Youtube gripe

Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
Definitely more shake than dance. And just for the record, I hate Shik Shak Shok. (or as I think of it: Schlick Schtick Schlock.) :protest:
 
Ahava_Melantha

Ahava_Melantha

New member
Shanazel you are too funny. yes it was horrible. I was Like "she NEEDS to go back to class" seriously. shaking not dancing. omg it was horrible.
 
Erik

Erik

New member
Three possible answers:

1) That's not horrible. That's Albanian Style. [Didn't read all the comments but one of them indicated that nationalism was a factor. However friendly the Albanian people may be, the fact remains that Albania is the least-important country in Europe.]

2) An unanswerable question.....like how long does one have to wait to become a senior member around here? :confused:

3) YouTube is loaded with drooling dweebs, and for them the more shake the better. :rolleyes:
 
Aniseteph

Aniseteph

New member
I wouldn't say horrible at all. She's energetic, perhaps a bit frenetic for anyone expecting Egyptian style subtlety and understatement but hey, Shik Shak Shok is pretty much open season as a BD standard, it's not like she's going nuts to Enta Omri. She's dancing to the music, which is rarer than it should be IMHO, and she looks like she's having fun, all of which is more than some professional belly dancers manage to do. I have seen a LOT worse, on YT and IRL.

If she's just an amateur doing the talent section of a beauty contest, so what? Did she even post it herself?

And yeah, what Erik said - nationalism, and YT morons who just want to see things shaking. :rolleyes: YT commenters have not got a clue, there is no point wasting brain waves on them.
 
Tarik Sultan

Tarik Sultan

New member
Because people put their videos up and then all their friends give them rave reviews. Who do you think is screaming for her in the background. And no, this isn't Albanioan anything. I've seen Albanian versions of Raks, musicality, technique, control. Has all the hallmarks of good dance, this has none, but she gets a A for enthusiasm.
 
Ahava_Melantha

Ahava_Melantha

New member
yeah I didn't say she wasn't enthusiastic. she is. but she dances like a whirlwind. I have seen some pretty fast drum solos and they DON'T look like this.
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
She's energetic, perhaps a bit frenetic...
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Frenetic bordering on frantic. Enthusiasm aside, this is not skilled belly dance. I may be an enthusiastic fly fisherman but no thinking person is going to call all those lures lost in trees a mark of good fishermanship.;)
 
Aniseteph

Aniseteph

New member
I'm not saying it is, although I still say she has a shedload more musicality than a lot of belly dancers I've seen.

As far as we know she did not post the clip and is not making any claims that this is professional level style X, or anything. If this is a beauty pageant talent section IMO it's in the same category as student recital performances. Just because a YT idiot/ crazed fan says OMG best belly dancer evah why slate her?

I am not one of the Support Our Dance Sisterhood crew by any means; teachers and self-proclaimed pros posting their own footage are fair critical game IMO. Amateurs - not so much. I would be mortified if someone posted a clip of me on YT, doing my amateur thing with no claims to anything but enthusiastic craptasticality, and then I got selected for negative discussion on a dance forum because of what a YT commenter had said. Ouch.
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
I wasn't considering the commentary, just the performance itself. She thought it was good enough to get on stage with; I think she doesn't yet grasp the difference between fast movement and dancing.

I can't agree that contest talent shows are the equivalent of student recitials but then I'm from Texas where they take such things seriously and women train their whole lives to be Miss America. Beauty contest competitors usually have some intense training in something other than smiling and wearing evening gowns well: voice, dance, theater, instrumental music. I still recall a Miss Texas from the eighties playing a killer violin with music that ranged from Brahms' hungarian dances to The Orange Blossom Special. People damned near threw babies in the air when she was done.
 
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Aniseteph

Aniseteph

New member
Maybe a more advanced student recital, but still just party pieces, not people coming out as closet pros.

I don't feel that kind of dedication to beauty contests is the British way. ;) I could be entirely wrong though. They stopped putting the big ones on national TV years ago and unless you are personally involved they are off the radar pretty much.
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
For people who are involved in the contests it is an absorbing way of life- off the radar to most of us but absorbing to them, that is. My brother dated a so-called beauty queen back in college and the girl's conversation included two subjects: her contest aspirations and her talent. I think she was the one who told me about putting petroleum jelly on her teeth to keep her lips from sticking when she smiled and about using spray glue to stick her swimsuit to her bottom so it wouldn't ride up on the runway. She'd been involved in contests since she won Teeny Tiny Little Miss Fresno County at the age of ten months. I wonder what she's doing now at the age of 53?

That's not to say all contestants are bubbleheads- two of the smartest girls I knew in high school were consecutive winners of the California Junior Miss pageant and came out of it with killer schoalrships.
 
Aniseteph

Aniseteph

New member
Oooh look, in The Sauna!!! :dance: :dance: :dance:

OK I have just been in a student recital and have had a thought about what I was trying to say.

I don't mean that a beauty contest talent section is on a par with a student recital in terms of standards. Who knows? - Miss Nowheresville's talent section may not hold a candle to an auditioned student recital at a top BD studio, but prospective Miss Universes need to make a better stab at it than many student performances I've seen, or they will get laughed at.

I mean that I see it in the same way when it comes to discussion of individual performances. If a dancer isn't making any claims, isn't performing in a professional context, or teaching, or being part of a major competition where she ought to have a clue, then so what if she sucks?
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
We made the sauna? WOW. :)

I assume Miss Albania was in a major competition as far as beauty pageants go. :think:

Actually one can make an argument for sucky performances never mattering; it isn't a matter of life or death and one person's suck is another person's blow.

Ooo. That didn't come out quite right. Please mentally substitute the analogy of treasures and poison for sucking and blowing.
 
AndreaSTL

AndreaSTL

New member
Shanazel said:
Please mentally substitute the analogy of treasures and poison for sucking and blowing.
Click to expand...
Nope. It's not nearly as much fun.

Ahava_Melantha said:
why is it that horrible dances have such awesome youtube comments. but the dancers who ARE really good barely have any good comments.
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I don't read the YT comments for this reason. I don't know who these people are that are leaving them or their background, so what they say isn't relevant to me. If they all had a 20 year career as dancers or musicians I might feel differently, but I don't think most of them have the qualifications to make comments other than "Hot!" or "Pretty sexy girl!" any more than I can make quality judgments on the Highland Fling.
 
Jane

Jane

New member
I look at videos like this and think about the performers potential. She's young and enthusiastic, not afraid to get up on stage, and has the ability to move. With the right teacher and good guidance, she could go far if she chose to.

YouTube comments are useless. I don't post my dance videos to YouTube unless they are private.
 
Afrit

Afrit

New member
With a teacher to tell her bigger is not better and money for clothes that cover her bum she might get somewhere.
 
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