Kashmir
New member
Quite some time back. Her first visit was in 1998 and her last 2008.
What's Your Favorite Style and Why?
- Thread starter Amulya
- Start date
Amulya
Moderator
Dunyah, I used to love ATS and ITS but it doesn't grab me anymore. I think I liked it when it was new to me because it was refreshing to see something completely different, but after a few years I started to find it too repetitive. ITS is a bit different, I had a teacher who was rather innovative. I followed her YouTube clips for years and she would come up with new things all the time. I think the fun part of ATS/IT'S is that it's improv in group form. But that can be done too with other styles if a group is really in tune with each other.
Yeah, that's why I said there are SOME ATS/ITS and tribal fusion performances that I love. Many of them don't move me, but sometimes they do. The music choices have a lot to do with it for me, I dislike seeing belly dance to Western music in most instances.
Farasha Hanem
New member
Egyptian style is my favorite, hands-down. I love Golden Era Egyptian, but I also like the modern style, too. Also falling in love with the folkloric styles. Someone once posted about a 10-minute clip from YouTube showcasing many styles of folkloric, including one in which the dancer wore a sailor outfit (I just can't remember what the style is called 
). Raqs Assaya and beledi are two of my favorite FAVORITE styles, and two that I definitely want to learn! Khaleegy and haggala are two other styles that I love to watch, but I don't think there are any teachers in my area that give lessons in those styles.
I used to absolutely adore ATS/ITS and Tribal Fusion, but in the former, it's really more fun to perform than watch, and the latter is just getting too weird lately. I still love some of their performances, as long as they're not balancing on beer bottles while slinging poi while swallowing a sword to circus music... *shudders*
Although Egyptian is my first love, my close second is American Oriental. And I do love props, as long as they're well done, doesn't detract from the dance, and not too weird (like dancing with a Shamadan while slinging wings around the lit candles while playing Zills with your toes while swallowing a sword to Shakira!)...
). Raqs Assaya and beledi are two of my favorite FAVORITE styles, and two that I definitely want to learn! Khaleegy and haggala are two other styles that I love to watch, but I don't think there are any teachers in my area that give lessons in those styles. I used to absolutely adore ATS/ITS and Tribal Fusion, but in the former, it's really more fun to perform than watch, and the latter is just getting too weird lately.
I still love some of their performances, as long as they're not balancing on beer bottles while slinging poi while swallowing a sword to circus music... *shudders*Although Egyptian is my first love, my close second is American Oriental.
And I do love props, as long as they're well done, doesn't detract from the dance, and not too weird (like dancing with a Shamadan while slinging wings around the lit candles while playing Zills with your toes while swallowing a sword to Shakira!)...
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Amulya
Moderator
Yes that can be taking away a lot from the dance. Most western music doesn't have all the nuances you get with ME music. Dancing would automatically get simplified. But some dancers do it very well, I like The Indigo's Serpent Rouge, it's totally fusion but well done fusion, not just simplified movements, actually not simplified at all.
And the nuances get lost too if it's very simplified ME style music that some dance troupes use.
AudreyTerry
New member
Well, my favorite style used to be the sporty style, but now I really like the Korean style. I just love how their clothes are elegant and delicate. Recently, I order a lot of clothes from Korean stores. For example here thekoreaninme.com one of my favorites . I noticed that the quality of clothing is much better than in regular stores. In our stores, there are a lot of synthetic clothing, because of which the skin doesn't breathe. And in Korean stores, all clothing is made of natural cotton. So definitely my favorite style is Korean style.
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Zorba
"The Veiled Male"
AmCab - which means a little bit of everything, including American. But I enjoy any style of Belly Dance as long as its done to something that at least vaguely resembles ME music! Veil routines get a pass, so do some Tribal-Fusion styles, and I might make an exception for so-called "gypsy" skirt dances; but anything else needs to be decent music! Rock doesn't cut it, neither does Celtic or other non-ME ethnic music. I love Greek music, particularly Zembetiko songs - but won't do Belly Dance to them. Heck, I once saw a dancer performing to a Syrto tune! Belly Dancing doesn't work so well with Ballet music either, although "Swan Lake" is my fave music EVER - wouldn't Belly Dance to it though. And what's up with Belly Dancing to Mariachi or Hip-Hop music?!?
If I had to pick a style from "over there" that I like best, it would probably be Turkish, maybe Lebanese. Egyptian is very beautiful, but I find it somewhat constraining. OTOH, if you can dance Egyptian, you can dance anything!
If I had to pick a style from "over there" that I like best, it would probably be Turkish, maybe Lebanese. Egyptian is very beautiful, but I find it somewhat constraining. OTOH, if you can dance Egyptian, you can dance anything!
Greek Bonfire
Well-known member
Amcab for me too, although I'm nuts for folkloric, especially Saiidi.
Greek Bonfire
Well-known member
I saw a couple of videos bellydancing, even with deep emotion, to Zembetiko. Like nails on the chalkboard of my soul.
Greek Bonfire
Well-known member
Hey, it's a COVID year, anything to fill up the time!
Zorba
"The Veiled Male"
The feeling is all wrong - and so is the rhythm for that matter.
LibraRaqs
Member
Because I really like improv better than choreographed dance routines (no offense to all the hard working choreographers!), my favorite is Egyptian cabaret style, Lebanese and Turkish are also great! Really, cabaret style as a whole (MENA and American blends).
I have mixed feelings about ATS/Tribal Fusion. I adore the costumes, and seriously, I have nothing against it; but it seems heavily choreographed (personal preference!) and I do enjoy music from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Balkans European (i.e. Greek); whereas I've seen a lot of videos and some performances where rock/contemporary music is employed for performances, and that does remove the style from my favorites list.
I have mixed feelings about ATS/Tribal Fusion. I adore the costumes, and seriously, I have nothing against it; but it seems heavily choreographed (personal preference!) and I do enjoy music from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Balkans European (i.e. Greek); whereas I've seen a lot of videos and some performances where rock/contemporary music is employed for performances, and that does remove the style from my favorites list.
Ironically, the classic FCBD-style ATS was supposed to be an improvised style. It might have seemed somewhat less spontaneous because it used large, "canned" chunks of material, but it's not entirely fair to ignore that many non-ATS dancers recycle(d) movement combinations in their performances, too, which isn't all that conceptually different.
Real ATS should feel dynamic and musically authentic, but real ATS has become increasingly rare. The main problem is that doing ATS properly requires many, many hours of practice to a range of varying musical inputs, using a creatively sympatico, stable set of dancers...not whoever shows up willing to make a troupe commitment, dancing to one record in a hurry to get ready for a hafla. The latter situation naturally skids toward "Why bother? The more we practice, the more we start doing the same moves at the same times in the song, so let's just memorize stuff."
If we're splitting hairs, I suppose it would technically be more authentic to belly dance to Mashrou' Leila or Ramy Essam than Balkan music, because they are indigenous artists from the areas where the BD movement vocabulary originates. They and (most of) their fans grew up under the same cultural influences in a way that people from Albania or Croatia didn't. (But don't interpret this as glib encouragement to perform to Mashrou' Leila or Ramy Essam. These are very much make-sure-you-understand-the-full-context artists...)
LibraRaqs
Member
Any recommendations of who has the best original ATS?
FCBD's style is probably the best place to start. There are other good groups out there, some more famous than others, but you can hook into the FCBD system directly or through Datura.
https://fcbd.com/about/fcbd-online/
https://daturaonline.com/categories/fcbd-style
Greek Bonfire
Well-known member
ATS is supposed to be all improv. I haven't seen any choreographed ATS except for maybe some on the old BDSS videos.