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 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 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.
I've been pestered for some time to get some vids up, so they are! The first shot by a generous gal "Q", who graciously gave me permission to use it here. It is only 13 seconds long however.
The second was shot on the
Arabian Nights at Sea Belly Dance cruise in Sept. 2005 and is danced to Light Rain performing live. The tune, "Dark Fire", had been on my mind for some time, but I had never performed to it on CD, much less live! Since this performance, it (this dance) has since morphed into a very different single veil routine than the double veil you'll see here. Also, remember this was shot on board a rolling ship at sea, which means I have the occasional misstep; and weaving about, especially in turns!
The third was taken at the new 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...
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
"Solo-8/Serpentina" 0:13, 2.5MB.
"Veil-5/Dark Fire" 4:23, 10MB. (VERY low sound, turn up your volume!)
"Solo-6a/Shemadan" 1:01, 2.3MB. (Dark)
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