Thread: Project Belly Dance - Top Bellydancer 1st Episode Review

Hey all,

Wanted to let you all know MJ and I spoke last week and all is good in the hood. :)

And I want to clarify that my experience with PBD was extremely positive, and I am so glad I was selected, and have made many new friends.

It was a great experience overall, and I am so grateful for the things I learned and the hard work involved.

Lindsey ~
www.LindseyFeeney.com

Originally Posted by Lindsey

Hey all,

Wanted to let you all know MJ and I spoke last week and all is good in the hood. :)

And I want to clarify that my experience with PBD was extremely positive, and I am so glad I was selected, and have made many new friends.

It was a great experience overall, and I am so grateful for the things I learned and the hard work involved.

Lindsey ~
www.LindseyFeeney.com

Where is the "like" button to click? :)

Originally Posted by yeli

Where is the "like" button to click? :)

Couldn't agree more!!
I just watched episode 1 (can't wait to watch the others!) and I wanted to congratulate all of you ladies who danced, you did an amazing job.
I also enjoyed the judges commentary.

Originally Posted by Lindsey

Hey all,

Wanted to let you all know MJ and I spoke last week and all is good in the hood. :)

And I want to clarify that my experience with PBD was extremely positive, and I am so glad I was selected, and have made many new friends.

It was a great experience overall, and I am so grateful for the things I learned and the hard work involved.

Lindsey ~
www.LindseyFeeney.com

Yeah, it seems like the misunderstanding was when the interviewer said "so, this is all your brainchild?" He was asking because they were just talking about how she had been thinking about that concept for a while. But the group choreo was a group effort and Lindsey thought he was trying to stir it up by getting her to claim credit for other peoples' work. Thus the confusion. I can see how when you are nervous and a little worried about how you will be cut together that you might be overly sensitive to any question that might in any way make you look like a jerk.

Originally Posted by Linahdancer

Couldn't agree more!!
I just watched episode 1 (can't wait to watch the others!) and I wanted to congratulate all of you ladies who danced, you did an amazing job.
I also enjoyed the judges commentary.

Linah, you are in for a treat. Episode 2 has been up for a while and Episode 3 gets posted on Monday. So you can totally binge!

speaking of 'that interviewer' ... what a CUTIE-PIE!!!! he is taken though ;)

still going crazy waiting for episode three... it looks SO intense, juicy, and full of HOT dancing!!! :)

Excited and waiting for episode three. Had a wonderful stitch, kvetch, and watch with friends for episode two. Had so much fun, plan to do it again.

Originally Posted by ShirazRaqs

speaking of 'that interviewer' ... what a CUTIE-PIE!!!!

And a saint for doing this project!

I can't wait for the next episode! I'm so excited.

I just stumbled across this show today (here on Bhuz actually) and just watched all three shows in one sitting. It's down to the final 6, and you have til Feb 11 to vote for your favorite!

Hi ladies!

What did you think of episodes 2 and 3?
I watched episode 2 a few days ago, and was a little too lazy to word out the little notes I took for myself then. Now that episode 3 is online already, I guess I will kind of "review" them together:

- Episode 2: What came to mind most from this episode for me is I was so sad to have less commentary than for episode1! when I said I would have loved even more analysis and (friendly) critique of the dances and dancers in episode 1, there was less of the analysis and talk in episode 2. what a pity!
Dance-wise my favorites got mixed up. I liked Katayoun and Yvonne better in episode 2 than 1, my first episode top 4 favorite Karolina dropped slightly in my favorites with the improvised performance, sadly, where I liked her drum solo but not so much the first part of the dance.
Andalee and Shems confirmed to be my top top favorites, plus I really loved Sherena, and also Viktoriya was lovely in this episode. I adored her costume!!

What I thought could have made the episode/impro challenge a thousand times more interesting and exciting is if music was used the dancers could not possibly know. Thinking of Californian possibilities, maybe one could make a collaboration with Hollywood Music to feature a not yet released music cd, with benefit for them to have their music prominently used, and the benefit for the show to really have an exciting impro challenge? As much as I loved Shemses' performance, I thought it was a pity she seemed to know the song very well.
Photo-wise - boy that challenge was great :) Sure i loved yvonne's photo, but the favorite I wrote down for myself (no cheating when you write it down :) ) before the announcement of the winner was Andalee's. All three of her poses were SO great, simple but perfect and effective. Loved them. will try in front of the mirror

I agreed very much with the 6 dancers entering the semi-finale, unlike for other reality shows who seem to deliberately stir controversy by kicking out top favorites, selection here is very agreeable I thought.

- Episode 3: same length, so no extensive commentary as I would like, but a little more than in episode 2, making me happy! I think more commentary would render the show more "tv entertainment"-like on the one hand, more enjoyable for a broader crowd including people who do not actively go out to watch a whole lot of bellydance videos for "educational" purposes (the commentary would lighten up the length of the show for them I imagine), and beginners as well as more advanced dancers could really learn from the judges' opinion, hence why I would love it so much; plus I really really enjoy the analyses that are there already!)
The workshop challenge was interesting. I really loved Shems and Karolina. For some reason I cannot remember my favorite Andalee right now for this challenge! What did she teach? What a pity Viktoriya cut her time short!!!!!

Unfortunately no commentary here, although one could hear some in the overall evaluation later. Thank God! I loved to hear the opinions, here, too.
Dancing: I SO loved Andalee. Loved her interpretation of the music. Love love love. I did not find my other favorites so far Karolina, Shems and Sherena this strong here. Especially Shems's performance was quite different from her very first one (the bomb!) and from the lovely impro dance. Well, it is a lot to ask her to keep up this energy level, I s'ppose...
I thought Yvonne was lovely, but not as unique as Andalee or Shems or Sherena in her style.. and I am not sure why the judges found her to be very Egyptian. In some parts she reminded me a little of Nourhan Sharif, who is so polished and throwing out complicated combinations of steps and moves one after the other, with very ballet-esque style sometimes. She may be Egyptian in a technique, ballet-/folklore background, but I do not consider this extremely polished style very Egyptian per se. Egyptian taken to a very abstracted and highly skilled, but a little sterile level, maybe. Anyways, I did love to watch Yvonne dance here. A lot to learn from her.

I was quite happy to see my 3 of my first episode top 4 favorites go to the finale. A good sign for a reality show, IMO, as said before.
Andalee based on her final dance has a reservation for my vote. Although Shems's "ROCK ON!" almost led me to impulsively vote for her. What a cool and loveable woman

p.s. I have to run out and get all of these music cds.. cant get the music out of my head!!

Originally Posted by dinavienna

I thought Yvonne was lovely, but not as unique as Andalee or Shems or Sherena in her style.. and I am not sure why the judges found her to be very Egyptian. In some parts she reminded me a little of Nourhan Sharif, who is so polished and throwing out complicated combinations of steps and moves one after the other, with very ballet-esque style sometimes. She may be Egyptian in a technique, ballet-/folklore background, but I do not consider this extremely polished style very Egyptian per se. Egyptian taken to a very abstracted and highly skilled, but a little sterile level, maybe. Anyways, I did love to watch Yvonne dance here. A lot to learn from her.

I thought they meant she looked more egyptian than the others but I am not sure I agree with that either.

I totally agree about needing more commentary and interviews. I realized as soon as I started editing that it would have been way better if we had more footage of that stuff. We filmed it over just two days and literally every second of the day was spent either filming or setting up, so logistically we just couldn't do it even if we had thought to.

If we ever do it again I also want to get people to talk about what they do in real life, where they are from, etc. Personal details would have made it better also.

Originally Posted by dinavienna

p.s. I have to run out and get all of these music cds.. cant get the music out of my head!!

I'm really glad. I hope everyone does. Each of those artists donated their work for the project.

Finally caught up! Wow, what a lovely bunch of dancers. Michelle, Lotus, and company, you put together a great show.

Forgive me if this has been said and I missed it, but did the dancers choose their own music for the final "dance for your life" challenge?

Originally Posted by michellejoyce

I totally agree about needing more commentary and interviews. I realized as soon as I started editing that it would have been way better if we had more footage of that stuff. We filmed it over just two days and literally every second of the day was spent either filming or setting up, so logistically we just couldn't do it even if we had thought to.

If we ever do it again I also want to get people to talk about what they do in real life, where they are from, etc. Personal details would have made it better also.

that would be so awesome :)))))

Originally Posted by michellejoyce

I'm really glad. I hope everyone does. Each of those artists donated their work for the project.

wow that's great... is there a list of all the music used on the website of top bellydancer?

Originally Posted by michellejoyce

Yeah, it seems like the misunderstanding was when the interviewer said "so, this is all your brainchild?" He was asking because they were just talking about how she had been thinking about that concept for a while. But the group choreo was a group effort and Lindsey thought he was trying to stir it up by getting her to claim credit for other peoples' work. Thus the confusion. I can see how when you are nervous and a little worried about how you will be cut together that you might be overly sensitive to any question that might in any way make you look like a jerk.

They won't let me just post a smiley face ~ so this sentence is accompanying my wink ;)

Originally Posted by dinavienna

wow that's great... is there a list of all the music used on the website of top bellydancer?

http://topbellydancer.com/music.html