What's Your Favorite Style and Why?

[Amulya]

I can't pinpoint just one style, so there are several, I like cabaret styles, from classic to modern and all forms in between. Modern Egyptian is a favorite right now and Am cab still is as well.
I admire The Indigo dancers a lot, I really like what they are doing now. Not their older style but what they have been doing in the last 5 or so years. I wish I could dance like that but I seem too stuck in cabaret style to make that leap completely.
(My own dancing style would float around in between classic Egyptian, modern Egyptian and some tribal fusion thrown in ATM I think :think:, I never wanted to completely conform to one style only, my first teacher was already a mix of classic Egyptian and Turkish so I guess that rubbed off on me)

Any styles you like less? I'm going to make myself totally unpopular here by being honest, but folkloric styles have never been very appealing to me. Can be fun to watch every now and then, but not often. Maybe it's too repetitive to me? Maybe not 'intricate enough' compared to cabaret styles? Not sure. I do like some of the music though. Saidi I music is very danceable for example!

 

[Darshiva]

I'm a big fan of improv - style doesn't do it for me as much as improv vs choreo. I can do choreo, I just don't like to.

So yeah, I'd dance the wahooti fandango if it meant I could just faff away an afternoon.

 

[Amulya]

Improv is my favorite too, but I meant more what type of style as in Egyptian, Turkish etc.

 

[Darshiva]

I knew what you meant, but I can't choose!

 

[Amulya]

It is really hard to choose indeed! Some dancers choose one style and stick with that their whole life, I can't imagine doing that! I would always be tempted to try other styles as well. Maybe they do, but they perform and teach always the same style. I like change

 

[Yame]

My absolute favorite is Egyptian style. I love modern Egyptian style, and I love classical Egyptian styles as well. Actually not even so much classical as in Golden Era as post-classical, pre-modern styles (Tahia Carioca, Samia Gamal, etc... I enjoy them but not quite as much as I enjoy Soheir Zaki, Fifi Abdo, and Mona Said). But for me the perfect style is a balance of both. The internal, small yet heavy hipwork of modern Egyptian, the weight shifts and some of the complexity of it but not too much... without the over-reliance on choreography you see these days.

This could be within just one song or within the span of a performance or a few performances. Meaning, if I'm just seeing the dancer perform one song, I'd rather see a balance of both within that one song. But if I'm seeing the dancer perform to multiple songs, or if I get to see them dance many times, I don't mind a super crazy magency full of complex moves and weight shifts and no settling into one place to really experience the tarab, if for example the following song is a beledi where the dancer will get to settle into herself, calm down, and really feel the music from the heart.

Since dancers tend to be one or the other, I balance things out for myself by watching different dancers with different styles, dancing to different types of music. My favorite modern Egyptian style dancers are Aziza of Cairo, Randa Kamel, Dina, Camelia, Sofia, Soraia Zaied (She's Brazilian but been in Egypt long enough to be considered an honorary Egyptian. She puts a lot of Brazilian flavor in that dancing, but that flavor aside, I do find her dancing very Egyptian at its core), Mohamed Shahin, and Tito. I also love Ranya Renee, who is American but her style is very Egyptian, she is very versatile and capable of switching from modern Egyptian to more classical Egyptian to baladi...

After Egyptian, my favorite style is Egyptian-influenced Russian (or Eastern European) style. I can't get really into the competition Russians trying to throw in every move they know into a 3-minute performance, but once those very same Russian dancers get out of the competition circuit, many of them go on to very seriously study Egyptian style and don't have to worry so much about impressing their audience with "tricks" so their dance becomes more authentic. What I really like about it is that they retain the beautiful, very extended lines, flexible backs, and crazy crazy spins that you won't necessarily see from actual Egyptian dancers, but are still able to get that "baladi-ness" from their core. Obviously not every one of them can accomplish them but I think for example Aida Bogomolova, Daria Mitskevich, and others do a very good job of it.

I also really like Brazilian Khan el Khalili style, most notably Kahina, Ju Marconato, and Nur. But I prefer it when they don't get too out of touch with the Middle Eastern roots of belly dance.

AND I like Argentinian style a lot too, but I need to take it in in small doses. I love watching Saida, but I like to follow her videos up with something more baladi to balance things out.

Okay so there are a lot of styles I really like... I can't keep listing them all!

What I don't like so much... well, I don't really like Turkish style. I actually like to watch it, though I don't go out of my way to seek it. Julia from NYC does a kickass Turkish Romani that I was really impressed by. Turkish Rom is really awesome. Turkish style belly dance can be very beautiful if done well, and it's especially nice in the middle of a show where everyone is doing Egyptian magencies because it's so different. I like to watch it, but I guess since the music doesn't move *me* enough to make me want to try it, I've never been able to really *get* the movements and the essence of anything Turkish.

 

[Amulya]

Thanks for the detailed description! You put the feel of the subtle differences into words very well. I always find it so hard to find words for those.
I like Russian dancers too, not the competitions, they are indeed a bit too much, but when dancers are not in competitions it's very different indeed. I haven't heard of those South American names yet, have to look those up

What do you mean by 'weight shifts'?

 

[Zanbaka]

It depends on the day of the week! Above all else, music really dictates my love of a dance piece. If a dancer has that perfect balance of technique, artistry, individuality, feeling, and expresses the music with a collection of movements that work well for that piece of music, then I'm ecstatic.

 

[Kashmir]

It has to be Egyptian - especially with a touch of beledi (rather than classical). My favourite dancer is Fifi. I also like Camelia. Earthy, grounded, expressing a love of the music. Usually improvised - although I do occassionally do choreography from someone like Momo or DEnise Enan or Lubna.

I also do folk. Sad that people find it sterile and repetitive. That style of folk often works well with a group - but you can also do folk with soul. But you need to really know the style - rather than take one two-hour workshop and "adapt" what you have learnt into a self indulgent mish-mash {rant over]

What I don't like? Over busy dancing with emphasis on how much can be done - or how hard it can be. Overuse of props. Dance! Props should add to the performance it shouldn't be all about the props. Worse weird props like poi and voi and fire and wings. It isn't kapa haka, circus or burlesque - it is belly dance.

 

[Darshiva]

Hah, wings! I love wings! And I agree - far too often it's all about 'watch my amazingly huge prop dance for me'. I like wings as a frame and an accent, something to help display awesome bellydance technique, but so often they are used as a way to cover for the fact that a dancer really doesn't know how to dance to their chosen music.

My biggest personal annoyance is last year when I was performing with wings at an event and I had a major costume malfunction that prevented me from doing any sharp movements or any hip movements at all, so I was announced as the dancer who actually dances under her wings (and I'm known for doing this in Melbourne, where I was performing) and I ended up resorting to letting the wings dance for me.

Fortunately a week later I had the opportunity to dance again, so I fixed up the costume and went & performed the song as I always do - with wings as an accent for drama and a frame for my moves. They've been promising me a video of it for nearly a year now.

 

[Yame]

Just to offer up a different viewpoint... I really dislike seeing wings as "frames" or "accents." Same for veil or any other fabric prop. To me, all fabric props can be great as entrance pieces because they are a great way to enter dramatically and grab attention.

I don't personally like to see full pieces of wings or fan veils or veils where the dancer is spinning and traveling around the whole time and there's no actual belly dancing, but that's why I use them as entrance pieces only and drop them once the entrance part of the song is over so I can actually belly dance.

I don't see the need for a veil, or wings, or whatever to frame one's dance. If I'm going to be belly dancing, I don't need a big ol' pair of wings around me to "frame" my hip moves. I think it looks really out of place when the dancer just stands there holding her wings or her veils or whatever and doing some hip isolations. The fabric is there to be moved, if you aren't going to move it why have it in the first place?

 

[Darshiva]

That's interesting, I don't recall saying anything about the wings being stationary.

If you want a lovely example of what I'm talking about with regard to dancing with wings, watch some of Elen's videos (she has at least one of the wings ones in her costume thread) - she does what I do - uses wings to frame and accent excellent* dancing.

What I'm talking about is the moderation between "OMG HAVE PROP MUST WAVE IT ABOUT IN CASE U ALL FORGET!!!" and "What prop? I see no prop, only be dancing and ... oh wait, THIS? No, it's just part of my costume". Obviously there will be people who prefer one extreme or the other, but personally, I prefer performance that shows skill with dancing and the prop - and to me that means restraint and moderation in useage during performance.



*YMMV - I happen to enjoy Elen's performances. Mine may be excellent to some viewers but to my mind still require more work.

 

[Amulya]

It has to be Egyptian - especially with a touch of beledi (rather than classical). My favourite dancer is Fifi. I also like Camelia. Earthy, grounded, expressing a love of the music. Usually improvised - although I do occassionally do choreography from someone like Momo or DEnise Enan or Lubna.

I also do folk. Sad that people find it sterile and repetitive. That style of folk often works well with a group - but you can also do folk with soul. But you need to really know the style - rather than take one two-hour workshop and "adapt" what you have learnt into a self indulgent mish-mash {rant over]

What I don't like? Over busy dancing with emphasis on how much can be done - or how hard it can be. Overuse of props. Dance! Props should add to the performance it shouldn't be all about the props. Worse weird props like poi and voi and fire and wings. It isn't kapa haka, circus or burlesque - it is belly dance.

Sadly I haven't seen many really good folkloric performances, it kind of felt like they had studied a choreography to show but weren't all really in it. That happened a lot with student performances where the teacher decided they had to put up a folkloric routine. Maybe the students would rather have done something else. I would love to challenge my opinion of folkloric by seeing some inspiring folkloric with soul, sadly I have not seen that often. Although when men do depke it seems they have much more fun than belly dancers doing other folkloric pieces.

Regarding props I agree with Yame, they are great for entrance. But sometimes people do awesome things with them like Ellen. I use wings too, but I feel they hold me back, so I discard them quickly. I don't find them particularly comfortable (the weight on the neck and the big wings need lots of space of course)
I have no issues with innovative props, as long as they don't take over the belly dancing. On their own as non-belly dancing items they can be ok, but when someone is a belly dancer I am expecting to see more belly dancing
But I'm not very traditionalist when it comes to dance, I have seen belly dance styles (yes even Egyptian style itself) change over the time I have been dancing (20 years), so it's clearly not a stationary thing but always evolving, and that's what I love about it. Never gets boring

 

[Yame]

That's interesting, I don't recall saying anything about the wings being stationary.

If you want a lovely example of what I'm talking about with regard to dancing with wings, watch some of Elen's videos (she has at least one of the wings ones in her costume thread) - she does what I do - uses wings to frame and accent excellent* dancing.

Like this one? Elen Oriental - Led isis wings - YouTube

She uses them beautifully, but I definitely wouldn't say that's an example of using them as a "frame" or "accent." This performance was 90% about the wings, spinning and traveling and swishing them around. It was *belly dance* that was the accent, being used only here or there.

This is exactly how I think wings *should* be used, by the way. If people have a problem with the lack of belly dance in isis wings performances, then, like me, they have a choice to either not use them at all, or use them only for a short portion of the performance.

 

[Darshiva]

That one's actually the worst example of what she does with wings for the purposes of my topic. But I agree, those particular wings are a fantastic prop in their own right and her performance with them in that video fit the prop and the music.

I was going to say her channel should have something, but for some reason it doesn't have the performances I was thinking of - she was on tv or something and did a set with wings, shamadan and I think zills - and it was all about the bellydance. Oh well, maybe if she notices this thread she will link to it herself.

I'd actually link you to my own but youtube decided to shut me out of my own account and I can't access those vids. (I think it's because I put my foot down and said no to giving them my real name, phone number & street address, but I digress)

Okay, so this is what I'm talking about!

 

[gisela]

Do you mean this?
[video=youtube;U2M6hn3U2Wk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2M6hn3U2Wk[/video]

 

[Darshiva]

Yes I did! But I remembered it very differently! LOL go me!

 

[Kashmir]

Sadly I haven't seen many really good folkloric performances, it kind of felt like they had studied a choreography to show but weren't all really in it. That happened a lot with student performances where the teacher decided they had to put up a folkloric routine. Maybe the students would rather have done something else. I would love to challenge my opinion of folkloric by seeing some inspiring folkloric with soul, sadly I have not seen that often. Although when men do depke it seems they have much more fun than belly dancers doing other folkloric pieces.

Pity you never got a chance to work with Denise Enan (she did three weeklongs in Oz - and a couple of days in in NZ). The depth of her understanding (she toured within Egypt and watched the real thing from a teenager and continued to study into her 60s) gave a wonderful feeling to her performance.

 

[Amulya]

When was she here? I haven't kept an eye on belly dance events for a while (more than a year)

Speaking of wings, I prefer organza wings, the gold ones are too overwhelming I find, that massive block of gold. The organza ones take away less from the dancer and when a dancer spins you can still see him/her through the wings, which is not possible with the gold.

 

[Dunyah]

To get back to the OP's question - American Cabaret Belly Dance is my first love. I like it partly because that's what I first learned and saw performed. I love the music, the zills, the veil and props. I no longer do much floorwork, but I also appreciate floorwork when it is well done (rarely seen these days).

I also love Egyptian, especially the vintage dancers like Souheir, Fifi, Mona et al. To me they can't be beat. For myself I like to perform Egyptian Baladi and Cane and am always eager to learn more about Egyptian styles, except the Modern style - I like to watch that but not to perform it.

I love a great Turkish style performance, like those by Artemis Mourat or Eva Cernik, or the classic Turkish stars on YouTube like Nejla Ates, Ozel Turkbas and others.

I like so much, especially classic stuff. I'm not usually a big fan of Tribal or Tribal Fusion, but there are performances in those styles that I love, too.

I'm just a lover of belly dance, when it's done well and with passion and respect for the art.

I love shows with live music the most of all, especially when the band is really good.