Aisha Azar

Dear Aniseteph,
It makes me very happy to hear that you are beginning to understand what it is that I am trying to say about the dance. This whole gothic thing has nothing whatsoever to do with the spirit of belly dance. Now.... if they called it something else, I might really see the value in some of it, but as belly dance, it is meaningless and without merit as far as I am concerned. In fact, ti is sort of the Anti-belly dance, no play Christian concepts intended; its just that the feeling in these dances is really just the opposite of what belly dance is really all about, and after more than 32 years of dancing, I would say I am qualified to talk about that. (My goodness, where is my BOB t-shirt when I need it!!!)
Regards,
A'isha

Marisha25

Here's a fun (and often exasperating as in "how can you call that belly dance")exercise that I tried recently - try typing belly dancing together with some unrelated word such as "ninja" or "vampire" into youtube and see what comes up. I actually found a performance that I liked. Although I was prepared to be super critical since the dancer emerged from a coffin with black bat like wings of Isis, her dance was surprisingly joyful and bouncy and pretty well done. I thought it was better than some of the performances from the Gothic Belly dance DVD.
Here is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wULlcqejGqs
I'm curious to know what do you think?

Moon

I think this is gothic bellydance? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBNk0nRXoko

Aisha Azar

Dear Marisha,
In looking at the performance with the bat wing thing, first, the cheery little dance movements she was doing had no correlation at all with the big bat wings, and in fact the feeling of the dance and the feeling of her costume did not compliment each other at all. After she removed the wings, I enjoyed her as I would any intermediate dancer, but the bat wing thing just did not do a thing for her dance. The dance concept and the costume concept were not complimentary.
As a costumer, I look at the purpose of a costume as an enhancement to the character. Her character was a nice, intermediate American Oriental style dancer. Her costume was Princess Vampire; not two ideas that blend well together. Because of this, it felt confusing to watch it.
Regards,
A'isha

Aniseteph

I liked her dancing (wish I was as good ) but for me too, as soon as she showed her costume the coffin vampire theme was lost and became redundant. She was more a butterfly coming out of a chrysalis for me!

And I kept worrying about her wings catching that low ceiling! :eek:

Sara

Perhaps she's a particularly happy flitty bat?

Thanks for the clips. I'm not entirely sure what to think still though. It's a bit of a blur.

__________________
With a little bit of this and a little bit of that, now shake your bum.... :P

Moon

As far as I know there are many different gothic styles, so maybe there are also many different gothic bellydance styles. I think it's not clearly defined so all gothic bellydancers use more or less their own imagination.

Michelle

I don't know... the whole coffin thing seemed ridiculous. And I have to agree with Aisha. When she got read of the bat wings, she was okay but together, the juxtaposition was unpleasant and made her dancing seem a little silly.
I don't know, perhaps there are dancers who can meld the two ideas together (goth + bellydance) but I don't really see how they can. Like it was mentioned, they are at odds with each other.
Marisha, ninja bellydance??? Did you get something for that? EEk. Don't even want to imagine that.

Marisha25

Thank you all for your comments! I had a similar reaction - I liked her dancing without the wings more than with the wings and she seemed too happy to be "goth". Thank you A'isha to pointing out how costume is at odds with the projected image...that just showed how important for both to match.
Michelle, I did in fact find something labeled as ninja bellydance…it was “scary” in terms of how bad it was but it’s even more scary as to how many “dances” will get a label “belly dance stuck” on them seemingly just to get attention. But getting back to gothic belly dance (or raks gothique, a more correct description I believe), it seems to me an extension of the tribal/fusion style with the main difference being the choice of costuming and makeup.
Marisha

Moon

Hey Ladies,

No comments on the video I posted? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBNk0nRXoko) Actually I kind of like it, although I agree it's not authentic bellydance.

By the way, A'isha, here's your BOB shirt :p

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