Thread: My first inspiration...who inspired you?

I was taking classes at the YWCA with Fatima. She used to be a professional dancer in the 60's and 70's. She always took her classes on a "field trip" to see a local dancer and experience a night in an Arabic night club. I loved belly dancing from the beginning and loved Fatima, who remained a life-long friend until her death a few years ago. But it was my first "field trip" that got me hooked!!! We'd go armed with our hand made belts and zills to join in with the audience dancing. That's how we got our feet wet and learned to dance to live music.

So one day she took us to Omar Khayyam's. It was the first time I'd been in an Arabic club. The show (meaning music) started at 9:30 so our reservation was for 9 p.m. The dancer's first show was at 10 p.m. At that time, depending on what night it was, there were 2-3 dancers who did 2 shows a night. We went on an off night so it was only Kaywakeb who did two shows. I'll never forget it! She came out in a fabulouse green and gold costume, with a green eyelash overskirt and a gold lame underskirt, with ruffled poofy tucks (I later bought that costume and it is my profile pic minus the gold underskirt and poofy tucks!) She was so gorgeous and the most beautiful smile. I can remember watching her and thinking, "I want to be like her". She was treated like a star and all the men were buying her roses. (Back then the clubs had cigarette girls and flower girls, just like in the movies!)

I was thrilled to get a chance to meet her. A couple years later, I discovered her teacher was Princess Madiha and I signed up for life!!!

Anyway, this is the only video I have of her. I wish I had a live performance video because she was just magic on the stage with a live band!!!!

Last I heard of her, she moved to NY. Studied a bit with Bobby Farrah. I don't know what happened to her after that.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9cvWD-tEZE]YouTube - Kawakeb, Detroit Belly Dancer, Loubat el hoob[/ame]

Dancers at family functions, then as a teen - Going to 8th Ave NYC clubs in 60's with my beatnik older sister - the Bellydancers totally captivated me!
Specifically - my first formal teacher, Amira (Joanne I.) of NE NY & Montreal. She had the soul of Middle East dance just naturally.

Dancers at Greektown informally dancing off to the side. What I saw was poetry in motion and I knew I had to do it. About six weeks after starting, I noticed my body shape changing and I have to say that that was an added incentive. But the beauty of it the first time I saw it was all it took - love at first sight.

This clearly dates me as a baby dancer, but my first awe-inspiring experience was watching Sonia on the BDSS DVD with my begginer bellydance class at a house party. I think I mostly just loved her costume (black and silver Versace of Cairo I think), because I didn't really know much about bellydance yet! ^_^ I got into bellydance in the first place more for fitness than from a love of bellydance, (boy have things changed!) First live dancer who blew me away: Aziza, what a personality!

Originally Posted by Letitia

This clearly dates me as a baby dancer, but my first awe-inspiring experience was watching Sonia on the BDSS DVD with my begginer bellydance class at a house party. I think I mostly just loved her costume (black and silver Versace of Cairo I think), because I didn't really know much about bellydance yet! ^_^ I got into bellydance in the first place more for fitness than from a love of bellydance, (boy have things changed!) First live dancer who blew me away: Aziza, what a personality!

You may be a "baby dancer" , but I'm ..... um.... OLD!..l;, More power to ya! How could the dance keep going without baby dancers?!

The first time I saw bellydance I thought I didn't like it! I had seen a couple of clips on a video tape, thought it was kind of boring and turned it off. Yup, I spent the next 5 years thinking "the costumes are nice but it really isn't that interesting"
So who finally inspired me? A beginning dancer, with a semester's worth of experience! As our final project in a Tai Chi class, we had to do a small presentation about something that represented the spirit of Tai Chi for us. One of the ladies in our class performed a few minutes of bellydance and I was absolutely blown away. Not because she was a great dancer, she was clearly a beginner, but her dance obviously contained her spirit and was absolutely beautiful! I asked her after class where she learned it-turns out they had just started a bellydance course on campus that wasn't even in the catalog yet. I signed up for the next semester, and the rest as they say is history.
Nikki

Fifi Fifi Fifi!
I can still remember the moment I saw the video, and we're talking vhs, where she is wearing a white costume on stage and she does this amazing shimmy and taksim for like ever, and I thought to myself 'I want to dance like that'.

Fatina must have stopped the field tripping by the time I took classes with her back in 2000. But I'm guessing it was because there weren't as many clubs that had dancing by that time.

I had been taking classes for a little over a year I think but hadn't actually been inspired yet. I loved the dance and enjoyed watching people but I was limited in my exposure (no Youtube back then). Then Fatina had her advanced class over for a little hafla and she showed us Bobby Farah's "Rare Glimpses" and as soon as Nadia Gamal came on I had found my inspiration!

This is a great question. I wish I had a less embarrassing answer among all these awesome stories. My answer is the cute little cartoon of "I Dream of Jeannie".

Let me explain!

I love to draw! I've been drawing since the age of five. I've been dancing since birth. Soooo, as a kid, a lot of times, I would try to mimic a lot of dances and things that I saw on television. So when the show became syndicated, I remember my mom telling me to pay attention to the theme as it was playing one day. She said that I was going to love it. She told me she loved how the little cartoon genie would come out of the bottle and dance her way towards Major Nelson. Well, that's all she had to say ... cartoon and dance ... I was already hooked.

So seeing a cute little cartoon dance on screen just caught my attention and stuck with me. Then my mom told me that there is a real dance out there called bellydancing that the little cartoon was doing. Being a kid, I tried to mimic that little dance. Of course, when I got older, I realize that those particular moves were down right impossible. ..l;, (you know how animation is) But back to the story, later I started seeing dancers on these Sinbad movies and I remember telling myself that one day I was going to do this dance no matter what.

So, yep there it is. A cartoon caught my attention 1st. For me, I guess it was meant to be that way. I love animation and I love dance! Yep, I'm so flushed right now. All these beautiful stories and here I am talking about a cartoon. But like a said, I still love to draw, watch animated movies and dance ... so I guess it was the perfect introduction for me.

Sakti Rinek from Taos, New Mexico.

I saw her performing at a fair of some kind when I was about 6. She had on a pink costume.

I wanted to take classes from that point on.

Originally Posted by cygemini29

This is a great question. I wish I had a less embarrassing answer among all these awesome stories. My answer is the cute little cartoon of "I Dream of Jeannie".

Let me explain!

I love to draw! I've been drawing since the age of five. I've been dancing since birth. Soooo, as a kid, a lot of times, I would try to mimic a lot of dances and things that I saw on television. So when the show became syndicated, I remember my mom telling me to pay attention to the theme as it was playing one day. She said that I was going to love it. She told me she loved how the little cartoon genie would come out of the bottle and dance her way towards Major Nelson. Well, that's all she had to say ... cartoon and dance ... I was already hooked.

So seeing a cute little cartoon dance on screen just caught my attention and stuck with me. Then my mom told me that there is a real dance out there called bellydancing that the little cartoon was doing. Being a kid, I tried to mimic that little dance. Of course, when I got older, I realize that those particular moves were down right impossible. ..l;, (you know how animation is) But back to the story, later I started seeing dancers on these Sinbad movies and I remember telling myself that one day I was going to do this dance no matter what.

So, yep there it is. A cartoon caught my attention 1st. For me, I guess it was meant to be that way. I love animation and I love dance! Yep, I'm so flushed right now. All these beautiful stories and here I am talking about a cartoon. But like a said, I still love to draw, watch animated movies and dance ... so I guess it was the perfect introduction for me.

Thank you for your sweet story, & honesty! It's YOUR experience, and YOUR memory!

I feel in love the very first time I saw bellydancing in person at a Renaissance Fair when I was 16. Six very lovely ladies of various sizes and one man doing both fast and slow dances and a hypnotizing sword dance. I returned every year I could after that just to see the dancing.

It took me twenty years to finally start to take lessons from a teacher though. I lived in an area where it was hard/impossible to find a teacher until recently and all the dancers I had seen were American style/Vintage Oriental. Since my religion has a thing about not exposing your stomach... well until about five years ago when the internet allowed me to do some of my own research...

I don't think I will ever stop dancing now.

When I turned 16 I asked for these instructional videotapes that were in a mail-order catalog: Atea's Fast and Slow Moves. On the tapes are some great AmCab dancing. There's a dancer called Dahlia that I LOOOVED. All of the dancers (Fahtiem, Anaheed, Atlantis, probably another dancer I can't remember) were great but for some reason I fell in love with Dahlia. She was pretty, relaxed and confident. All my friends would come over and we'd pop the video in, tie whatever scrap fabric around our hips and try to figure out how Fahtiem did her side to side bellyroll. I didn't start taking lessons until years later, though, and when I did, Jillina's instructional videos were out and she became my new inspiration.

And when I passed Fahtiem in the hallway at a bellydance festival, I was like OMG she looks JUST like the video :D

Well I was 9 years old and missed my flight out of seattle to SLC after visiting my dad. My sis and I ended up having to stay with the stewardess (this was 1972) who was having a middle eastern themed party that night and they had a dancer. I was stunned, amazed, hooked like heroin, and never looked back. I made some funny costumes but as far as I was concerned they were magnificent! Oh yes and my grandma gave me a "harem" costume from Fredericks of Hollywood. In SLC at the time there were No teachers. Those that were trying to learn had to travel to San Fran for lessons. My friends and I bought books (Ozels) and LPs w/ instructions. It wasn't till the 80's that classes were generally available in this area. To this day i have no idea who the dancer was.
Andrea

I liked the I Dream of Jeannie dance too!

1971 , ansuys mom ! studied with her alot..saw her at the fez on my 21st bday

In 2000, my husband got me Hossam Ramzy's "Stars of Egypt" videos as a Christmas gift (bless his heart). Naima Akef was a revelation...

I think it was Delilah, actually. I saw her video with all the crazy belly rolls, and I was intrigued. I wanted to look that serpentine.

Hala al Safy. I saw this clip only a few months after I started taking classes and I was hooked completely:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGqvYQE7uiQ]YouTube - Hala al Safy and Metkal Kanawi_1[/ame]

Mona el Said !!! I was having already bellydance lessons in Greece, but a mix style of whatever goes lol and I got my first video-tape from an arab place with bellydance.
And I saw Mona el Said, that was it ! ..g.:

Originally Posted by MariaAya

Mona el Said !!! I was having already bellydance lessons in Greece, but a mix style of whatever goes lol and I got my first video-tape from an arab place with bellydance.
And I saw Mona el Said, that was it ! ..g.:

yep. Me too. Mona Said is the THE best.

Aziza of Portland/Canada. I already loved belly dance but seeing her perform on a tiny videoclip is wat really put me into overdrive ;) Haven't recovered since.

This is a great question. I wish I had a less embarrassing answer among all these awesome stories. My answer is the cute little cartoon of "I Dream of Jeannie".

Let me explain!

I love to draw! I've been drawing since the age of five. I've been dancing since birth. Soooo, as a kid, a lot of times, I would try to mimic a lot of dances and things that I saw on television. So when the show became syndicated, I remember my mom telling me to pay attention to the theme as it was playing one day. She said that I was going to love it. She told me she loved how the little cartoon genie would come out of the bottle and dance her way towards Major Nelson. Well, that's all she had to say ... cartoon and dance ... I was already hooked.

So seeing a cute little cartoon dance on screen just caught my attention and stuck with me. Then my mom told me that there is a real dance out there called bellydancing that the little cartoon was doing. Being a kid, I tried to mimic that little dance. Of course, when I got older, I realize that those particular moves were down right impossible. (you know how animation is) But back to the story, later I started seeing dancers on these Sinbad movies and I remember telling myself that one day I was going to do this dance no matter what.

So, yep there it is. A cartoon caught my attention 1st. For me, I guess it was meant to be that way. I love animation and I love dance! Yep, I'm so flushed right now. All these beautiful stories and here I am talking about a cartoon. But like a said, I still love to draw, watch animated movies and dance ... so I guess it was the perfect introduction for me.

..g.:

You're not the only one with a story like this. With me it was some cheesy old '1001 nights' style movie which I saw when I was about 4. I've never actually identified which one for certain, but I was swept away by it and even sneakily crafted myself a bedlah out of the contents of my mother's scarf drawer (much to her horror )

All that got put on ice though and I never learned to dance anything until I was at university. I have been lucky to find something inspiring in all of the teachers I have been to. Particular moments that really motivated me were a hafla orgnised by our own Deelybopper (also featuring Wigglewhiz) about 4 years ago, which is where I first saw oriental cabaret being performed live and a workshop last February with Aziza where she just improvised on the spot for us - I'd never before felt such energy off a dancer!

Fifi, by a long shot!

As for teachers, it's definitely been Hadia and Denise Enan. These ladies completely changed my approach to dance. I don't dance to impress others anymore... I dance for, and in the music. I can't say how rewarding an experience that has been for me.

This arresting image inspired me!



It was QUITE different from anything else in my life at the time! ..l;,
So I got the book out of the library & started studying!

Originally Posted by kharis_UK

yep. Me too. Mona Said is the THE best.

Mona, Mona, Mona!!! :)


I have been inspired by many . . . Lots of great dancers from here and there! Amaya of New Mexico (she was living in Austin when I first encountered her) inspired me so much during some of my first workshops. It is great to have video idols as you can play the vids over and over but a real person standing in front of you can propel you so far!!!!

Ozel Turkbas and Helena Vlahos

Way back in 1983, my dad had a mix tape of bellydancers and Suhair zakis performance stuck out to me the most. Its that performance of her in abu dubi wearing red. we had a restaurant and had many dancers there but they didnt really inspire me.

Then I went to Syria in 1984 and saw all the relatives dancing and thought i want to dance like that but felt to shy to try.

Ansuya's Live at Al Amir DVD.

Honestly, I'm working with my inspirations! When I was a baby dancer, I went to a local event and when Lotus Niraja and The NDC hit the stage, that was the moment I decided I wanted to be a professional dancer. Seeing a troupe full of women of color gave me something to which I could aspire. When I finally signed my contract to join The NDC, I cried because I'd reached my goal. It's still breathtaking to dance with them.