Thread: American Belly Dance Legends dvd

Originally Posted by aziyade

Aida, if you EVER have the interest and time to put together a full-length performance video compilation of yourself, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let us know, as I will be first in line to buy it! I was SO impressed by your dancing on Amaya's DVD, and I would be thrilled to see more of you!!

Me too!

Before I saw this video I had never seen any of these dancers perform. I had heard of some of them but this video really brought it to light. I hope all this can be straightened out because it's the art that we really love.

Amar, this should really be between Phaedra and Amaya. I think this "airing out" is tacky and low class and most importantly, extremely unprofessional. In fact, after seeing all this, even if Phaedra makes a better video or is proved right, I really would not be too interested in seeing it or buying it with such a stigma attached. I'm sorry but I am totally turned off.

It has increased sales.... ;-)

I just bet it has. Incidentally I got the loveliest email from Amaya when I ordered mine, telling me how she'd taught here in the 80s and asking after dancers she knew at the time. It's remarkable how gracious these old-school dancers so often appear to be, despite being really very famous in our BD world.

I watched the dvd last week with a group of dancers in their 50's and 60's and we all loved it. I had never heard of Bobby before last week....otherwise, so much for preserving his legacy!

Yeah, and in a way I think that's sad... too many people know nothing or care nothing about how our dance got to be the way it is today. I'd like to think you'd never get any remotely serious musician who'd refuse to listen to anything written or recorded prior to 2003... Amera's told me that the Australian scene has always been much more ME than US in focus, but I think there are one or two Bobby Girls floating round over there.

The downside of the ready availability of materials today seems to be far too much emphasis on Dancer Of The Week. When I was at the Farha Tour, a dancer I met (not Australian) said, after watching the show for the first time, "I used to love to watch Dina, but now I can watch Only Randa!" I remarked that I still really love a lot of the Golden Age dancers, and the woman looked at me in horror and said "but that's not the Style any more!!!" And I said, without thinking, "I don't care, I'm not a professional dancer and I can do what I want."

Anyway, guess who had the most difficulty keeping up in Randa's workshop. Hint: it wasn't me.

I think one of the difficult things we face is that belly dance has always had a slightly dodgy economy. In recent years, the growing availability of legally produced and licenced, high quality CDs and DVDs (90 percent out of the US, I'd guess) has made getting what we need easier, but it's also restricted us a great deal. I know that some teachers here have solved the licensing problem by using only songs that can be downloaded from Itunes, which is really not silly at all. The only thing I don't like about that is that it means *everyone* is dancing to the *same* music, and the selection might not include the stuff I find really interesting. Personally, if I teach a choreography, I'm not financially able to risk buying ten copies of a CD to sell to students because I no longer have set classes, and I also know that in a class there will be several people who are financially strapped and who will *koff* get the music anyway. I'm not going to judge them for that. I have quite a lot of burned music myself. Karmically, my CD player won't play much burned stuff any more, which is also unfortunately a bummer when it comes to my legally purchased and quite expensive workshop CDs from Egyptian master teachers. They're burned compilations, and often don't have the details of where the track comes from either.

I would rather *give* people a burned copy of something with the details of where the various tracks came from than restrict their musical options. Is that wrong? Yes. Do dance friends do it for me all the time? Yes. Have I bought CDs on the strength of these burned copies, YES. Not all of them, but some. And they've made me more interested in artists I will support with my money when the opportunity arises.

Similarly, I think Amaya's DVD seems a) to be pretty well thought out b) is probably a visual equivalent of a stage one course reader at my university (numerous individual chapters bound into one reader) and c) is far better out there to be seen and to educate and inspire than disputed so much that it never sees the light of day.

I'd also like to add my fangirl squee at seeing Aida here. Who I'd never have heard of were it not for Bhuz and YouTube....

Originally Posted by Fotia

Amar, this should really be between Phaedra and Amaya. I think this "airing out" is tacky and low class and most importantly, extremely unprofessional. In fact, after seeing all this, even if Phaedra makes a better video or is proved right, I really would not be too interested in seeing it or buying it with such a stigma attached. I'm sorry but I am totally turned off.

I agree! I think this has probably back-fired from the response she was going for.

Wow, I had the good fortune of knowing both Bobby & Serena and since there is a lot of "hearsay" going on in this discussion, I've never heard of any problems or ill-will between Bobby & Serena - that's a good one! I'm sorry to hear there is so much ill-will, "hearsays" & down right slander in this discussion! Let's all take a moment to reflect! Qi-gong, meditation, or something! Peace to all!

yup the world didn't begin & end with BDSS & the indigo..

I was always of the belief that this DVD was just the beginning of a series so I know we can look forward to Serena. Maybe Amaya didn't have all the materials yet and wanted to get this version out. I just hope after all of this fur flying that Amaya (or someone else) does produce another one. Although Amaya's production is going to be the measuring stick on how to honor these legends because she did such a respectful job on this.

Audrena has them $25.00 this week with free shipping. I ordered myself a copy. I want to see for myself. As we know anything controversial always sells whether movies or music. I just wanted to pass the deal along.

Alrana

Come join the party.

http://www.bhuz.com/forum/bhuz-meet-...intensive.html

Originally Posted by zumarrad

I just bet it has. Incidentally I got the loveliest email from Amaya when I ordered mine, telling me how she'd taught here in the 80s and asking after dancers she knew at the time. It's remarkable how gracious these old-school dancers so often appear to be, despite being really very famous in our BD world.


Yeah, and in a way I think that's sad... too many people know nothing or care nothing about how our dance got to be the way it is today. I'd like to think you'd never get any remotely serious musician who'd refuse to listen to anything written or recorded prior to 2003... Amera's told me that the Australian scene has always been much more ME than US in focus, but I think there are one or two Bobby Girls floating round over there.

The downside of the ready availability of materials today seems to be far too much emphasis on Dancer Of The Week. When I was at the Farha Tour, a dancer I met (not Australian) said, after watching the show for the first time, "I used to love to watch Dina, but now I can watch Only Randa!" I remarked that I still really love a lot of the Golden Age dancers, and the woman looked at me in horror and said "but that's not the Style any more!!!" And I said, without thinking, "I don't care, I'm not a professional dancer and I can do what I want."

Anyway, guess who had the most difficulty keeping up in Randa's workshop. Hint: it wasn't me.

<Snort> It's funny how movies from the 40s are considered to be the golden age of Hollywood and they are "out of style" as well. But still they are called golden. In fact, it's the test of time that makes a classic, not a modern version of an art form.

I watched the DVD and enjoyed it a lot. Amaya did a great job putting it together. I hope she does a 2nd. I like the classic golden age stuff. I would also like to see Serena, I've seen her perform live(over the years) shes amazing.

Alrana

Just thought I'd drop in and say I bought the DVD - saw the trailer on YouTUbe and thought I must have the rest. Absolutely great DVD. Good quality material and production and filled out information of some dancers I'd only heard about in passing and introduced me to many more.

A must have for anyone interested in the history of belly dance in the States. Dance clips are short - but work well in the whole work. (If you are really interested in a dancer's style you need a couple of hours of clips - giving only one legend per DVD!)

[QUOTE=zumarrad;459968]
Yeah, and in a way I think that's sad... too many people know nothing or care nothing about how our dance got to be the way it is today. I'd like to think you'd never get any remotely serious musician who'd refuse to listen to anything written or recorded prior to 2003... Amera's told me that the Australian scene has always been much more ME than US in focus, but I think there are one or two Bobby Girls floating round over there.

[QUOTE]

There was a world of difference between the Australia and NZ dance scenes in the early days. The focus of NZ bellydance back then was more on the US as unlike Australia, the Middle Eastern population in NZ was so small that there was little access for dancers to an 'authentic' Arabic community. A Syrian friend used to joke that the entire Arabic speaking population in NZ could fit into a stationwagon. For restaurant work in Auckland there was one Lebanese restaurant otherwise it was Turkish, and for me Greek, restaurants. The dancers in NZ particularly the Golden Oldies (like me hehe) owe Diane James in Auckland a debt of thanks. Diane had trained in the US with, from memory, Jamila and she's also one of Bobby's Girls. Thanks to her we had workshops in NZ with Amaya, Sharifa, Aisha Ali and Kathryn Ferguson, there may also have been others. (I think Maria in Brisbane is a Bobby Girl and possibly Belyssa too.)
In 1990 I went to the Sydney ME Dance Festival for the first time. It was a revelation - a thrill to hear and dance to live Arabic music as live ME music was non-existent in NZ at that time and also being able to buy videos of, for want of a better word, "real" Middle Eastern dancers including the big names from Egypt and Lebanon. I saw Hala al Safy on video for the first time and I was totally and utterly hooked!!

I know.

Originally Posted by zumarrad

I know.

Of course, but bear with me as many other Bhuzzers won't know about bellydance history 'down under' nor have had the opportunity to read your wonderful thesis.

Originally Posted by Aziza_UAE

Of course, but bear with me as many other Bhuzzers won't know about bellydance history 'down under' nor have had the opportunity to read your wonderful thesis.

I find this history quite interesting, & am admiring of such pioneers. Where can your thesis be found to be read, Zumarrad? I am new to participating on Bhuz.

Great DVD.

Whoops, sorry, thought that was directed at me!

Hello dancers,
I have many of my shows dating back from the mid 70's through the late 90's now archived. If you are interested in seeing any of them contact me at aidaofsf@yahoo.com Thank you for the kind comments. I am honored that Amaya included me on the Legends DVD. She did an amazing job sharing a capsule of each of our careers. I learned a lot about all the others and enjoyed it very much.
Thank you Amaya

Well...it's been more than a year, and no legal action has been taken.

Interesting.