used to fill, I've lost track of the latest trends in belly dance style, costumes, and performers. Anyone here care to offer up-to-date videos, online sites, etc.? Please don't direct me back to FB and the land of I'm More Culturally Sensitive Than You Are. I'm looking for dance information and not information on the politics of dance.
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Good luck with that. I'd say that facesuck is ruining the Internet, but its FAR worse than that. Rant, rant, rant, rant, rant...

That site was a thorn in my side back when it was just a little thing for college kids at a few schools - I was compelled to block my website from accepting any links from there, a policy which stands until this day.

Belly Dance is in one of its occasional nadirs - when it comes back into popularity, forums like this will revive methinks. I'm on a fair number of forums on a lot of different subjects and they're all THRIVING. I can only conclude that the lack of activity on BD boards is only due to its (Belly Dance's) comparatively small size right now - look at Rakkasah the last several years, a ghost of its former glory.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
To sum up, not only in bellydance, but all dance forms the "frantic" style is invading all dances. It's like watching the energizer bunny trying out for the Olympics gymnastics competition. Less and less you see just dancing and more and more acrobatics. Also, the discussion pages are a different form than this one and they are so huge that it's really difficult to keep up. On the plus side, you get more input because there are so many dancers, but then there are so many responses, you can't keep up unless you are on FB almost all the time.

One page in particular was just a fantastic group for vintage bellydance but it got so snarky that eventually it was shelved by the originator.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Sad commentary but not particularly surprising. When all the body acrobatics, weird props, and "express yourself emotionally" school of thought fade into obscurity, perhaps belly dance will reemerge in something like its earlier form. I wandered onto Dahlal's site here awhile back and saw little to make me wish I still had my 23 year old figure. In their desire to follow the fashion of revealing as much as possible while wrapping odd bits and pieces of the body in strings and sashes, designers have lost track of what enhances movements of the dance.
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
To sum up, not only in bellydance, but all dance forms the "frantic" style is invading all dances. It's like watching the energizer bunny trying out for the Olympics gymnastics competition. Less and less you see just dancing and more and more acrobatics.

This is true in music too, and has been for several decades. Why play something slow and stately, slow and stately when you can play it at warp speed?

I especially dislike fast veil dancing, I get exhausted just from watching it!
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
And Bellydance Store had a few winners too - there was one costume where you could see garter belts in between cutouts on the skirts. Now I like that site and I love the Aida skirts but that garter belt accenting was really tacky, at least in my opinion. I couldn't tell if it was a cross between burlesque and S&M!
 

Shanazel

Moderator
People are welcome to both burlesque and S&M, if that's what makes their hearts pound, but over the last couple of decades, certain dancers have willfully blurred the lines between belly dance and other types of performances, thus reinforcing the old stereotype of BD being more or less naughty. That people wish to do both types of performances is fine. Not making strict boundaries between the two is not fine. I've spent forty damn years explaining the differences and it ticks me off that people execute forward leaning shoulder shimmies while licking their lips and fixing the audience with a smoldering gaze and call it belly dance.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
People are welcome to both burlesque and S&M, if that's what makes their hearts pound, but over the last couple of decades, certain dancers have willfully blurred the lines between belly dance and other types of performances, thus reinforcing the old stereotype of BD being more or less naughty. That people wish to do both types of performances is fine. Not making strict boundaries between the two is not fine. I've spent forty damn years explaining the differences and it ticks me off that people execute forward leaning shoulder shimmies while licking their lips and fixing the audience with a smoldering gaze and call it belly dance.

THIS. And the above mentioned genres can hardly appreciate this either because each form is its own unique style. Yet many of the offenders and promoters of the "bellydance is stripping" are committed most times by bellydancers.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
A good part of the logic (if logic it is) behind presenting belly dance/burlesque fusion seems related to a desire to NOT look like a prude. "I'm so cool with my sexuality that I bring it into everything I do." When I learned to dance on the Ark with Ms. Noah, we were sternly told, "Sensual, not sexual," meaning "shimmy by all means but don't stick your boobs in someone's face (literally or figuratively) while doing it." I laughed out loud when I expressed this viewpoint on this site many years ago and was accused by a young woman of being sexually repressed and hypocritical to boot. :cool:
 
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Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
A good part of the logic (if logic it is) behind presenting belly dance/burlesque fusion seems related to a desire to NOT look like a prude. "I'm so cool with my sexuality that I bring it into everything I do." When I learned to dance on the Ark with Ms. Noah, we were sternly told, "Sensual, not sexual," meaning "shimmy by all means but don't stick your boobs in someone's face (literally or figuratively) while doing it." I laughed out loud when I expressed this viewpoint on this site many years ago and was accused of a young woman of being sexually repressed and hypocritical to boot. :cool:

Oh for crying out loud! Stoopid is as stooped does.
 

Erik

New member
So, not much has changed since 1970?

[video=youtube;7jap2qz2QCA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jap2qz2QCA[/video]

Don't know why he disabled comments. I was just a kid when I saw this episode. Strippers wear G-strings. Not belly dancers!

I hope you are well, Shan. Sorry it's been a while since I dropped in. Very busy with numerous things. Takes too long to explain.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Hi, Erik! How nice to see you wander around here again. Alas, I don't see anything of the video (I think it must be a video) you posted except a big, black rectangle.
 

Erik

New member
You can't see the video? Well, you're not missing much. :D

If it's all right I'd like to send you a PM a little later on so we can catch up on some things.
 

Erik

New member
I wrote to you thrice on the PM, Shanazel, and the website kept giving me bullcrap. I kept the messages short, but the first two timed out before I could send them, and the third one said something about exceeding my quota. Maybe later.
 
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