Thread: Dance Code spinoff: the YouTubes

Originally Posted by naiyahayal

Hi, lovely Emma! I'm curious about what you call "samiyas" -- I do something I call "the Samia Gamal" step, but no one else knows what I mean by that. I just call it that because it reminds me of a step she does and I love it .....I don't know what it's really called ..... mine is done while walking backwards with a "side slide" ..... ???.w.:

It is a sidestep:will try to find it in a clip to watch(says more than a thousand words!)
Since I learned it from Raqia,it was probably her name for the step-
I go to Samasems classes and she uses the Jamila Salimpour format,will ask her about other names for it!

Think of it as similar to haggala walk or 3/4 shimmy in terms of where the weight changes and accents are...I promise to find some clip...

[quote=naiyahayal;195593]

Originally Posted by emma-bessa

Yes!
Breathing means a lot more than flutters to me...
QUOTE]


I am embarrassed to admit -- all these years, and breath or no breath, I've not been able to master flutters ............ am I alone???? I look ridiculous, no matter how hard I've tried .... and I have tried and tried ..... maybe my tummy is too poofy????

Nooo!
It has nothing to do with shape at all!
Hey-we wear almost the same size,you´re calling me poofy?..l;,

Don´t use this move much at all but when I do I lock my esophagus (*not* my mouth)and then "try"to breathe in and out in short fast pulses.

Since I am a confirmed breath holder under stress...childhood training (...not gonna cry, wont give you the satisfaction) I can flutta like a mutha!

Originally Posted by anala

Oh God...sorry!! that one! I love it. The sleeves were way small, so I took out the zippers and turned them sideways and put a dart in the bottom so now they are arm bands that hide elbows as well. I am reworking a vintage Beledi Boutique bedlah in silver lame with graduated black and silver fringe that looks very golden era and it should be done in a month or so. Wait till you see this set put together! Will correct the Ebay over sight ASAP. Did the burgundy one sell?

Oooooo - pix when it's finished, please .... sounds lovely!!! No worries, just "cleaning up" my Ebay stuff..... Nope -- burgundy never did sell.....I tried separately and with the bedlah. It's a slightly different design, but the fabric is similar. But the veil is the killler...it's two veils, actually, one wine, one white, edged in pailettes and joined at one corner (like wings, but rectangles). Same type of sleeves (zippers). I think the problem is I took lousy pictures ..... I need to hold someone hostage, tie them to a pole, and pay them to model about two suitcases of stuff ......

SORRY, REALLY RAMBLED OFF TOPIC HERE .w.: ....... going back to Emma's on topic post now .......

Originally Posted by emma-bessa

It is a sidestep:will try to find it in a clip to watch(says more than a thousand words!)
Since I learned it from Raqia,it was probably her name for the step-
I go to Samasems classes and she uses the Jamila Salimpour format,will ask her about other names for it!

Think of it as similar to haggala walk or 3/4 shimmy in terms of where the weight changes and accents are...I promise to find some clip...

I think that's it! Are you going backwards while you do it? Would love to see a clip!

PS -- no, I never see "poofiness" in anyone else ...l;, you are perfect! ...... I just always feel like my tummy is poofy even when my weight is down ...... guess it's all the carbs I love ....

You know -- I just remembered -- I took one of Raqia's first workshops here in the Bay Area a few years ago -- maybe that's where I picked it up!

Originally Posted by anala

Since I am a confirmed breath holder under stress...childhood training (...not gonna cry, wont give you the satisfaction) I can flutta like a mutha!

..... without grimacing? (any clips?)

nope...serene smile with closed mouth the whole time. No clips. I despise watching myself so I never encourage vids unless it is of the troupe as a whole. Part of it may just come easily due to the harmonica playing. The diaphram (sp) is the dominant muscle for any kind of breath control. I can also speak into a huge room with out a mic with no "shouting" quality to my voice.

Originally Posted by naiyahayal

I think that's it! Are you going backwards while you do it? Would love to see a clip!

If I´m going backward or forward it´s a 3/4 shimmy-
but if used to the left/right or on the diagonal with the same weight changes some of my teachers called it samiya/samia(probably after Samia Gamal)
A common traveling step in both folkloric and cabaret so I´m quite bummed that I couldn´t find any clips with it!..cr.:

Edited to add:
Going to Swedish bellydance classes we learn this step in first,second or third term-
so it´s not an advanced step all all.
(I´m an intermediate student myself.)

Originally Posted by kina

I think it's more the underlying resentment of some of the supercilious tone to describe "native" teachers and what they have to give via their teaching.

yes, it's a niche (that Sausan is occupying), but it smacks of orientalism and has overtones of subtle racism... natives can't possibly teach something that is intrinsic to their culture because they can't grasp the way that the people who are trying to learn think, seems to be the message of that niche advertising.

I don't find it racist at all.

The way I relate speaking/writing/understanding English will be very different to someone who has learnt it from a book or classroom for a whole number of reasons. They will notice things about the language that to me are natural and perhaps I've never even thought about. They'll probably pick me up on grammar because that gets jiggled round by common use, we (as native speakers) generally understand what each other is talking about. The only real time I speant learning grammar was when I studied Spanish!

We are approaching a dance intrinsically bound with the music that is not ours we can't help but come to it with a Western ear and concepts of rhythm and movement. That is not to say we can't learn it. ..c:: I'll run and hide now.

How did I miss this discussion?

Originally Posted by straightleftknee

I don't find it racist at all.

The way I relate speaking/writing/understanding English will be very different to someone who has learnt it from a book or classroom for a whole number of reasons. They will notice things about the language that to me are natural and perhaps I've never even thought about. They'll probably pick me up on grammar because that gets jiggled round by common use, we (as native speakers) generally understand what each other is talking about. The only real time I speant learning grammar was when I studied Spanish!

We are approaching a dance intrinsically bound with the music that is not ours we can't help but come to it with a Western ear and concepts of rhythm and movement. That is not to say we can't learn it. ..c:: I'll run and hide now.

Yes, but the originator of the code says that people who are native speakers of the language that this particular variation comes from are not capable of teaching to people who are not of the same cultural and linguistic background as her marketing niche.

Of course we come to it with Western ears and concepts (if we are from the West) and I come to it with a different slant than you might, if even our "common" language of English is spoken differently.

That doesn't mean we can't communicate complex thoughts and analysis to each other, which is what EDC originator says.

That's what's subtly patronizing and offensive about it.

hmm, again I don't see it as patronising.
Curious - Have people examined the content of the theory rather than getting hot under the collar over a perceived racial offence? (which I consider to be down to a choice of words).

I bought the materials and it will be my winter project...along with trying to create the BadAss Belly Dance Cyber Troupe before we all grow so old we dont recognize our own photos!

Originally Posted by straightleftknee

Curious - Have people examined the content of the theory

Extensively. Oh god, extensively.