Thread: Has Jillina created a new style of belly dance?

I was watching videos of Jillina's choreo on the Belly Dance Evolution site (go Eshe!) and I'm not lying when I say that I didn't recognize a lot of that choreo as "belly dance". It seemed weird to me. Then i got to thinking...did she create a new style of her own? What kind of belly dance is this?

I dunno, am I losing my mind?

PS This is not to hate on Jillina. I adore her and she was my very first belly dance crush. I was so obsessed with her when I was a new dancer and I owe a lot of my growth to her DVD programs.

What an interesting topic of discussion! She was one of my first crushes too, and that performance of hers and the Sahlala dancers in the IAMED Third Annual Awards of BD completely changed my world when I saw it. I obsessed over that performance because I had never seen a belly dancer who was so fast and flashy and well, jazzy! I definitely think she's created her own style of belly dance, much in the same way that Rachel Brice has. The terms that come to mind when I think of Jillina or dancing in a ''Jillina-inspired'' fashion include footwork, jazzy, modern, choreographed, flashy, big, poppy, entertaining........ so yeah, I think you're on to something.....

She also manages to make it look tight but relaxed at the same time.

Isn't she also formally trained in Ballet, Hip-hop & Street Jazz too?

This has long been a discussion here and other places. Jill is definitely Jazz and Hip Hop trained. And she brings a lot of that into her dancing / choreography. Is it inventing a different style? Open for debate. Afterall, Badyia and Reda also brought different - in many cases Wetern - elements into Belly Dance. Jillina may well just be up leveling it.

{{{HUGS}}}

She definitely has her own style, but I'm not sure if she's created a new style of dance, if that makes any sense.

I agree with Tahira's train of thought. I suppose that brings up an important question: what's the difference between your own stylistic additions and having an entirely different style?

Originally Posted by indigostars

She definitely has her own style, but I'm not sure if she's created a new style of dance, if that makes any sense.

Yes. I'm not feeling very eloquent this morning due to insufficient caffeine intake. But I think Jill's just Jill, and you've gotta hand it to her for that!

I hope we'll eventually move away from these neat little boxes of "Egyptian" and "Cabaret" and "Tribal Fusion," and start to leave some wiggle room for individuality. A lot of dancers defy categories and I think that's a highly admirable trait...

Jillina is just Jill, except that she's been choreographing the BDSS for all these years and lots of dancers have been influenced by those choreographies. The huge number of dancers who've auditioned for the show gives some insight into how many dancers have at least wanted to perform Jillina-style.

There's a whole style I think of as BDSS style, which really traces to Jillina (but also to the kind of dancers and cross-trained dance background that the BDSS show looked for). I can often tell when I'm watching a dancer who's very Jillina or BDSS influenced.

I join the Jill = Jill conclusion, and that she's fabulous in having her own style. Also wanted to mention that I find her footwork based on the Reda style combined with jazza/ballet steps.

I'd say due to her recent accomplishement of performing during the Ah wa Salam festival, she is regarded by Raqia Hassan as an excellent dancer in general and well grounded in the Egyptian styles as well.

For her own show, she can choose what to put on stage and she has the freedom to use music from Paul Dilentir and choreography based on her creative insight.

Thank you so much Andalee!!!

Razia-that show blew me away! I felt like she was looking right at me-hard to accomplish that on video! I fell in love with her dance right then and there. She's amazing

Jillina is just Jillina, I love her. No, definitely not a new style of dance, but a very unique personal style that's had ridiculous global influence, because she choreographs for bdss, sahlala and her dvd programs, so there are lots of jillina clones and jillina influenced people out there. I understand if some people don't recognize it as bellydance, but I for the most part do. She is very fusiony though...

What did she perform on the 3rd awards of bellydance?? what song?