I don't know about the Turkish music, but as about the Greek Tsifteteli music, theoretically there are no rules about what style of belly dance you should dance with it. It just has to harmonize with the music. Practically though, it is safer for a non-Greek to dance Oriental dance rather with new, modern Tsifteteli songs, which are very similar with the Arabian Pop Baladi songs. If you can dance with Pop Baladi (modern Arabian songs), you can also dance the same stuff with modern Tsifteteli. It is better not to dance Oriental with the old Tsifteteli songs, if you haven't dealt explicitly with them, because they are lot more "Greek" than the new Tsifteteli songs and maybe what you would dance with such a song would look strange to a Greek. For Greeks it is different, since they grow up with this music, they have the right feeling for it, so they are more free to dance something different than the traditional Tsifteteli folk dance also with the old songs. I dance sometimes my Greek-Arabian fusion (Tsifteteli Oriental, which I mainly dance with modern T-songs) also with old songs, as long as it suits the music.
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Oriental dancer and instructor of Greek origin, living in Germany
www.chryssanthi.com
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