Are there any Lebanese or Egyptian dancers in this forum?

[Nym]

Hey folks,

How is everyone? Are there any dancers/instructors from Syria, Lebanon or Egypt who are members of this forum? I was browsing through u-tube and started wondering about the perspectives of those actually born in those countries generally considered the birth place of this art. Are they restricted by language from participating in a forum like this? Do they view the worldwide community with curiosity re: our interest in this art form... Is it strange to them, that what takes a lot of effort or may be challenging to us, is very easy and natural for them?

I ask because Middle Eastern countries have always been a mystery to me ..... a wonderful mystery. Our Middle Eastern community in Trinidad is not an open one. Very private and close knitted. There is no interest in integration with regard to the wider community. That said, the social structure here has a lot to do with our colonial past.

Belly dance here has largely been through the efforts of a vibrant few like our Nalini Akal, Nneka Matthews and our Mya. Hats off to these ladies. Anyway, let me stop the rambling. What are your views? :think:

 

[eden eyes]

I disagree with the line "Is it strange to them, that what takes a lot of effort or may be challenging to us, is very easy and natural for them?" The reason being; just because someone is middle eastern does not mean that OD comes natural for them. there are a few things that the body changes in a group of people over time to adapt to an area for better survival; the ability to dance is not one of them. I am American but I sure can't clog! I'm not that good at Swing and I am far away from being able to play jazz

However, to answer your question, yes we do have Egyptian and Lebanese AND Turkish and Greek, etc etc members on this forum. Hopefully they can stop by this thread and say hello!

 

[lizaj]

To pick upon the same point ,Eden Eyes, I think dancers from the Middle East who are determined to be the best in the field, put in an innordinate amount of effort to get to the top. It doesn't come easy for them either . To be successful and display their talent and earn a living and fame is a lot of hard work. What they have over Western dancers is the fact they have been exposed to the rthymns, the music, the whole culture of the dance all their lives and it will be a rare Western dancer who gets near to achieving what they do.
I would imagine that most dancers from over there don't even know of our forum and haven't got a lot of time to spare in discussion away from practise and performing and travelling.The full time dancers here in the UK that I know spend their time doing varied jobs within the dance and very very rarely post of forum they are too busy!
The Western BD forums will be full of dancers from the Americas,Australia and NZ and Europe who are at best : dancers/ teachers/
traders / organisers / promotors (a few of them full time) but mainly most of us are men and women who love to watch the dancers we admire and to perform a little to the best of our ability.

 

[Hamoudi]

hi NYM!!!!!! I'm Libanese dancer but not profecinal,,,i'm dance for fun with my freinds, and working in nightlife in Beirut. As for languag,,,well its bit hard for me, i'm not understand everthing, many libanese have french education so mabe its reason for not more libanese on english forum...i'm taken course at language center to improve my talk,,,so,,,,hope i also get better to people can understand ME TOO. LOL!! :lol::lol::lol:

 

[shiradotnet]

hi NYM!!!!!! I'm Libanese dancer but not profecinal,,,i'm dance for fun with my freinds, and working in nightlife in Beirut. As for languag,,,well its bit hard for me, i'm not understand everthing, many libanese have french education so mabe its reason for not more libanese on english forum...i'm taken course at language center to improve my talk,,,so,,,,hope i also get better to people can understand ME TOO. LOL!! :lol::lol::lol:

Vous parlez anglais trés bien - meilleur que je parle l'arabe!

Bien venue!

 

[karena]

hi NYM!!!!!! I'm Libanese dancer but not profecinal,,,i'm dance for fun with my freinds, and working in nightlife in Beirut. As for languag,,,well its bit hard for me, i'm not understand everthing, many libanese have french education so mabe its reason for not more libanese on english forum...i'm taken course at language center to improve my talk,,,so,,,,hope i also get better to people can understand ME TOO. LOL!! :lol::lol::lol:

I understand everything you're saying. It isn't perfect (rather like my French!) but you're totally understood

 

[Corylus]

I think dancers from the Middle East who are determined to be the best in the field, put in an innordinate amount of effort to get to the top. It doesn't come easy for them either . To be successful and display their talent and earn a living and fame is a lot of hard work. What they have over Western dancers is the fact they have been exposed to the rthymns, the music, the whole culture of the dance all their lives and it will be a rare Western dancer who gets near to achieving what they do.

Lizaj, I agree with the above. I watched a documentary film recently that I think was called The belly dancers of Cairo which had interviews with Eman Zaki, Lucy, Dina and others. They were saying how difficult it is to become a successful, famous belly dancer and make a good living from it, I found it really sad that often they are shunned by friends and family when they decide to embark upon belly dancing as a career too. I think Westerners don't have the same strife or hard work in belly dancing as they do in the East. That isn't to say that people don't have to work hard to become successful belly dancers in the West because I know they do, but society is much more open to it compared to the East.

This is only my opinion though, I'm not saying I know or fully understand. But I always think exactly what Lizaj said with regards to Eastern dancers hearing the music and growing up in the culture of the dance; I don't feel we can ever truly understand it, we can only seek to learn it and understand it to the best of our ability and try to do it justice

 

[Nym]

I find this discussion so interesting. Hello Hamoudi. Greetings from Trinidad :dance::dance::dance:I am now coming to understand and appreciate the history of this art. Last week, my instructor introuduced us to Saidi. She introduced the cane to and its history and how it came to be used in belly dance. I am not as skilled in communicating or articulating what I want to say, but the responses so far are pointing me in the right direction.

The countries from which the dance originated have strong Islamic cultures. I know that the status of women is somewhat different to what women of the West are accustomed. I imagine persuing a career in this must be extremely difficult.

Got to cut this thought short though. Will be back

Thanx