Why deny the sensual?

[Ligeia]

I agree with you, A'isha and Yasmina - first there is a feeling, the face follows that.

I hate really that same old "smile smile smile" -mantra, because as a result you usually only do a fake-smile, that kind of grin you can see in beauty contests, advertisements (and even family photographs ). Now this kind of fake-smile is something that sadly even many professional dancers do. If the balady choreo was ment to be glad and joufyll, your teacher was right to correct you, Yasmina, but I think she did it at the wrong way. She should have told you that "because this is a happy song you should try to feel happy when you dance" or something like that.

The audience is not stupid. Maybe not always, but I think they can sense unconsciously if something is "wrong" in the performance - if you smile but you do not feel happy. This is also the reason why I feel the other student was wrong when accusing that you make "porn faces". If you are just feeling sad or worried or whatever when you dance, the audience can sense that. They make interpretetations about your dance based on alsothe feelings they sense - not only by your dance movements or facial expression. Of course dance can be interpreted in many ways, but I think that for exaple in Kaya's case, it is not like she does those kind of porn faces by accident, but she tries to be sexy and seductive and thus the results can be seen on her face...

However, I do not say that you should not think about your face or facial muscles at all. As a performer, your body and face are a medium between your feelings/expression and your audience. You must be sure that body and face are expressive enough (I do not mean overtly theathrical facial expressions) and that can be rehearsed. It is a good suggestion to watch yourself from the video (as someone already said) or practice before a mirror.

Hope I did not sound too strange or off-the-ground here. It is just that I do not like to watch empty smiles... I dislike the idea that you should always look pretty-pretty and cute all the time - this dance is just too complex for that.

 

[Moondancer]

AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH
that is absolutely dreadful! she looks like she should be starring in a cheap porn film! how dare she call herself a belly dancer and drag such a wonderful dance through so much sleaze and dirt?? not only is she a terrible dancer, she's also at least 80% plastic.

urgh *shudders in disgust*

 

[Yasmina]

If the balady choreo was ment to be glad and joufyll, your teacher was right to correct you, Yasmina, but I think she did it at the wrong way. She should have told you that "because this is a happy song you should try to feel happy when you dance" or something like that.

I agree with you that she shoud give an explanation of some sort. By the way, I didn't even feel sad, I think I just had my eyebrows a little bit like when you're sad. Maaaan, this is waaay too hard to explain without visual material

Anyway, the smile-method didn't work out for me, because I didn't feel like "me". I hope this makes sense. I felt like a fake version of a dancer I was supposed to be, do you guys understand? In general, in everyday life, my mimics and my hand gestures are a little bit "strong", so I've been told. Some people don't like this, some do. Maybe this is the same when I'm dancing? I never really thought of monitoring my facial expressions and never really cared to look pretty all the time. Today I'm going to look at them on video for the first time in my life (a workshop that was taped). So I'll keep you posted if there was anything that really surprised me.

By the way, as for the baladi song being sad, happy or whatever according to the instructor. She had no clue what the song was about :shok: I had to translate some Arabic lines with my baby Arabic-vocabulary....

 

[Yasmina]

I attended a couple of workshops with Orit some time ago. They were all filmed and I took a look at them today. I didn't see anything disturbing on my face and I didn't see any scalp massaging with open mouth or any other form of stage masturbation. So you can all go to sleep peacefully, no "damaging the bellydance community" going on here...:lol:

By the way, I forgot to tell you that the first comment of the instructor was: "You have a gorgeous smile!". Only later on she made the comment about "ending up on a picture looking sad or sexy". That's why I knew that her point was not that I'm not smiley enough. Her point was that I had to be careful not to show any other mimic than my "gorgeous smile" :lol:.

And yeah, it was the comment of the other student that hurt me, because her Kaya-esque imitation of me is NOTHING like the real me. But I realize now that she's the one having a problem, not me...

 

[Moon]

Suheir smile with a big mouth full of hideous teeth

Well, this certainly makes me more confident to smile without closing my mouth next time And I guess it's always better than the BDSS-smile.

By the way, as for the baladi song being sad, happy or whatever according to the instructor. She had no clue what the song was about I had to translate some Arabic lines with my baby Arabic-vocabulary....

What??? :shok: Well in that case, I wouldn't care too much about the smile comment she made. Looks like your regular teacher has a lot more knowledge.

And yeah, it was the comment of the other student that hurt me, because her Kaya-esque imitation of me is NOTHING like the real me. But I realize now that she's the one having a problem, not me...

Yshka told me you dance beautifully, and I know she would never said that if you'd look like Kaya. So that student was probably jealous of you and she was happy the teacher corrected you.

 

[Yasmina]

Wow Moon, that's a positive way to look at the whole issue

Thanks for the sweet words. And Yshka dances BEAUTIFULLY, it was really nice to meet her. Hope to see you too some day

 

[RioDancerCO]

*ehem* Hey Guys? Just a thought here... I have a couple of reactions to all the posts using Kaya as a bad example. 1st of all, I know that her facial expressions feel fake and that puts me off. I think if they were genuine- even if that meant slightly scandalous- I wouldn't cringe so much. After all, most of the time porn seems aweful in comparison to something 'real' for the same reason. 2nd of all, I have met Kaya and taken a workshop from her. She does have the ability to dance well and she is a genuinely kind girl. So, basically what I'm suggesting is that it's not necessarily that Kaya is such a bad dancer or such a bad person that we're reacting to, but that her forced sexiness (which is completely unnecessary) is practically all you can see. Also, the videos that Sedonia posted didn't seem up to the level that I remember Kaya dancing at. So maybe she only dances well some of the time or maybe she has improved. Regardless, while I understand why her name and videos would come up as an example, it doesn't sit well with me to rip her to shreds all the time... Just expressing some thoughts here, not necessarily trying to point any fingers or name call :think:

 

[Shanazel]

I took a workshop from Kaya, saw her dance, and have much the same feeling as Rio. Kaya's costume was a bit more jaw dropping than I am used to, being somewhat conservative in my taste, but her dance was fluid and beautiful to watch. She was also one of the best teachers you could hope for, and managed to offer a personal word of encouragement to every dancer there, delivered with a genuine smile and great warmth.

 

[Brea]

Kashmir, hurrah! Exactly...men dance this dance too. It is not an 'expression of femininity'...I am going to say again, it IS an expression of sex! But a tasteful one. I don't know what that lady is up to in the videos but I don't like the way she dances. I also agree that there is a huge difference in the Middle East as far as sexual perceptions go, and as I have lived with people from there and was trained as a dancer by people from there I will go with what they say.