Gothic Belly dance

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Sara

New member
Heyas,

I came across this clip, and was wondering if this is gothic belly dance? :confused: I don't actually know what Gothic Belly dance is to be honest.

I used to think Rachel Brices vesion was a bit gothic, but someone said to me it was Tribal Fusion with industrial music. If any body can explain to me what gothic belly dance is that would be nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BPKfCrv-ko&eurl=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvcGKFiO-xs&mode=related&search=

I think I like the second better though. :)
 
Aisha Azar

Aisha Azar

New member
Gothic what??

Dear Sara,
I would like to know what would make anyone think that either one of those videos had anything to do with belly dance. The first one looked like an erotic submission film short and the second one looked like there was some actual dance going on there, but certainly not belly dance.
Regards,
A'isha
 
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Sara

New member
Thats what I thought about the first. I didn't like it much. I don't really understand gothic belly dance to be honest, that's why I'm so curious.
 
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Sara

New member
Oh thanks! :D That looks like just the thing.

gfjhkltgirkdhnv fl

(That was my beautiful baby waby saying thank you too, she's called Tabitha. She's the most adorable puddy tat in the world. She's even stands all over my keyboard to try and say thankyou.)

The Gothic Belly Dancer part actress, part vamp, part gypsy, part rebel, part sorceress, and part priestess---and all focused on a known or perhaps unknown (occult) intent.
Click to expand...

I don't understand that bit on the website. What have Romany people got to do with Gothic Belly dance? I can only think of Turkish Rom dancing really. Do they mean the fantasy gypsy?
 
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Moon

Moon

New member
I don't know. The whole sentence sounds weird to me. Maybe they mean romany inspired costumes or some fantasy stuff inspired on exciting gypsy stories?

By the way, tell Tabitha it was no problem looking it up. I don't know how to say in her language? ;);)
 
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Sara

New member
:) I'm guessing it would be meow? Lol- but she's cleaning her ears in approval. She's such a Baby

But yea- I guess they mean the costuming. I don't really understand the sentacne neither. It seems pretty fantasy kind of stuff.

I know I dukker (fortune telling) from me Gram, and stuff like that, maybe they could mean they're inspiried by that aspect of the stereotypical Romany kind of thing. Ehy deary me, I don't know. :)
 
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Aniseteph

Aniseteph

New member
Moon said:
http://www.meddevi.com/gothicbellydance/main.html .
Click to expand...

OMG they've got "my" avatar on their homepage! :eek: That picture is so NOT a gothic bellydancer (not a bellydancer at all actually...)

Thanks for your comments, A'isha - I am trying to understand what you mean when you talk about what is and isn't bellydance. I think I am starting to understand in a small way (through spending FAR TOO MUCH TIME on this forum and youtube :rolleyes: ). A few bellydance moves just isn't what I'd call bellydance now either, and the spirit behind it is something completely different.

As for the gothic belly dancer definition, sounds like just fantasy and creating a nice (ha ha not a goth word) exotic image for yourself. Nothing wrong with that except you might offend/upset/confuse anyone who has any "ownership" of the terms you are using. Doesn't seem to have much to do with real gypsies today, and maybe not much to do with real sorceresses (not having met one I wouldn't know).

Not that I've anything against fantasies... that ain't me in the avatar (sigh...:( ).
Yrs stepping Away from the black eyeliner,
A xxx
 
Aisha Azar

Aisha Azar

New member
Goth

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

Marisha25

New member
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?
 
Aisha Azar

Aisha Azar

New member
Goth

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

Aniseteph

New member
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:
 
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Sara

New member
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.
 
Moon

Moon

New member
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.
 
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Michelle

New member
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.
 
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Marisha25

Marisha25

New member
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
 
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