I couldn’t believe my luck when a friend, totally in passing, mentioned his wife was going to join ballroom dancing class. I had no idea there were any ballroom classes in Delhi! In fact, was there anything other than bollywood and bhangra in the country?
Of course there was, but clueless Mala didn’t know that. Anyway, I wasted no time at all joining “Ballrumors” dragging a hapless friend of mine with me. I loved the dancing right from the start. I loved the baby cha cha cha, the dated jive, the dreamy elementary waltz and smattering of salsa we did. I was no good at it, of course, but I loved it all the same. I had terrible posture, awkward rhythm at best, and I sort of panicked when I danced.But there’s no doubt I loved it and never ever missed a class.
This is how I wanted to dance:
I stuck with Ballrumors for two years and then moved on to a more advanced class for about three years. Impassioned by Latin dancing, I could think of little else, really.
Neonissima
One day, while looking for some instruction on video that could improve my creaky isolations, I stumbled upon “Instant Bellydancer” by one cute blondie named Neon. I waited for my Amazon shipment. I popped the DVD into my player… and I couldn’t believe it. How amazingly she danced, this Neon! What an incredible system she had for teaching!
And that was the end of my affair with ballroom and Latin dancing.
It didn’t take long for me to figure out that even learning belly dancing was more fun. More fulfilling. I no longer had to wait for my 2 minutes of instructor time, no longer had to wait around for one or two men in class who could lead well, and I no longer had to depend on someone else’s teaching pace. What’s more, in a short while, I could hold my own on a dance floor even with elementary belly dance moves.
So I do owe it to Neon for having started me off on belly dancing and for getting me through the basics in the absence of a live teacher. Her Instant Belly Dancer set is so effective it’s been translated into other languages and is still, I think, the flagship product of her video producing company, World Dance New York. I spent hours with those DVDs trying hard to get the moves right. I didn’t even know it would ever happen because I looked terrible and somehow couldn’t make my positions for each move look anything like Neon’s. I’m so glad I didn’t give up. I used to dance in my shadow because I didn’t have the wonderful 7-foot mirrir I do now.
I also owe it to Neon for having gotten me through to this point without any belly dance injuries. On her Instant Belly Dancer, Neon actually doesn’t spend too much time on safety tips. But, if you follow her graphic overlays and her instruction carefully, you won’t get hurt. With my eyesight being as weak as it is, those graphic overlays were a treasure.
I stuck like Velcro to the Instant Belly Dance program for a good two years. There’s so much to work with on those videos. Even today, watching Neon’s clean sharp technique teaches me soemthing each time I look at the videos.
Sensuous Workout
If it hadn’t been for the Yahoo Belly Dance Video group, I really wouldn’t have discovered Shamira. But someone pointed me in the direction of her website, and before very long I had acquired a bunch of her videos, most of them “no frills”. The one that really worked well for me was Sensuous Workout 2. I think what Shamira did on this video was to make it easy for me to turn those isolations into dancing. Her gorgeous arm work and her demure, pretty poses made belly dancing more appealing. I worked with her three choroegraphies and the 22 little chapters covering the basic belly dance moves.
I later moved to her Zeina choreography and took my time trying to get through that. At the time, managing a whole choreography was unthinkable. I took it slow. But even so, I must have been getting somewhere because a friend of mine took some phone videos and anyone who saw those said “Wow, how professional!” and “Holy smoke!”.
I think Holy Smoke described it best.
October 23, 2008
hey sweet!!
Wow this is great to know!!
I d been complexed about sticking with Amira s 101 bellydance for months, now that I know you did take your time before movign away from Neon I ll stop stressing.
Does not matter I own dozens of other cool bellydance videos, I ll stick with 1 or 2 (Amira and Jenna), or maybe add Neon soon, for as long as I feel I am not ready to move on.
Your dance history is great :))
I too started with ballroom and Latin, coz I wanted to dance like those elegant people in the competitions or on TV (like when someone goes to a Latin restaurant and you see the people dancing salsa for 2 minutes or so
Me too, I got away from it due to non-attention by teachers and difficulties to find a good partner
October 23, 2008
I think my dance history is going to go on for a bit… I sort of need to write it, if you know what I mean.
Interesting that we have some similarities in our dance backgrounds. Salsa used to be so exciting. I think the footwork and all the athletic feats, all the spinning and so on used to be quite exhilarating. But the classes really didn’t work for me. I think I walked off in a huff from both my dance schools. There’s just so much politics and always someone who’s being pampered as the “dance queen” at one time or the other at the cost of others’ learning. I would escape from work to be able to attend classes. I also did a lot to build up the class’s music collection, video to get steps from and generally lent every bit of support I could — only to find I had to stand on the sidelines for 50 percent of the time. There was never any point dancing with the men who didn’t know how to. Both would get nowhere together. The instructors always ignore the men and then get annoyed with the women for only wanting to dance with the instructors. Oh.. it’s a whole mess. A friend of mine saw me absolutely suffering and once asked: Hey, isn’t this supposed to be fun? I opted out of the dance rat race.
I’m afraid I don’t like Amira Mor’s instruction too much, though I don’t have the 101. Can’t say anything about that one. But I’ll tell you this — I do go back to the basics every few days.
October 23, 2008
hey mala!!!
)
wow these dance schools.. they re fun nowhere without a great partner (at best gay coz if he s not he might dumo you as a dance partner for his next girlfriend who s jealous…
oh i cant stand amira mor s style to be honest! bought some of her dvds without knowing them nor the market (there was no youtube back then
Amira 101 is actually by a completely different dancer her only dvd so far.
If you go to
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=BWhfpzAItx4
you ll see how she s SO different to amira mor
it s too bad they share the name!! i think many dvd fans stay away from amira s for that reason
i would love to have more by this amira, she said she d do an intermediate but then fell pregnant and had her child this august! she s soon releasing a bellydance and yoga for pregnant women she filmed while 7 months pregnant or so..
she s really really good!! sooo calming and encouraging as an instructor, love her
October 23, 2008
(Putting on my anticolonial radical queer feminist hat)
One of things I really dislike about modern Western culture is the way it discourages men from loving to dance. It’s a detrimental attitude that has unfortunately rubbed off onto other cultures. And that is one of the things that I don’t like about the Western bellydance craze. I think western women have done amazing things with bellydance, but they’re leaving no room for the traditional male social dancing that’s a huge part of Middle Eastern culture (my teacher says it’s not quite accurate to call it male bellydance, because our concept of “bellydance” is more as a performance than as a social ritual.)
October 24, 2008
Sajia… hi. I’m confused about which part of the post this is a response to. Male dancers in my latin classes were ignored because the women were more enthusiastic and quicker learners, because the instructors were male and would find it easier to teach women (two men holding each other in ballroom pose seems very awkward).
But what did you mean women leave no room for male belly dancers?
October 24, 2008
Ah yes, I see this is a different Amira. The one I can’t seem to work with is the dancer who made that series — belly dancing for your soul, soulmate, energy, etc. She doesn’t teach well.
October 24, 2008
Well, from what I’ve observed bellydancing has been promoted in the west as a female performance art, when it forms just one part of the whole Middle Eastern culture of dancing which includes both performance and social dancing. Basically I’m just irritated at the fact that in modern Western culture, male dancers, both performers and social dancers, are regarded as effeminate, unless they perform very aggressive, macho dancing such hip-hop and bhangra. Your mileage may vary.
October 24, 2008
Hello Sajia!!
I obviously agree most Western cultures have men not dance (although I guess Greece, Spain, etc is something else - and Latin men dancing Salsa etc are perceived horribly effeminate by Oriental men and women alike.. so it s not just a Western problem..)
As for colonialism.. obviously the colonial forces wanted to see the dance, and wanted pretty women to perform it. No market for male performers (if at all, in the closet..)
) and ridiculously revealing celebs on national TV both in Lebanon and Turkey).
But to be fair also Oriental cultures with their rapid change in the first two thirds of the last century have to the same extent begun marketing pretty not so much dressed females, less for “having learned” from the colonial forces, but I d say they ve done so for their own pleasure (see Lebanon or turkey: rigid morals and mores in the country side, ridiculously revealing giant ads in cities (in Beirut when I was there 5 years ago on a well known motorway you drive “through” a huge underwear model s spread legs - ever seen that in the West?
So I d say the marketing of little dressed females as bellydancers, rather sexy than a great dancer, has happened in the Mideast parallel to the West.. if mores are loosened, they are so for men at first and they want to see nude females while their female relatives still ought to be covered.
To get back to male performers, I d think they re taking their place quicker in the West than in the MIdeast! The now ultra famous Tito has according to an Egyptian contact of mine been oftentimes threatened with death for his “effeminate” behaviour (by Egyptian men), and on an early youtube thread populated by Arabs at first someone said he d “shoot a bullet in every inch of his body for his unmanly behaviour”.
Still, you are definitely right that Western female bellydancers have long limited to social Mideastern dances to a woman s dance. Some time ago I read on a youtube video how a US teacher apparently told her students “men are physically not capable of” doing bellydance. ???!! Ever been to an Arab social event, lady?
Take care Sajia and Mala, happy dancing as always!
October 26, 2008
Sajia, I must confess to never have given male belly dancers any thought whatsoever. I don’t know if they have a hard time or not. The ones I’ve seen (online only, of course) seem to be quite unfazed and confident. Have you seen Jim Boz?