Dancing with a short body

[Donia Yona]

Hello,
I like to belly dance as a hobby but I feel I don't deserve to dance cause I'm not tall I mean I look like a little girl. Can't feel feminine while dancing because of my height
I'm 153 cm and have a skinny body
How can I beat this assumption?
Thanks

 

[Shanazel]

Welcome to OD, Donia.

Don't go hurting your own feelings, honey. It's attitude and skill that makes the dancer, not size. If you are tall enough that your feet reach the ground, then you're plenty tall enough to dance. Another member of OD who, alas, doesn't visit often any more, is considerably smaller than you are and she is a dream of a dancer.

 

[Zorba]

One of my teachers that I studied with for about 15 years was a member of the "four foot-nine club". An incredible dancer! Another teacher I studied with for a number of years was taller than I am, at 6 foot-2. Also an excellent dancer. I've seen and/or studied under dancers of all sizes and shapes - good dancing is good dancing. Different sizes/shapes give different qualities to an individual's dancing, but they're all beautiful.

 

[Greek Bonfire]

Some of the all time greats were five feet and under. And as Shanazel said, it's the attitude and passion (in addition to skill) that makes a dancer great. There is too much talk about body types in general, and don't believe the naysayers that being diminutive is a disadvantage because it's not.

 

[Tourbeau]

If you look at the average heights for countries where these dances originate, it might give you some perspective on how tall you "have to be" to belly dance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_human_height_by_country

You wouldn't be unusually short over there, so you shouldn't feel like these dances are only for statuesque giants elsewhere.

If you are self conscious, you can dance most MED styles in heels. Shoes specifically designed for dancing (what ballroom dancers wear) are better than just any old dress shoes. Petite dancers who do a lot of paid performing often wear heels to increase their visibility when dancing through crowds.

Petite dancers need to be careful not to wear costumes that overwhelm them. Since you said you "look like a little girl," I'd personally suggest you choose costumes that are toward the streamlined and elegant end of the spectrum with light or bright colors, and avoid the more quirky looks (jagged-hem mini skirts, lots of poofs and ruffles, etc.) and dark costumes that optically shrink you, but it would depend on the individual outfit and the fit. I'm sure there are examples of any style that would flatter you and examples that wouldn't. You just don't want a situation where it looks like the costume is wearing you, instead of the other way around.

You didn't mention whether you dance in a troupe or as a soloist. If there is no one next to you on stage, there's no one to directly compare you to. If part of your concern is how small you look compared to your troupemates, maybe consider dancing solo?

 

[Zorba]

If part of your concern is how small you look compared to your troupemates, maybe consider dancing solo?

A good troupe leader will arrange as best possible. In my case, I still feel like Mt. Everest next to most of my dance sisters!

 

[Tourbeau]

A good troupe leader will arrange as best possible. In my case, I still feel like Mt. Everest next to most of my dance sisters!

I can see the logic of putting tall dancers in the back and short ones in the front, but it is also inherently unfair to assign audience visibility and opportunity to build performing skills by metrics that a student has no control over, like height.

Whether you yearn to be a front-row superstar or not, dancing directly at the audience is a slightly different experience than dancing in the row behind someone else. I was watching a video of a local troupe recently, and one of the front-row dancers was short...but also painfully underrehearsed, and she spent half of the song looking sideways to watch the other dancers. She might have been less viewable in the back row, but her lack of rehearsing would have been less conspicuous if she could have cued off of someone in front of her instead of to the side.

It's fairer--and more visually interesting--to move dancers around the stage, rather than assign permanent stage spots. Especially in informal shows, every student should have the opportunity to rotate to the front, dance without the safety net of someone in front of them, and be more than a dark upstage blur on the hafla video. 99% of us are not professional dancers performing at the level of BDSS, in theatrical venues with audiences who are paying for stunning visual compositions anyway, so moving the shorter dancers to the back for a few bars doesn't ruin the show.

 

[Zorba]

"Talls to the wall, runts to the front!"

I don't mind being in the back because I'm big - compared to many/most of my dance sisters, I'm HUGE! No way I'm hiding in the first place, and I don't like blocking my more diminutive dance sisters. OTOH, I don't mind being in front *IF* I know the choreography well enough to be there. I have always had problems learning choreographies, it takes me 1.2 forevers, so leave me in the back until I have it down pat. Our latest choreo has us rotate, we're currently only 3 dancers, so we start with an inverted triangle with me in center back, then later rotate to a triangle with me center front and the "runts" flanking me upstage. But I know the choreo, so its OK.

 

[Shanazel]

Height can be distributed in a single row to form a progression of heights that mitigates differences to some degree. If more than a single row is needed, I generally arranged dancers with the better rehearsed individuals in more prominent positions regardless of size. If a person fails to rehearse, he or she hasn't earned a place in the front; learning that is part of learning to perform in public. That being said, I also arranged at least one dance per show where front and back lines switched places or each dancer had a short solo- nothing like getting stuck in the spotlight all by oneself to make one decide to practice!

 

[Greek Bonfire]

There are a lot of successful dancers in the west who barely make five feet tall!

 

[Tourbeau]

I don't mind being in the back because I'm big - compared to many/most of my dance sisters, I'm HUGE!

I don't mind being in the back because I am usually one of the taller dancers (not as tall as you, though). I was dancing for years before I realized that always being in the back row is problematic, because it's so easy to forget you've got the crutch of someone in front of you to watch.

I get the idea, but come on, teachers! Even if you want short in the front/tall in the back with everybody staying in static positions on stage because it's a beginner choreography, you could still change that up in rehearsals and rearrange the lines in that setting. Varying the way you rehearse is better for students' mastery of the routine anyway.

If more than a single row is needed, I generally arranged dancers with the better rehearsed individuals in more prominent positions regardless of size. If a person fails to rehearse, he or she hasn't earned a place in the front; learning that is part of learning to perform in public.

Then what do you do with the students who...(cover your eyes, folks--I'm about to write That Which Cannot Be Acknowledged)...aren't very good dancers? Some students really try, but no matter how much they're drilled, they just can't. Do you relegate them to the back row forever? Choose which low-stakes venues they can get a front-row slot? Hope they have the awareness to volunteer to always be in the back? Let them stew with the perception that you like everybody else better than them?

Oh, the politics of it all! On one hand, you've got the Egalitarian Sisterhood, where every dancer is beautiful and special and welcome, no matter how good, bad, or ugly they are, and on the other hand, there's the "Suck it Up, Buttercup" Gang, who want to make decisions on aesthetics under the rationale of professionalism, despite sometimes being obliviously hampered by their own delusions of grandeur.

Yes, now that you mention it, I would like to confess that I'm still sore about my first troupe. They insisted I had to dance in the back, not because I was tall, but because I wear glasses and that would have "ruined" how hard everyone else worked to get ready for the show...which would have been one thing if I had been trying to get cast in a summer-stock production of "Oklahoma!" starting the guy who played Potsy on "Happy Days," instead of an amateur belly dance troupe that was a jumble of ages, experience, and body types in mismatched costumes getting ready for a hafla for other dancers, but I digress.......

There is a legitimate balancing act here, between the visual impacts of various staging choices, between dancers who "belong" in the front and dancers who "deserve a chance to perform, too," between students with aptitude and students who are paying for a full learning experience, even if they can't take complete advantage of it, and between dancers who want to elevate the public perception of belly dance as an art form and dancers who want to accept we're never going to be an elevated art form, so why drive students away with subjective, exclusionary policies?

But a pox on teachers who put themselves front and center and have their students dance behind them like Gladys Knight's Pips. If you want to do a solo, do a solo. It's your job to prepare your students to perform competently without you, so don't trot out that excuse, especially when you know all eyes will gravitate toward you as the best dancer and the person everybody knows is the teacher.

Eh, enough complaining about this. Let's hit YouTube.

Feel free to triangulate this data: If Michael Medwin is about three inches taller than Mickey Rooney sitting down and about five inches taller than Nadia Gamal when she's wearing a modest heel, and Mickey Rooney was allegedly 5'2", how short was Nadia Gamal?

Nadia Gamal dancing in the movie 24hours to kill

Didn't Bhuzzer SatinWorship buy one if Nadia's costumes? Not this one, though.

Orlando Belly Dancer Carrara Nour - Bella Collina Wedding Promo

Most of you probably don't know Conchi, but she was a major event sponsor in the US Rust Belt dance community for many years, and she used to promote herself as a "LITTLE PACKAGE OF DYNAMITE!"

Conchi bellydancing with zills

Who else we got?

 

[Zorba]

"LIttle Package of Dynamite"? That would be Karri Duke who actually didn't pick the moniker, it was bestowed upon her.

"Runts to the front" - my current teacher is short, but still wants to hide in the back!

 

[Tourbeau]

"LIttle Package of Dynamite"? That would be Karri Duke who actually didn't pick the moniker, it was bestowed upon her.

I have no idea how Conchi got the nickname or when. It's possible she had it first or had it bestowed upon her by someone independently of Karri. It's not terribly unique. Google shows it as a nickname for Viagra, lots of babies and grandchildren, Truman Capote, a couple of sex workers, former Ole Miss running back Dexter McCluster, a Labradoodle named Ripple, comedian and Micro Wrestler Wendi Furguson, and that's just the first couple of pages of search results.

 

[Shanazel]

Then what do you do with the students who...(cover your eyes, folks--I'm about to write That Which Cannot Be Acknowledged)...aren't very good dancers? Some students really try, but no matter how much they're drilled, they just can't. Do you relegate them to the back row forever? Choose which low-stakes venues they can get a front-row slot? Hope they have the awareness to volunteer to always be in the back? Let them stew with the perception that you like everybody else better than them?

You must've missed the part where I wrote "That being said, I also arranged at least one dance per show where front and back lines switched places or each dancer had a short solo..."

 

[Greek Bonfire]

I know Carrara Nour, and yes, she did buy a costume that was originally owned by Nadia Gamal. She is also a professional dancer in the Orlando area who gets gigs on a regular basis, and her height doesn't seem to interfere. She's also a terrific dancer, she's beautiful and full of confidence, never mind she's not even five feet tall.

 

[Zorba]

I know Carrara Nour, and yes, she did buy a costume that was originally owned by Nadia Gamal. She is also a professional dancer in the Orlando area who gets gigs on a regular basis, and her height doesn't seem to interfere. She's also a terrific dancer, she's beautiful and full of confidence, never mind she's not even five feet tall.

Nadia was very diminutive herself so I can see that. I actually own both of Nadia's dance canes, which are technically too short for me but I adapt.

 

[Shanazel]

Donia? You still out there? Have we convinced you that petite is perfect?

 

[Donia Yona]

Yes, I discovered that this assumption was a part of my negative body issue
I have arms, legs and a small waist and on top of that I'm Egyptian
I don't have to compare myself to every other girl or dancer and say *oh, she's a great dancer because she is tall or has large breasts*
I want to dance to express my feelings, cheer up my self and such a hobby to feel femininity during my day
I'm so grateful that I discovered this community

 

[Shanazel]

I'm glad you are here at last, Donia. Do you live in Egypt? One of my dear friends in high school was from Cairo.

 

[Donia Yona]

Yeah, I live in Cairo