Thread: What style is this?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIuLEN3Rqgs]YouTube - Camelia egyptian bellydancer - Gran Hyatt boat Cairo - saiidi[/ame]

It looks like to me a very tahtib approach...very masculine and energetic..is that slap under her inner thigh a part of it?

It doesn't look very saidi to me..what do u guys think?

Totally Sa'aidi! But with Camellia's own personal style.

Yup, Saidii with the heady scent of 'eau de Camillia' . I think I've been hypnotised. Sigh. ..g.:

Originally Posted by Fushia

It looks like to me a very tahtib approach...very masculine and energetic..is that slap under her inner thigh a part of it?

It doesn't look very saidi to me..what do u guys think?

I agree that there were definitely tahtib aspects toward the beginning...like from :15 to :20 or so. That part does strike me as kind of masculine. The rest of it is very energetic, even aggressive. It does have sa'idi qualities, but I think it's more a reflection of her unique style than strictly sa'idi style.

I would call this style 'awesome'.
:)
I do see the tahtib influence at the beginning, overall it seems to be a very interpretive assaya while retaining that basic essence. Thanks for sharing the clip!

I haven't seen the slapping under the thigh before, so I don't know if that is a recognized gesture or just something she did for effect. It certainly looks like it could be a taunting gesture that might be done during tahtib, and there is definitely a strong masculine stylization to parts of the performance. If you watch closely, she flips her hand position on the stick before she goes into the backbend, which is the more powerful grip that the men use. Per Virginia of Miami, that is the grip Yousry Sharif advocates for aggressive stickwork (i.e., harder/faster twirling or using a longer/heavier assaya).

Her overhand grip at :44 is the same style that Fifi Abdo uses when she wants to do fast twirling.

Wow, love her style.

She is a little wild in her style, and that's really nice and wow! I think she's totally feminine, just temperamental. I think a lot depends just on the individual character and his or her choices, not all schools and rules. I love saidi for it's temperamental and she really dances it nicely!

(Male) Sa`iidi - most Sa`iidi we learn is the male dance style. In this case it hasn't been watered down by Reda niceness. A lot of belly dancer cane is either Reda filtered or beledi which is less grunty.

Must add Camelia is one of my favourite current dancers.

Grunty...good word!

I love Camelia. She is really a breath of fresh air on the Egyptian scene and totally herself which is great to see.

Where is she from anyway?

wow, that is the most furious saidi I've ever seen...she is a very strong woman! that stick looks very thick..

saidi fo sho

i dig her too. that's nice.

Camelia is a unique egyptian dancer;
whatever she does(saiidi,orientale,drum solo,shaabi,khaleegy)she is not to be copied IMO...she has bigger ***** than most men;D

Wild,strong,free and crazy Camelia;
I love you!

"I would call this style 'awesome'." I agree! She's great

Originally Posted by Zamira

Where is she from anyway?

She's actually Egyptian - which is great.

First time I've seen her. Certainly a bit rough. But personally I love dancers with their own unique style and a bit on the raw side. I'm sick to death of over choreographed dancers with no personality of their own. I'll have to check her out some more.

"Raw" definitely is a term which is très à la mode. They showed Kate Moss without make-up on a magazine cover and announced it as "raw", too.

Crazy make-up here, makes her look really like an Indian wooden statue (does btw. sharqi mean: foreign, exotic, "from India" in the ears of Arabs?).

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNjkEqcCurI]YouTube - Camelia - Egyptian dancer[/ame]

The tabla solo is definitely raw and pretty eclectic what dance style is concerned. Yes dancing needs to be spontaneous.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5SVbRwYiak&feature=related]YouTube - Camelia tabla 1[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKFsZZsODf8&feature=related]YouTube - Camelia tabla 2[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCBezo27WK4&feature=related]YouTube - Camelia melaya[/ame]

Originally Posted by Nouria

"Raw" definitely is a term which is très à la mode. They showed Kate Moss without make-up on a magazine cover and announced it as "raw", too.

Crazy make-up here, makes her look really like an Indian wooden statue (does btw. sharqi mean: foreign, exotic, "from India" in the ears of Arabs?).

I love these clips - good antedote to some of the prissy controlled BDSS BS that's been around lately.

I think the makeup is actaully just poor video quality - I don't see anything that odd about it.

You have to take the phrase "raqs sharqi" as a unit - "eastern dance" ie nightclub belly dance. You can no more analyse it word by word than many other language phrases - but I don't think sharqi means Indian specifically - and as she was doing shamadan I don't think she'd be trying to emulat that!

ok, I just wondered what "oriental" means once you're in the "Orient".

Camelia, she does a lot of moves which look like: just dancing, not really bellydance moves. The dancers like BDSS and most of us dancers in the "West" are taught to adapt the moves into a shape and to stay within that frame. Like, if we leave the frame of that we aren't "authentic" Egyptian style-dancers anymore.
If you're an Egyptian dancer born in Egypt, you don't worry about this, I guess, you'll always be part of the Egyptian thing anyway.... we need to maybe be more aware of our individuality and being authentic ourselves than only worshipping a style. That's what I think when I see her dancing...

Originally Posted by Nouria

ok, I just wondered what "oriental" means once you're in the "Orient".

Strictly East of where they are - where teh sun rises. But the phrase was invented for Europeans

Originally Posted by Nouria

Camelia, she does a lot of moves which look like: just dancing, not really bellydance moves. The dancers like BDSS and most of us dancers in the "West" are taught to adapt the moves into a shape and to stay within that frame. Like, if we leave the frame of that we aren't "authentic" Egyptian style-dancers anymore.

Where do you get this from? What this dancer is doing is belly dance - real belly dance. Bellydance is a gut reaction dance - not a set of carefully labelled moves. Yes, professional dancers add sophisication and footwork - but real bellydance is not that cold, plastic crap from BDSS where "techique" overrides the passion of the dance.

Originally Posted by Afrit09

Where do you get this from? What this dancer is doing is belly dance - real belly dance. Bellydance is a gut reaction dance - not a set of carefully labelled moves.

I didn't suppose it was, don't get me wrong.
Just I say, Western dancers care more to stay within their movement-frame, maybe from lack of confidence of what comes out spontaneously will not look "Egyptian" anymore, for we can't legitimate our spontaneity as well as someone born and dancing in Egypt. This bears the danger of being sterile. I don't want to throw dirt at the BDSS for they're a show group and whoever makes a show has to take their audiences into consideration, so this is not the question. It is a matter of classroom practice, training, rehearsals which tend to shape your body perfectly into a special esthetics and we are told to stay within, or it may become our second nature, our idea of what is right and beautiful and Egyptian. I mean if you look at some dancers, they managed to emulate a certain dancer's style almost perfectly, but the creative thing and the authenticity towards one's own self is lost.

When you see Camelia, this is sort of obvious.
I didn't mean she doesn't do bellydance, but she integrates a lot of moves that are any sort of dance moves and not specifically bellydance. She doesn't look very sophisticated, but raw and contagious and yes, she does what she feels like and at the same time does away with a lot of what appears like the modern movement codes defined by Raqia Hassan and spread over the world...to me it is a statement for individuality and it's encouraging to try out more things in one's own dance.

Originally Posted by Nouria

I didn't mean she doesn't do bellydance, but she integrates a lot of moves that are any sort of dance moves and not specifically bellydance. She doesn't look very sophisticated, but raw and contagious and yes, she does what she feels like and at the same time does away with a lot of what appears like the modern movement codes defined by Raqia Hassan and spread over the world...to me it is a statement for individuality and it's encouraging to try out more things in one's own dance.

I think Camelia is a little bit beledi ..g.: Raqia Hassan's style - which has its own, different, type of grunt when watching Raqia herself perform - developed out of a Reda background which is quite codified. The way she changed what is perceived as the Egyptian style is why post-Raqia is often referred to as "Modern Egyptian" - because it was very different from earlier dancers - not only the Golden Age but Mona, Ngawa, Fifi, Souheir Zaki etc. However, other styles were still around in Egypt.

Originally Posted by kashmir

I think Camelia is a little bit beledi ..g.: Raqia Hassan's style - which has its own, different, type of grunt when watching Raqia herself perform - developed out of a Reda background which is quite codified. The way she changed what is perceived as the Egyptian style is why post-Raqia is often referred to as "Modern Egyptian" - because it was very different from earlier dancers - not only the Golden Age but Mona, Ngawa, Fifi, Souheir Zaki etc. However, other styles were still around in Egypt.

I love the strength and energetic stuff that comes from Raqia, and Camelia is definetely from that Raqia-generation.
But when I see foreign dancers à la mode in Cairo, like Soraya, Katia, Dalila and so, they all seem to have fit themselves into the current shape in fashion, while Camelia has an energy that makes her burst out of it somehow...
that's an impression I got, but sure there are dancers on bhuz that can follow these things from closer than I can.