Farasha Hanem
New member
I recently found a new Hakim song that I love ("Madad" from his album, "Leyla"), but right off the reel, I suspected that it was a religious song, since the word "Allah" is repeated frequently. I finally got around to doing a bit of research, and sure enough, I found a YouTube video with both Arabic and English lyrics subbed in. After confirming my suspicions, I was closing out YouTube when I ran into the following public video of a dancer practicing to Madad. I rather suspect that she doesn't have any idea that it's a religious song, but so far (thank her lucky stars), she hasn't had any backlash from it. I did leave her a polite comment letting her know that she was dancing to a religious song (looking back, I should have softened my comment by telling her that her dancing is lovely). Was I right in telling her, before someone blasts her with negative comments? Does what I did fall under constructive criticism and education? [video=youtube_share;Y_QQEO7AQOE]https://youtu.be/Y_QQEO7AQOE[/video]
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I only want to save her from a barrage of comments blasting her use of religious music for a public bellydance practice video. Several years ago, a small troupe posted a video of their performance in a bellydance competition. The main music they used was Hakim and Cleopatra's "Walk Like An Egyptian." It was cute and fun (and if I remember right, they won 3rd place), but the intro music they opened up with was a religious chant used in the Islamic call to prayer. They didn't know it when they came up with their choreo, and when they posted it to YouTube, they kept receiving angry comments from many Islamic YouTubers. I can understand their being upset; as a Christian, I wouldn't want someone to do a secular dance to something like "Rock Of Ages," or "The Old Rugged Cross." The troupe that posted the video apologized profusely, and removed the intro music from further performances, but didn't take the original video down, and last I saw, they continued to receive hate-filled comments. If a dancer has made the mistake of posting a dance video using either religious or politically-themed music, what should the dancer do? What advise can other dancers give without discouraging said dancer?