[QUOTE
As for that... well I have nothing agains "Westernized" dance, if the dancer posesses grace, technique and connects with music- fine by me, as long as she does not try to 'sell' it for 'Authentic' whatever[/quote]
It's Ok, people can do what they want to do, but unfortunately that is all you can get for lessons. Pop choreography. If I don't want to listen to it, I don't want to dance to it. But as I started this thread to point out, people don't get presented with enough of the real stuff to know what's what. Actually, I am getting nostalgic for real Western Oriental, real ATS, even real Rachel Brice, instead of teacher's own pick and mix.
the trouble is most classes are full of people who want to be told what to do,and are not being encuoraged to find out anything about the dance for themselves.
I used to think Rachel Brice was fantastic, based on what I knew then. I looked around some more, found out that what I was being taught as egyptian dance wasn't thwe end of the story, tried different workshops/classes/dvds.
My personal dance position is now that I aspire towards egyptian style, because I like the fluidity, and prefer to improvise. However, I am perfectly content that my dancing will retain western elements from my personality.
However, most of the people who started dancing with me have no idea of the range of styles. Some of them have chosen tribal with enthusiasm, and that would probably have been the right choice for them with more knowledge.
However, just as they don't know the charecteristics of the styles they have not adopted, they don't know where the elements of their teacher's style come from, and they do not do tribal style any favours. What I see seems to be getting further from BD as such.
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