Hi all,
I was contacted by a local pro dancer in my area and she told me she had some advice for me. I was worried; perhaps I was not good/thin enough? However, I was very happy with what she told me.
She says that I am very obviously a folkloric dancer and I am a good dancer as well. She thinks I need to add more things to my movement vocabulary and that my weight is irrelevant. She told me that often when people are taught by women from the Middle East that the women tend to know a certain amount of moves and know them well but that there is a difference between what she calls 'party dancing' and 'stage dancing'.
I am thrilled that she thinks I am a good dancer, I am also relieved that my weight is not an issue, and I understand what she means about adding more things to my toolbox. I am curious whether there are any other folkloric-learned people here and what they have had to say; one thing this person told me was that shimmies are almost entirely a performance thing; the folkloric style does not have them, although you will see more people doing it now because the stage dance is so popular in Egypt particularly. This has really opened up my eyes to why my dancing is so different from what I have seen; it is really a difference in teachers and in what each person believes is belly dance.
Any comments on this are much welcome! I am interested to hear what you have to say.
I was contacted by a local pro dancer in my area and she told me she had some advice for me. I was worried; perhaps I was not good/thin enough? However, I was very happy with what she told me.
She says that I am very obviously a folkloric dancer and I am a good dancer as well. She thinks I need to add more things to my movement vocabulary and that my weight is irrelevant. She told me that often when people are taught by women from the Middle East that the women tend to know a certain amount of moves and know them well but that there is a difference between what she calls 'party dancing' and 'stage dancing'.
I am thrilled that she thinks I am a good dancer, I am also relieved that my weight is not an issue, and I understand what she means about adding more things to my toolbox. I am curious whether there are any other folkloric-learned people here and what they have had to say; one thing this person told me was that shimmies are almost entirely a performance thing; the folkloric style does not have them, although you will see more people doing it now because the stage dance is so popular in Egypt particularly. This has really opened up my eyes to why my dancing is so different from what I have seen; it is really a difference in teachers and in what each person believes is belly dance.
Any comments on this are much welcome! I am interested to hear what you have to say.