fatinah

When your watching a performer what captures you??

* People who are sooo 100% technically sound
* People who have passion even if not technically that amazing
* People whos personality and enthusiasm and humour shine through??

I love watching passionate people sometimes those that are amazing at technique are a bit boring as if they are concentrating dead hard

Aisha Azar

Dear Fatinah,
I like the dance to be very well rounded and what I refer to as "holistic", which means there is a balance of personal feeling, good technique, understanding of the music as a vehicle for expression, the right cultural or form content as stated in an introduction or clear for the purpose and meaning, costumes for the dance, etc. For example, do not call it "American Tribal" if you are doing it in a Burlesque costume to techno music. Do not call it "Egyptian belly dance" just because it has a couple of downward locks. Do not call it Turklish Rom just because you are swishing your skirt around to Turkish rhythms. A truly good dancer puts all elements of the dance into a balanced perspective. One who is just emoting on stage with no technical skill is having a personal moment on stage and not dancing. One who is all technique is doing an exersize program. One who has the cultural perspective but not the dance skill is not a dancer. If I costume belly dance in a gorilla suit, I am still not dancing as I am missing one of my important tools. If I belly dance to Mozart, I am missing the musical cultural element that is needed in order for what I am doing to BE belly dance.
Holistic dance means covering all the bases in order for the dance to be what it is supposed to be.
Regards,
A'isha

Caroline_afifi

I like a performance to be well balanced too.
I also need to see that the performer has their own personality and is not an imitator. I dont gravitate toward too much pizazz either.

Sofia

Very well said A'isha,

I see dance technique as a must. It enables a dancer to express feeling, personality, however if I notice it the dance looses it's soul.
Someone compared dancing with a language: A large vocabulary enables us to express things precisely - on the other hand just using complicated words with aim to impress people is rather bad style.

Moon

That's a very good comparison, Sophia.

Aisha Azar

Dear Sofia,
How very nicely said! And I agree. I have a large and complicated dance vocabulary, but that does not mean I have to throw every movement I know into every dance that I dance. In fact, that is often rather counter productive to the purpose of fully interpreting a piece of music. I am happy to know how to do so many things with this big toy I refer to as my body, but if movement does not help to truly manifest the music physically and emotionally, then what is the point?
Regards,
A'isha

janaki

I will agree with all of you. A good balance indeed.

Aisha. I love the term "holisitc" you used to describe. It is simply beautiful to describe a balanced dancer. I am putting this in my belly dancers dictionary.

Aisha Azar

Dear Janaki,
I am honored!! I think its a good word to describe the entire process of he dance without having to get too verbose.
Regards,
A'isha

Tikvah

I prefer well-rounded, "holistic" dancers too.....but if someone would ask me to either pick technique or personality/joy of dance, I'd pick the latter every time.

Salma Parvaneh

Hi!

I guess that -in my opinion- it is like falling in love with someone. You cannot explain why, so I cannot tell you exactely why someone captures me with her (his) dance.

Dina for example touches my soul somehow.

In many contests, I saw technical perfect ladies but I liked more the ones who were cheeky or sweet or funny anyway, although they were not perfekt.

As always: it is a matter of taste!

But nevertheless a good techniqe is very very important and a cute dancer is nothing without some basics...

KR
Salma