Aisha Azar

Deae Nicknack,
You so badly want to think Shakira is a belly dancer, and maybe she herself wants very badly to see herself that way judging from the costuming.... but... she is WAY off the mark. That poor 11 year old Shakira was practically being sexually exploited in that costume with those jerky,awful movements.I really can't keep saying this, so this is the last time. Even when I look at her movements alone, they are eitHer way exaggerated or ineffectual because she does not understand that it takes the body to move the arms, or that posture must be dynamic and involved, or that there is a certain way in which the emotions connect to the music and the dance. She is not getting it if she thinks that's belly dance. A few movements do NOT make the dance. Movement is ONE element of all the others that are necessary in order for the dance to be what it is. Oh my god ,why is this so hard to grasp?????????????????????????????????
Regards,
A'isha

Shakira

Shakira is not a belly dancer, she's a singer, end of story

nicknack

I never said that I thought she was bellydancer just that those are the performances in which people (especially the Lebanese fans I know) perceive as bellydance, also that she wanted to dance in public long before she took any classes. I repeat I was just trying to give an example of why she's percieved as she is when it comes to dance. I wasn't really a fan of those performances, I thought it was more entertaining when she did the robot (now you've got to have a sense of humour for that). I'd also prefer to see her play the dumbeck, and drums more in performance.

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Cause I'm not here to let you down. But the costume makes the clown.

Bonnie

Hah hah Shakira's robot dance is hilarious!

sstacy123

is it just me or does this sound really ugly?

Kharmine

Shakira's stage routines revolve around her singing, not her dancing, and her moves are different according to what kind of song she's presenting -- and I've never seen her do a routine that was strictly one dance style.

She does salsa-like steps, some mambo, cha cha cha, etc. That doesn't make her a ballroom dancer because then she'd also have to demonstrate at some point that she could also do tango, the two-step, the foxtrot, waltz, etc.

And she's not strictly a Latin dancer either, because of the other styles she incorporates in the same routines, such as belly dance moves, which are not Latin style.

But I think the real point is that Shakira herself hasn't claimed to be any kind of Oriental dancer, nor to be doing any kind of Oriental dancing, per se. She'd probably say she was just dancing what she felt. (Although any claim that she just learned to do belly dance moves "naturally" is rather bogus as we all know how difficult isolations can be, and my teacher says she knows who her instructor was).

As Shakira doesn't restrict herself to being any one kind of dancer, then I don't think we should either. She's a good dancer, in general. She does some mighty fine belly dance isolations. Ain't that enough?

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What if the hokey pokey is really what it's all about?

Aisha Azar

Dear Kharmine,
Those same movements can be seen in variety of dance forms, from New York Jazz to West African dance. What specifically makes them "belly dance" isolations?
Regards,
A'isha

Kharmine

I don't know how to define "New York Jazz;" is that really any different from jazz dancing on stage in Boston, Los Angeles or Las Vegas? Because they all have in common some moves that developed out of African dancing -- specifically where in Africa can be hard to say because they were brought by black slaves who were shipped in from all over Africa.

I've seen about three different kinds of West African dances and their isolations seem less "isolated" than modern belly dance isolations often seem to me. I think there just tends to be a different emphasis.

So far as I can tell, different posture, stances, accompanying arm and foot movements, degree of emphasis on the isolations themselves, the musical rhythm, etc. are what gives those isolations a different feel and look from modern belly dance style.

However, if you break down some of the moves into just the basic isolation itself -- no specific posture, accompanying movements, etc. -- sure, you have the same move common to different dance forms.

The human body comes in basically the same structure (if normal), whatever's pleasing and useful has spread across borders for centuries, and there's lots of commonality of movement in the dance world because of that.

If we're talking about raqs sharqi, and similar styles that we call "belly dancing" today, then we are talking about a fusion of dance moves incorporated from older, more traditional dances from Northern and Northwestern Africa -- with some Westernized influence (veils, high heels, use of arms, orchestras and music, etc.)

But even this fusion has become a distinct ethnic style -- just as flamenco dance is a fusion of Arabic, Spanish, Rom, and maybe a little French influence, but is distinctly a Spanish dance form by itself. The costumes may have changed over centuries, the music evolves, but there is a very specific style that separates it from salsa or tango.

So when I say "belly dance isolations" I refer to what I see most often in modern belly dancing style, which is what some of Shakira's moves seem to me to imitate most closely (from what my teacher says, Shakira definitely has had belly dance training whether she admits it or not).

Maybe in Senegal they think Shakira is doing West African dance isolations, I dunno. That's not what it appears to me. I tend to identify with what I am most familiar with.

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What if the hokey pokey is really what it's all about?

Aisha Azar

Dear Kharmine,
I think that is what is happening here exactly. People are studying belly dance, so therefore, that knowledge of dance movement is being projected onto what Shakira does. If they were studying hula, or some other style that incorporated the movements that she would use,then they might see THAT form of dance in her movements instead. Without the cultural element, it is just plain movement, not specifically belly dance or otherwise.

Re New York Jazz: A gentleman named Leonard Fowler was the artist in residence at the university where I was a costume desigenr and shop supervisor for 7 years. Mr. Fowler taught a style specifically called New YorK Jazz. I do not know enough about jazz to really appreciate how it differentiates from other styles of jazz, but Leonard was a very respected man in his field, and I trusted him to know. In watching rehearsals, I would sometimes see some of the same movement families in jazz that I see in belly dance. Often Shakira moves WAY too hard for any belly dance styles, but just right for what I saw in his choregraphies now and again. I could say the same about Reginald Ray Savage's work. Occasionally he seems to use some of the same movement families, and in Alvin Ailey and in other sorts of dance. It is the other implications around movement that make dance what it is....
Regards,
A'isha

taheya

I dont think Shakira is a bellydancer, she is a singer. Those clips of Shakira trying to dance are awful, forced and unnatural looking. I thinks she is a bad dancer whatever style she is trying to do!!