Zorba in Motion!
I am a Belly Dancer
Prosaic poem by ZorbaI stand in the wings of the stage, waiting my turn;
veils and music clutched in nervous, trembling hands.
My sisters in dance do their best to reassure me: I am
beautiful, I am a wonderful dancer. My mind will
have little of it - so I wait in dread anticipation.
Every slight move, accompanied by the faint sensual whisper of perfumed silk,
is accented by faint tinkles from my costume.
From my hips, from my neck, from my ears,
hanging over my stomach - the ornamentation tinkles gently.
Now my music is starting, I whirl onto the stage -
a winged glory of swirling color. I sculpt colorful
shapes in the very air with my veils. I feel the air
swirling around my body, I feel my hips moving to
an ancient beat, I feel the joy building at my center.
Then I accentuate the dance with the sound of my zills,
blending and complimenting the music. The faint tinkles
from my costume have become a constant jingle. I feel
the beauty. I feel the joy. I feel the power.
I veil my face with my long hennaed hair, looking out at the
audience from kohl rimmed eyes. The joy rips out of
the center of my being, I become one with the music,
with the motion, with the dance. In my utter vulnerability,
I am all powerful. I am beautiful, I am exotic, I am
graceful and sensual. I am human. I am a Belly Dancer!
Enjoy, but please remember this poem is copyrighted.
All videos are in QuickTime 7.x format, older versions (i.e. 6.x) will NOT work.
Download the latest QuickTime for PC or Mac
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I've been pestered for some time to get some vids up, so they are! This first shot by a generous gal "Q", who graciously gave me permission to use it here. It is only 13 seconds long however, an excerpt of "Solo-8/Serpentina" at Kalisa's a few years ago.
"Solo-8/Serpentina" 0:13, 2.5MB.
This next one was shot on the
"Veil-5/Dark Fire" 4:23, 10MB. (VERY low sound, turn up your volume!)
This one was taken at the short lived Kalisa's Cabaret at the Monterey Vet's hall (07/28/07), and is a rather dark 1 minute clip of yours truely with the (new) Shemadan. I've only included a short clip of this as the camera was way too close and my hipwork cannot be seen at all in most of the original, and not very well in this excerpt. When I started playing my zills, the close proximity of the camera caused its audio circuits to overload, so the sound sucked in the second half - so I omitted that too. What's left is a rather dark "taste" of Shemadan...
"Solo-6a/Shemadan" 1:01, 2.3MB. (Dark)
These next two were shot at Lana's venue at the mini-mall on 13 June 2008, "Solo-11/Cabaret" with my Isis wings, and another version of "Solo-8/Serpentina" - full length this time.
"Solo-11/Cabaret" 3:52, 17.8MB
"Solo-8/Sepentina" 5:16, 24.2MB.
This is from Carnival of Stars, 10 October 2009 - "The Dance of Untold Sorrow". The camera work is a bit on the annoying side - too close to the dancer in general.
"Veil-6/Untold Sorrow" 4:57, 11.1MB.
I don't like YouTube, and wouldn't ever so dignify that site with a video of mine...
However, sometimes such things are beyond one's control, here's a kind of "Belly Dance promotional blurb" featuring my instructor talking about some of the benefits of Belly Dancing - alternating with footage from a recent show of my dance sisters and myself doing a skirt dance.
Another one, performing the "Story Dance", my favorite of Janette's choreographies. This clip omits about the first 8 seconds, and the last 3 seconds of the dance.
A rather old one, performing the "Solo-4/Mary Jane's Dance", at the old Kalisa's. My arms are much better these days and so are my Maias!
Artist
"Gig bag check" and performance briefs from the November 2008 Carnival of Stars appear in
An interview and performance briefs from the 18 December 2008 performance in
Streaming video of several of Lana's "Monterey Mystique" shows are now available on the video feed although its a PITA and a bit convoluted to get to.
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