Thread: Umm...Praise God Using Bellydance DVD?

It was terribe technique. But I think it's Christian because the moves are tuned down and the music is praise music. It's sad that that dvd may be someone's only foray into the dance.

Christian refinance offers

Those would have been at 0% interest, I presume?

Originally Posted by rakgirl

It was terribe technique. But I think it's Christian because the moves are tuned down and the music is praise music. It's sad that that dvd may be someone's only foray into the dance.

It's even sadder that someone might try and learn belly dance from it!,f::

Please God, save me from your followers...
Seriously, I'm a Christian, and an organist. I praise God through the organ. I've spent many, many years and sacrificed a lot to train as a musician, because I have a duty to make my offering the best it could be. I'll be spending much more time training in bellydance before I offer it in public...
I also teach piano and organ, and believe that the best I can give God is more organists, but to be at their best, they need to be trained well and with good technique, same as a good dancer should!
Oh that Porsha could have applied some sense!

Double post...

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

I'm sooooo gonna get to work on Agnostic Belly Dance....THAT should be interesting!

Maybe I'll do a hip drop... or maybe I won't. ..g.:

Originally Posted by Avradoorn

Please God, save me from your followers...
Seriously, I'm a Christian, and an organist. I praise God through the organ. I've spent many, many years and sacrificed a lot to train as a musician, because I have a duty to make my offering the best it could be...

So beautifully said! Thanks for sharing.

I very much agree with you on that, Avradoorn. I think of my dance as worship, but then, I think of my *life* as worship and, as you said, if this is something we are offering to God, it is our duty to make sure that our offering is as pleasing and perfect as can be. Otherwise, it's not worthy of being associated with His Name.

"Praise God for fun and fitness"
Hm, why do I find that sentence so disturbing?
Another atheist here, but one that has read a lot of books about the various world religions and somehow I just can't make the link between "praising god" and "fun and fitness"

MEISSOUN

Well, in my religious tradition, there is the belief that "everything you do, in word or deed, should be done to the glory of God." In which case, fun and fitness fits. Jesus isn't against fun or fitness, LOL!

Well, they won’t have to worry about seducing any men dancing like that.

Originally Posted by kharis_UK

Who knows.. God could be sitting here wishing this chick was not on his side....He's like... that hipdrop sucks...keep my name out of it.

Lol!!!

Originally Posted by smileandshake

Random Amazon browsing for new things to buy and this comes up in the most reccent releases...

I can't be the only person who has just spotted this:

Amazon.com: Praise God Using Bellydance: Porsha, Tsipporah Tabarez;Porsha: Movies & TV

Not that I'm against people worshipping in their own way...but i'm thinking..."huh"? and the title is a complete put off to me personally...but each to their own.

Anyone know anything about it?

I got this DVD. I am a Christian and this is a great DVD for praise dance. There are many bible verses that speak of dance and praise to His name. I think she did a great job on this using all classical moves of the dance.

..lol, rabbit bad...this thing just cracked me up.it should be on SNL.i just lost it ...the hand hip thing....omg, like a bad version on the whizz, easeing on down the road to cracking me up.
got to see again. roflmas
the concept i am all over...but come on...ha ha ha ha

..there is the old movie..KGOD..about a tv station that goes christian for $$$.the richard simmons type show was called "jumping for jesus".ok, going to coach now.....omg.(might teach this to see what they do)

Originally Posted by maniatisa

I got this DVD. I am a Christian and this is a great DVD for praise dance. There are many bible verses that speak of dance and praise to His name. I think she did a great job on this using all classical moves of the dance.

Which classical moves exactly are you referring to? What are you basing this on? Who did she study with and for how long? It's great that you want to praise God this way and that there are bible verses included but as people who really love this dance we take offense when someone clearly hasn't studied enough to be offering it to the public.

What she said...

Originally Posted by SamarDahab

Which classical moves exactly are you referring to? What are you basing this on? Who did she study with and for how long? It's great that you want to praise God this way and that there are bible verses included but as people who really love this dance we take offense when someone clearly hasn't studied enough to be offering it to the public.

Originally Posted by maniatisa

I got this DVD. I am a Christian and this is a great DVD for praise dance. There are many bible verses that speak of dance and praise to His name. I think she did a great job on this using all classical moves of the dance.

I was attracted by the title and thought there would be valuable information and beautiful flowing movements a la Isadora Duncan or Ruth St Denis, but...the instruction is more on the fitness side done by an instructor who obviously hasn't been dancing very long. The movements are not correct, her hands are not graceful. Belly dance is not swinging your hips right and left like a duck, it is an art that requires years to study.
I have been dancing and teaching for more than 10 years and I have collected over 200 belly dance DVDs and videos, almost everything that is on the market. There are many other DVDs to praise God (or the Goddess!) with.

This is the review on Amazon above your own very generous one.
This reviewer seems to know what she is talking about. I am sure the Almighty has more important things on their mind than taking notice of how good or bad a dancer is but dancers will take the time and the technique was NOT good.

Originally Posted by MakedaMaysa

*snort* I think God wishes His Name was kept out of a lot of things that people tie Him to.

Amen

Originally Posted by maniatisa View Post
I got this DVD. I am a Christian and this is a great DVD for praise dance. There are many bible verses that speak of dance and praise to His name. I think she did a great job on this using all classical moves of the dance.

Since I refuse to buy this dvd so I can post my comment on Amazon, I'll reply to your post here.

As a professional bellydancer of many many years, I can say that this instructor is definitely not professional in any form what so ever, and has no clue of safe dance practices. What and how she is teaching on this dvd will cause injuries to those trying to follow her instruction. This is not a dance style where someone can just throw on a hipscarf and say "I am a professional bellydancer". To be a professional in this dance it takes many years of practice and dedication, furthering your dance education and perfecting the art of bellydance by attending workshops with other professional bellydancers with much more experience than yourself. I see no evidence of this in Porsha at all. I can say that I feel sorry for anyone who buys this dvd thinking this is a professional bellydance instructor. Do yourself a favour...go to a class where you will learn how to dance safely and learn correct bellydance technique, then you can safely dance to your songs of praise knowing that you will not sustain irreversible injuries.

What's amazing is that dancing in Biblical days was a normal occurrence. People get pretty uptight about "containing" themselves but I think people believe that if they don't get too passionate about dancing, they will be okay. I doubt King David was thinking about this when he danced before the Ark of the Covenant. And it didn't sound like God was offended by it either.

i love, LOVE the look on the lady's face at the back !

Originally Posted by MakedaMaysa

*snort* I think God wishes His Name was kept out of a lot of things that people tie Him to.

Really - the two are separate.

Originally Posted by Fotia

Bellydance and religion should be separate. Today I don't think that bellydance is being touted as a worshipful dance and yet people seem to be more and more associating their paganism or other spirituality to it. Nothing wrong with expressing your spirituality but let's remember that the dance is for all walks of life and worship.

My two cents, IMHO.

Yah... plus I dont really understand why bellydance is associated with paganism... is it supposed to be?

Originally Posted by Athenaserpent

i love, LOVE the look on the lady's face at the back !

DITTO! ..l;,

I can't really tell you about why it has pagan associations, I can just tell you that Belly dance isn't associated with any particular religion. Some people choose to associate them, but there is no natural association.

Originally Posted by jameelanajla

Yah... plus I dont really understand why bellydance is associated with paganism... is it supposed to be?

I think the Pagan connection grew alongside interest in Goddess worship.1980s maybe. Then it seems to get tied up with Ancient Egypt.
I too wonder how a Middle Eastern Art form gets tangled up with the modern versions of an ancient European religion.

Originally Posted by Veil_Dancer

Since I refuse to buy this dvd so I can post my comment on Amazon, I'll reply to your post here.

As a professional bellydancer of many many years, I can say that this instructor is definitely not professional in any form what so ever, and has no clue of safe dance practices. What and how she is teaching on this dvd will cause injuries to those trying to follow her instruction. This is not a dance style where someone can just throw on a hipscarf and say "I am a professional bellydancer". To be a professional in this dance it takes many years of practice and dedication, furthering your dance education and perfecting the art of belly dance by attending workshops with other professional belly dancers with much more experience than yourself. I see no evidence of this in Porsha at all. I can say that I feel sorry for anyone who buys this dvd thinking this is a professional bellydance instructor. Do yourself a favour...go to a class where you will learn how to dance safely and learn correct bellydance technique, then you can safely dance to your songs of praise knowing that you will not sustain irreversible injuries.

I don't see how you can say any of this since your first statement is that you refuse to buy the video? How does one make a review with out actually seeing the video? Also how does one get to the conclusion that she has just throw on a hip scarf and started dancing? I agree from the clip she is not the best dancer in the world, but you can say that about alot of teachers. In defence of the dancer if this is the same person that I think it is. She is from the MD/D.C area. She has been dancing and teaching for along time. I think I met her once years ago were I went to her class. She spent most of the class talking about the history of belly dance,the different styles and how its really hard and "not as easy as it looks". She seemed very knowable about belly dance. But the class was not advanced enough for me so i never went back. Also I personally only like to take classes from people who i admire there dancing. Plus she is more of a "bellydance for fun and fitness" type

Regarding the question several people asked above regarding how belly dancing became entangled with goddesses, these books are culpable:

Earth Dancing by Daniela Gioseffi
Cave to Cult to Cabaret by Jamila Salimpour

oh, and which goddesses? im curious