Thread: Juliana Marconato's costumes

hello!

i first came across this fab dancer from another thread here and found her website www.julianamarconato.com.br

i don't speak portugese, would someone please help with translation. i clicked on "atelier" (because my mind somehow connects it with shopping) and figured out that you have to enter your email and then your name to enter the page. i did that. and then am lost! ..cr.:

I just recently received my costume from her (it can be seen in the video I posted here: http://www.bhuz.com/forum/student-ce...-critique.html).

Unless you know someone in Brazil who is willing to ship it to you, you are SOL in terms of ordering. She doesn't ship internationally.

If you just want to ogle at the pretty costumes, you have to create a passworded account to access the atelier gallery. Personally if you just want to look, I'd recommend her regular picture gallery. The atelier has some photos but they are not as good... it's mostly sketches.

If you still want to create an account to access the atelier I can try to figure out how I did it (it was so long ago...) and explain.

get the google toolbar. everytime a page comes up in another language it asks me if i want it translated. its nice to have =)

after you put your email and click enter, it asks for your name. then u can view the page

Originally Posted by yameyameyame

I just recently received my costume from her (it can be seen in the video I posted here: http://www.bhuz.com/forum/student-ce...-critique.html).

Unless you know someone in Brazil who is willing to ship it to you, you are SOL in terms of ordering. She doesn't ship internationally.

If you just want to ogle at the pretty costumes, you have to create a passworded account to access the atelier gallery. Personally if you just want to look, I'd recommend her regular picture gallery. The atelier has some photos but they are not as good... it's mostly sketches.

If you still want to create an account to access the atelier I can try to figure out how I did it (it was so long ago...) and explain.

thank you! and thanks for referring me to your lovely video too.
well... i'm just looking actually. no money to buy anything. i did go to the atelier, and you're right, the regular gallery looks better.

Originally Posted by NajlaDance

get the google toolbar. everytime a page comes up in another language it asks me if i want it translated. its nice to have =)

oh ok. thank you! i'll try that x

also an eye candy solution: check our her youtube vids. you won't be disappointed ^_^

Oohh, I absolutelly love Juliana's dancing and costumes. I would love to have one of those, but don't think I know anybody who would help me with shipping. I wonder why she doesn't ship internationally.

Originally Posted by raqFariha

also an eye candy solution: check our her youtube vids. you won't be disappointed ^_^

i have i have watched her video and love them. but i also like to be able to look at what's for sale and the price so i can day dream properly x

OMG she's dancing to Metallica, I am in love!

Originally Posted by wingaki

i have i have watched her video and love them. but i also like to be able to look at what's for sale and the price so i can day dream properly x

I made my account as soon as the atelier was up, a year or so ago (she's had her own atelier for a while but only opened up the online one a year or so ago) for that reason. Ever since I found her and realized that she made her own costumes it was my dream to get one (well, many, actually) by her.

The prices are very reasonable but unfortunately the website needs a lot of work. They had some serious issues with my order and the communication was awful, simply awful. The costume came in the wrong color over 2 months after it was supposed to have arrived. I was so upset I was just going to sell it on bhuz right away.

But I decided to give it a try and after wearing it for that performance I ended up keeping it, wrong color and all. It is flattering and moves beautifully.

I still love Ju as a dancer and I love her designs but I am never ordering anything from her again unless I meet her and do it in person (I did it online from Brazil). I am not sure what her plans are with her atelier, but I suspect she doesn't intend to go big if her website still looks the same as it did when she opened it, and when there is such a disregard for her customers that she doesn't know in person. She is only in her late twenties and already has her own school with lots of students (whom she teaches very well), she puts on stage shows in her city and dances for the best belly dance venue in Brazil regularly. She has a lot on her plate and I don't think being a designer is exactly her priority. This is probably why she doesn't ship internationally and perhaps never will. But who knows, maybe if enough people outside of Brazil start inquiring...

thank you Yame for the background information. i was wondering about Ju actually. so she's like Saida in Brazil? is she your inspiration? i say this because you remind me of her in your video, especially when you were bending to the side during the taxim. maybe because of your lond hair and costume.

Originally Posted by wingaki

thank you Yame for the background information. i was wondering about Ju actually. so she's like Saida in Brazil? is she your inspiration? i say this because you remind me of her in your video, especially when you were bending to the side during the taxim. maybe because of your lond hair and costume.

She is not influential in Brazil like Saida is in Argentina. Of course, I don't know too much about the scene in Argentina but the impression I get is that Saida influences the style all over the country. Most of her students dance EXACTLY like her so the style gets passed on without too much watering down. Most Argentinian dancers I've seen dance very much like Saida even if they haven't learned directly from her.

Ju Marconato, on the other hand, I've never seen one like her. She is much younger than Saida so she doesn't have as many students out there performing professionally and teaching yet. From her student recitals I can tell that her students take from her, but those are recitals choreographed by her... different from solo improvisation. There is one girl (professional dancer) I have seen who has taken lessons from Ju, wears her costumes and dances similarly but generally much faster (which seems to be preferred in Brazil), she is definitely unique in her style and without the costume I would not have necessarily thought to trace her down to Ju. But I am sure she's taken lessons with many other dancers as well.

In Brazil, I would say the most influential dancer is Lulu Sabongi although without living and training there I can't tell you for sure. Lulu studied with world-renowned dancers from all over the world (including Egypt and the US) and I believe was responsible for creating (or at least significantly influencing) a distinct "Brazilian" style. They don't call it that, over there it's all just "belly dance," but over here we are so obsessed over distinguishing styles (understandably so, since belly dance here is so much more heterogeneous than there) and I can spot a Brazilian belly dancer from a mile away, so it's fair to say such a style exists.

(to be continued)

In any case, most of the famous dancers in Brazil trained with Lulu or with someone trained by her, so that's the style you see. It's fast and highly influenced by ballet, full of traveling on demi-pointe, turns, etc. It's very technical and physically demanding in some aspects but it's still very true to its Egyptian origins in terms of musicality and hip articulation.

Also, Lulu has a certification system (I think it's more like a sort of approval rating) that is highly respected, admired and sought after, so any career belly dancer gives her opinions and style significant consideration.
And Lulu was the first Brazilian belly dancer to release DVD's (then VHS, I suppose), she has a huge series. To this date I don't think very many Brazilian belly dancers release DVD's and I don't think too many Brazilians buy DVD's from international dancers, so even though nowadays her DVD's are rare, she still seems to dominate that field.

As for Ju, I know Lulu was one of her teachers and is a big influence on her, she is a Khan el Khalili (a famous Egyptian tea house in Sao Paulo) dancer which means (for anyone approved before 2010) she has been approved by Lulu, but she is unique amongst other Brazilian dancers in that she really takes her time and poses when she feels the music calls for it, as a viewer you have time to fully appreciate her moves because she doesn't throw so much into a phrase. This is why she is one of my favorite dancers. She has that flawless technique, the many different traveling shimmies on demi-pointe, and beautiful isolations and loose shimmies that are a part of Lulu's style but she lets you take your time to appreciate it all. She is amazing without being overwhelming.

So needless to say, she is one of my biggest (probably THE biggest) inspirations. I don't seek to dance exactly like her but she represents the basic idea of what I am trying to achieve.

thank you so much, Yame. it's all very interesting. so much to learn and so many people to learn from. now i must look for Lulu Sabongi's video. thanks again!

Great info Yame. I have to say that I see similarities in the dance style between dancers from Argentina and Brazil. The side lean that Wingaki mentioned is def one of the signitures. I love to draw inspiration from their videos because the technique is so different, it's a breath of fresh air. Not to high-jack the thead, but another one of my youtube favorites is Antonella Rodriguez.

*drool!!!* shes got some gorgeous stuff

I you guys need help with portuguese let me know (PM me).,
Ordering costumes from Brazil can be trick because we use centimeters in instead of inches.... also color can be confusing....

Anyhow I still by all my costumes in my homeland...
:D

Well, I've purchased costumes from Russia before. Ordering from people you've never met before, there always will be problems with color and size, even with me speaking the language. I would still do it again because you will never find something so unique with domestic costume vendors. Kalinka, I think I want to give it a try, I'll pm you.