Fire sword dance

Pirika Repun

New member
Is this only NY, NJ, CT area or nationwide that fire sword dance become so popular? :think:
Maybe I’m an Egyptian style dancer, so that’s why I don’t get these dramatic props, but fire sword is necessary for Oriental dance prop? Tray or Shamadan are not enough to impress people? Whet do you think?
 

Shanazel

Moderator
I'm not a fan of adding pyrotechnics to belly dance via balls spun on strings or on swords. It distracts and detracts from the dance itself and I say the hell with it. If you want to perform a circus act, go for it but don't try and convince me to call it belly dance. :rolleyes: Maybe the east coast version was thought up by gals who never got over all those baton classes? ;)

Polynesian fire sword performance link below.

[video=youtube;hnT-whK82zs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnT-whK82zs[/video]
 

Pirika Repun

New member
Shanazel I’m with you.

But when I look at YouTube, I found kind a lot of “Fusion Belly dance” with these “fire” stuff. Like this fire stick and sword dance is nothing to do with Oriental dance. Yes, they use Hakim’s song and wear bedrah, but that’s it, and call “fusion belly dance” :rolleyes:


[video=youtube_share;tzLlAogApHo]http://youtu.be/tzLlAogApHo[/video]

And this fusion group do almost everything with fire. This is turn to just “fire dance” so I don’t know why they still use “belly dance”

[video=youtube_share;kMXQlC7ONLY]http://youtu.be/kMXQlC7ONLY[/video]
 

Daimona

Moderator
It hasn't come to my corner of the world yet (we've only got the occasional raqs shamadan from the Egyptian style dancers, and there are hardly anyone doing raqs shamadan either). But that being said, we've just recently got a good bd fusion and tribal community as well (i.e. it has appeared during the last decade).
 

Shanazel

Moderator
And this fusion group do almost everything with fire. This is turn to just “fire dance” so I don’t know why they still use “belly dance”

Fire, snakes and belly dance, I see. My. How... innovative. I think they call it belly dance because it sounds sexy and they have an excuse to wear cool costumes.

I try to be accommodating, non-combative, and kind when faced with the innovations of others but frankly I am over calling any dance that involves a hip lift belly dance. Snakes, fire, eight inch iron nails, high kicks, cartwheels, simulated or real nudity, simulated death, simulated worship, simulated oral sex (hell, maybe it was real; I didn't stick around long enough to find out), booty shaking, and the infamous Shakira rope trick- at this point I feel like I've seen all the innovative "belly dance" I can stand. Based on almost 40 years of dancing and teaching, I say the hell with it, and of that makes iron-nail-wearing, fire-swinging, sex-crazed gymnasts think I am not inclusive enough, I reckon I'll just have to take the Fifth.

Phhhhtttt. So there. :tongue:
 

Shanazel

Moderator
You don't have to- I said enough words for both of us and then some. :lol: Ah, just when I think I have attained a truly Zen-like state of detachment...
 

Afrit

New member
If you don't have enough understanding or skill to hold an audience with your bely dance add fire - simple.
 

Duvet

Member
I have a "flaming coinbelt". Or that's how I refer to it when it starts to slip off in the middle of a dance. I also have a "blasted veil" and a pair "sodding zills".
 

Aniseteph

New member
Sodding zills, LOL.

I'm with Shanazel too. If anyone wants to be impressive, how about stepping away from the props and trying some actual belly dance?

However difficult and dangerous flaming swords might be, I think they look daft. The whole drama of swords is that they are supposed to be serious weapons. If they don't look real, or you pick them up by the blade, or they catch on fire, the illusion is lost and they turn a bit silly and gimmicky IMO.

Also from a distance it looks like you set your hair alight.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
I used to think that "sodding" referred to laying strips of grass down for insta-lawns. Thanks to my English lessons here on OD I now know better.

Still, I get this mental picture of little zil men with legs and arms rolling out verdant rugs of grass... which, of course, would never happen here because the legality of grass stops at the Colorado-Wyoming border which brings us to another interesting English-ism: is grass only grass in Great Britain or is it something you can smoke as well? :think:
 

Shanazel

Moderator
I love English. It is cultural linguistic appropriation at its best. If there isn't an English word for it, borrow one from another language and Englishize the heck out of it. (Or make a word up. ;))
 

Kashmir

New member
How about Hungarian? A guitar - gitár - play the guitar? gitározik. A campsite? Kemping. Go camping? Kempingezik. A camper? kempingezö And as for “camping” that’s kempingezés!
 
Top