Aziyade

YouTube - Belly dancer Ruric-Amari dances to Ut Gret piano solo

Okay, I know the girl who is the dancer and she's a lovely dancer and a nice person. I also know her mother, who actually posted this clip on Tribe.net asking why American bellydance couldn't separate itself from Middle Eastern music. (????)

I don't consider this to be bellydance. I consider it to be SITA+ some hip work, and a lot of interpretive dance. I said so on tribe, and await the wrath:

Throughout all these little internet communities, we've been discussing just what is it that defines bellydance, or Middle Eastern dance.

You really can't define the dance by the individual movements, because they're shared by many other dance forms.
- When does club dancing (as it's done now) cross the line and become bellydancing? Cause I went to a club a few weeks ago and saw what looked a whole lot like bellydance.
- I was watching the East Coast Tribal DVD and thinking, "when does breakdance cross the line and become bellydance" ?

It has to be more than just movement. For me, it's the music and the dancer's emotional response to the music. That techno thing I did for the MEDSOK show -- as far as I'm concerned that really wasn't what I would term "bellydancing" in my strictest definition, and it certainly didn't give ME the same feeling (as the dancer) as I've had when dancing to real Arabic music. I kinda felt like I was doing an exercise routine, more than dancing. (But it was my choreography, so there's no one else to blame.)

I don't know, Maura. I don't really want to go to a "Bellydance" show and see more performances like the one I gave, but I recognize that dancers want to branch out. I think the kind of dance that Ruric did in this clip would have been, 15 years ago, simply considered "interpretive dance." I don't really see why it (not this dance in particular, but dances that want to expand the borders of "bellydance") has to be marketed as "bellydance" -- and why we feel the need to PUSH this "bellydance" thing in the restaurant environment? I'd really MUCH rather see something like this on a proper stage. But that's a different issue altogether...

Trying to be politic. She's a lovely dancer, but utterly lacks a "middle eastern" quality. I don't think that's BAD in a dancer, but in a bellydancer I think it's necessary. But again, it's a matter of semantics.

I've come out on a couple of places and been flamed for insisting that bellydance have SOME element of the MIiddle eastern essence to it. I just want to see what I was promised in the name. Now where's the smiley for beating one's head against a wall?