New belly dance events on worldbellydance.com

This is just a short post to highlight some new events that have been added to the events page on worldbellydance.com. On the events page you will be able to find belly dance related events, such as haflas, workshop, festivals, shows and more taking place all over the world.

For November 2009 there are events such as the Flying Carpet Party in London (UK); the Pyramid Awards in Edinburgh; Ahmet Ogren Turkish Dance Workshop in the Netherlands and more. If you like to plan much earlier in advance, there are already events advertised for 2010, such as Incanto D’Oriente (Italy), Majma (UK) and Tribal Massive (USA) in March, or the 8th Annual Las Vegas Bellydance Intensive and Festival (USA) in September 2010.

New events will be added shortly and more are being added all the time; also, you can add your own belly dance event, show or workshop for free by filling the form on worldbellydance.com. All you need to provide is original text (not copied from an existing website) with about 150 words, including the event’s location, time and various details. So, if you are interested in attending belly dance events click here, or here to add your own event.

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2009 International Belly Dance Congress in Frimley, UK

Last weekend, I attended the second International Belly Dance Congress in Frimley, UK, organised by Josephine Wise, Kay Taylor and Charlotte Desorgher. I attended several workshops, for a total of 8 hours dancing every day for 2 and half days, and at the end I was exhausted but happy!

This year’s teachers and performers included amazing dancers such as Randa Kamel and Khaled Mahmoud from Egypt, Sadie and Anasma from the US, Leyla Jouvana and her husband Roland from Germany, Nawarra who performed traditional Moroccan dances and many more great belly dancers from the UK and abroad. On top of this great line up, Kay Taylor managed to persuade the legendary Fifi Abdo to come to the Congress (this was Fifi’s first time performing and teaching in Europe).

Two years ago the International Belly Dance Congress
was held in Butlins, but many people did not like the venue, so this year it was held in the Lakeside Complex. Personally, I preferred the rooms where the workshops took place this year, but in Butlins I liked the fact that accommodation was cheaper and included breakfast and a buffet dinner. Overall, I liked the food in Butlins and the range of choice (it was good value for money). The Lakeside resort instead, food wise was not great and the service was very slow. What is your opinion? Please feel free to comment, as I would like to hear other belly dancers’ points of view.

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Belly dancing in Barcelona

Having lived in Barcelona, Spain, for one year, I was able to experience how popular belly dance is in that city. In Barcelona there are belly dance classes available in every gym and cultural centre all over the city. I do not know how many years ago belly dancing started being so popular in Barcelona, but the fact is that it is extremely popular.

When I lived in Barcelona I attended two different courses, around the Sagrada Familia area, which is where I used to live. I studied with Aida, who has her own studio, and with Cecile in the cultural centre ‘Fem Cultura’. According to my experience, belly dance teachers and students take this discipline very seriously and courses are well structured. For example, most courses cover all the basics , plus how to use all the main belly dance props . Also, at the end of every course, most belly dance teachers in Barcelona organise performances with their students, held in proper theatres.

In addition to cabaret belly dance being so popular in Barcelona, a fusion style between belly dance and flamenco has developed. This is called zambra mora and it is now taught by various teachers worldwide.
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Forum on Worldbellydance.com

Recently, a Forum has been added to Worldbellydance.com for belly dancers to chat and exchange pieces of advice. I find that a forum is particularly useful when you are going to a belly dance event and would like to share transportation or accommodation, as it is not always easy to find people attending the same event amongst the ones you know.

Similarly, sometimes it is nice to ask for other belly dancers’ opinions when it comes for example to tips, opinions on past workshops or haflas.
This new belly dance forum includes many sections, such as learning and teaching, share transportation to workshops/events, belly dance costumes and make up, styles of belly dance and more. Take a look at the worldbellydance forum

Sky1 new dance competition – Just Dance

Through my website worldbellydance.com, I have just been contacted by Sky1, to make me aware of a new programme they are launching. So, I have decided to make every belly dancer who may be interested aware of it.

Sky1 are about to launch a new programme, called Just dance, where dancers of every type and style of dance will compete for a final prize. Sky1 are interested in every type of dance from, for example, flamenco, to ballet, tap, tango, salsa and of course belly dance.

Auditions will take place from September 2009 in all major cities in Ireland and the UK. Dancers can audition regardless of their level and the programme is open to soloists as well as couples and groups. If you are interested you can apply on Sky1 website

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Workshop with Morocco (Auntie Rocky) on Moroccan Shikhat

At Majma, in June 2009, another workshop I attended was with Morocco on a type of Moroccan dance, called shikhat. Shikhat also refers to the women who perform this type of dance in Morocco. They are usually hired for parties, including wedding parties, and they are women with a good amount of life experience. Moroccan shikhat is a very energetic dance, with a lot of movements of the hips and torso, highly suggestive.

Apparently this type of dance is performed for the bride to be, as a sort of education about what will happen on the first night of marriage. Hence, the movements in Moroccan shikhat are much more overtly sensual than, for example, in Egyptian style Raqs Sharqi.
Shikhat is indeed a very energetic dance and at the end of the two hour workshop with Morocco we were all exhausted!

In December I am going to Morocco to visit some friends and they have already promised me that they will hire some shikhat to dance. I am really looking forward to seeing this dance in its original context. I will keep you posted after my trip to Morocco.

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Belly dance workshop with Isidora Bushkovski

In March 2009, during Majma (a belly dance weekend organised every year in Glastonbury, UK), I had the opportunity to attend some workshops with Isidora Bushkovski. She is a belly dancer from Colorado, USA, who is famous for her neat and strong movements and technique. I also saw Isidora perform and she was absolutely fantastic.

One of the workshops I attended was about Isidora’s belly dance bootcamp, a series of drills which aim at strengthening the muscle groups involved in belly dance movements and at rebalancing the body. Isidora developed these drills after a serious car accident she had, following which she was told she would have not been able to dance again. By practising these drills, however, Isidora managed to condition her muscles to the point that she was able to start dancing again.

There are different levels of difficulty for the belly dance bootcamp drills, of which I had a taster during Isidora’s workshop at Majma. These drills require a lot of stamina and I can understand why they are called belly dance bootcamp!

Isidora is a lovely teacher and full of energy. I was amazed by how lively and energetic she was even in spite of the jet lag, having just arrived to the UK from America! She has filmed her belly dance boot camp drills in three different DVDs, which will come out soon and I am looking forward to buying them.

Studying Arabic - how important is it for a belly dancer?

I have decided that in September 2009 I want to start studying basic Arabic, in the Cardiff University Centre for Lifelong Learning. I am going to enrol to weekly evening classes for beginners.
I am aware that Arabic is a very difficult language and I do not expect to become fluent. However, I would love to be able to say and understand at least basic sentences. Learning some Arabic can be very useful for a belly dancer for various reasons:
Learning Arabic can help non Arabic dancers to understand more about the cultures that the different types of belly dance, raqs sharqi, Oriental dance (or whatever you want to call this art form) originate from.
It could be interesting to understand a little bit more of the Arabic songs lyrics, which could help interpret better a song when you dance to it. At the moment, the only Arabic word I know is ‘habibi’ (my darling, my love) because it appears in almost every Arabic song that belly dancers listen to.
As it is most belly dancers’ dream to travel to Arabic speaking countries, such as Egypt, it is very useful to be able to speak a bit of the language if you have the opportunity to travel to one of these countries.
I am looking forward to the beginning of Arabic classes in September, and I will keep you posted on my impressions after I start.