When a gimmick is annoying - Page 2

Moon · 01-18-2007, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maariku

Maybe the singing would make more sense if you would understand the lyrics... I mean, maybe she just wants to emphasise a bit in a song every now and then? Maybe there are some key phrases that express the character of the song and that she wants to channel on to the audience? In a way I see it as doing the facial expressions.

I would agree with that, however, this dancer was singing all the time, so I guess you can't call that emphesising a bit in every song

Fatima · 01-18-2007, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maariku

Maybe the singing would make more sense if you would understand the lyrics... I mean, maybe she just wants to emphasise a bit in a song every now and then? Maybe there are some key phrases that express the character of the song and that she wants to channel on to the audience? In a way I see it as doing the facial expressions.

I can understand that a dancer wants to emphasize part of a song. I've seen it doing it with the face, the whole head, the hands and even with lipsyncing. Our theacher tells us to do it when its aproppiate. But I don't think she was emphasizing, she was lipsyncing three whole songs. Not only that, she danced one of the songs in a duet, which means she was "singing" while the other dancer was not. I thought that was rude (that was the number that actually annoyed me), because it gave me the impression she was expressing: "Look at me! I'm so cool that I can sing in Arabic while she can't. Don't pay attention to her." It gave me the impression that she wanted to outshine everybody that night, even her dance partner.

BellydanceFTW · 01-19-2007, 12:36 AM

Aisha Azar · 01-19-2007, 03:39 PM

Dear Group,
It is quite common for Egyptian dancers to sing along with part of the song that deeply affects them, or som,etimes they even sing a whole song, though usually not while dancing. They take the michrophone and maybe do a sing and respond thing with the singer, or sometimes even sing their own song.

I used to open my shows in the clubs with singing a few bars of the first song in order to stop the Arab guys from talking trash at me while I was dancing.
(This was and probably still is a common and nasty little pastitme in the clubs among the young Arab guys.) They did not know whether or not I could speak Arabic then, and it cut down on that kind of silliness. I did not consider it a "gimmick"; I considered it a survival technique!
Usually gimmicks do annoy me, especially if they are boring or not belly dance oriented. My idea of gimmicks, unfortunately for me, is based more on using props in inappropriate ways. There is a WHOLE bunch of that kind of gimmick out there today.

Regards,
A'isha

Shanazel · 01-19-2007, 04:25 PM

Gimmicks that annoy me mildly ( I am really too lazy to get real worked up over anything) might be called "boobs on a string" or "the basketball hip." This is where the dancers pretends to raise and lower her chest via an invisible string, or to push her hip down and up with the flat of her hand, like she's bouncing a ball. What bugs me about it is that it is such a cliche- ho hum, think of something new.

(Oh, gosh, I have such a trivial mind- I just got a mental picture of a dancer doing a chest lift that doesn't stop it's upward movement. In desperation, she puts both hands on her breasts, trying to stop their helium balloon-like rise... if it was a horror movie, she'd eventually be smothered with her own cleavage.)

Suhad · 01-19-2007, 06:52 PM

Thanks to the multitude of translations out there, I do know the words to several songs that I dance to, and I do tend to sing along with them without realizing it simply because I like them and know them very well...now I'm going to have to really watch myself!

My husband does also even though he has no interest in learning Arabic...he's heard them at least half as often as I have for some of them

Jeff got me the Rosetta Stone software for Arabic, so I can really learn it and not have to depend on the goodwill of others to translate

Venefica · 01-19-2007, 07:52 PM

I think it might be pretty if the dancer can sing, but if she cant sing and sont have a good voice it do not work. Also singing while doing vigorous activity is not that easy, the dancer realy must be in good shape to pull that off good, so perhaps the person in question do it as a kind of showoff?

da Sage · 01-20-2007, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shanazel

Gimmicks that annoy me mildly ( I am really too lazy to get real worked up over anything) might be called "boobs on a string" or "the basketball hip." This is where the dancers pretends to raise and lower her chest via an invisible string, or to push her hip down and up with the flat of her hand, like she's bouncing a ball. What bugs me about it is that it is such a cliche- ho hum, think of something new.

I had never seen those except on youtube, and I think they are really cute!

But maybe they're frowned upon locally, since I've never seen them done in live performance.

01-19-2007, 12:36 AM	#13 (permalink)
BellydanceFTW Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Florida, USA Posts: 15	... Last edited by BellydanceFTW; 01-20-2007 at 10:34 AM.

01-19-2007, 03:39 PM	#14 (permalink)
Aisha Azar V.I.P. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Pacific Northwest USA Posts: 4,462	Gimmick Dear Group, It is quite common for Egyptian dancers to sing along with part of the song that deeply affects them, or som,etimes they even sing a whole song, though usually not while dancing. They take the michrophone and maybe do a sing and respond thing with the singer, or sometimes even sing their own song. I used to open my shows in the clubs with singing a few bars of the first song in order to stop the Arab guys from talking trash at me while I was dancing. (This was and probably still is a common and nasty little pastitme in the clubs among the young Arab guys.) They did not know whether or not I could speak Arabic then, and it cut down on that kind of silliness. I did not consider it a "gimmick"; I considered it a survival technique! Usually gimmicks do annoy me, especially if they are boring or not belly dance oriented. My idea of gimmicks, unfortunately for me, is based more on using props in inappropriate ways. There is a WHOLE bunch of that kind of gimmick out there today. Regards, A'isha

01-19-2007, 07:52 PM	#17 (permalink)
Venefica Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Bergen, Norway Posts: 673	I think it might be pretty if the dancer can sing, but if she cant sing and sont have a good voice it do not work. Also singing while doing vigorous activity is not that easy, the dancer realy must be in good shape to pull that off good, so perhaps the person in question do it as a kind of showoff? __________________ Ash Begets Chaos. Chaos Begets Primordial Life--Haunting Grounds.

01-19-2007, 04:25 PM	#15 (permalink)
Shanazel Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Rocky Mountains USA Posts: 4,563	Gimmicks that annoy me mildly ( I am really too lazy to get real worked up over anything) might be called "boobs on a string" or "the basketball hip." This is where the dancers pretends to raise and lower her chest via an invisible string, or to push her hip down and up with the flat of her hand, like she's bouncing a ball. What bugs me about it is that it is such a cliche- ho hum, think of something new. (Oh, gosh, I have such a trivial mind- I just got a mental picture of a dancer doing a chest lift that doesn't stop it's upward movement. In desperation, she puts both hands on her breasts, trying to stop their helium balloon-like rise... if it was a horror movie, she'd eventually be smothered with her own cleavage.)

01-19-2007, 06:52 PM	#16 (permalink)
Suhad Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 322	Thanks to the multitude of translations out there, I do know the words to several songs that I dance to, and I do tend to sing along with them without realizing it simply because I like them and know them very well...now I'm going to have to really watch myself! My husband does also even though he has no interest in learning Arabic...he's heard them at least half as often as I have for some of them Jeff got me the Rosetta Stone software for Arabic, so I can really learn it and not have to depend on the goodwill of others to translate