Thread: Shakira

What type of belly dancing does Shakira do?

I have read threads from some other sites where people got absolutely verbally skewered for asking this question....members seemed angry that people would ask that, because the dancing she does in her videos is not always belly dancing. But I know that....I'm a huge fan of hers, and so I noted that in some of her videos, like "She Wolf" (English version of Loba), there is no belly dancing...what she is doing is just nightclub stripper kind of dancing...but in other videos she either incorporates belly dance into the video or does a belly dance routine. "Hips Don't Lie" has some belly dance scenes in it, and I believe "Ojos Asi" is a video where she belly dances through the whole thing.

But people here seem nice...so...anyone who has seen her live, or who has seen her videos with a lot of belly dancing in them, and knows enough about the different styles to tell what kind she is doing.....just wanting to know.

Also...are there any other pop stars who either have a background in belly dance or incorporate it into their dancing?

i think her bellydance choreographies, the ones that are just bellydance, were created for her by Bozenka, but that is second hand so you'd need to confirm it.
for the most part her bd is a sort of bd-Latin-club fusion, the exceptions being the short dances that she sometimes does in the intro to a concert, and the bd in those doesn't usually last very long before she goes into her own material. when she is using BD in her videos it's done with a twist, it's fused with Latin and club so that although the movements are bd based they are done with her own flair and they become not very bellydance-y.
looking into some threads about "when is it too much fusion/not bellydance anymore" might give some insight about why people get defensive or react harshly to the question, not to excuse it, just as an fyi. (please don't bring any back to life! i know it's almost Halloween but that would be a bear of a zombie thread! ^_~)

I couldn't bring any fusion arguments back to life. Until I read your reply I didnt even know "fusion" meant mixing other styles with belly dance. I always thought it meant mixing styles of bellydance.

The only videos I stay away from as a beginner because I'm pretty sure it's not a dance lesson at all are those ones labeled "belly dance fitness." It seems pretty much anything with "fitness" on it is an exercise video and not really instructional on dance.

I haven't seen any of Shakira's concert openings...would love to though!

She dances the way they belly dance in Spain. The Spanish teachers, I've learned from all have that sort of hip-hop, flamenco, bdance fusion style. It's not pure belly dance (but really, what is anymore... I suppose I should say, "not pure middle eastern dance")... definitely a fusion, but fun!

Originally Posted by LadyLoba

Until I read your reply I didnt even know "fusion" meant mixing other styles with belly dance. I always thought it meant mixing styles of bellydance.

Please note that the following is meant tongue-in-cheek -- well, sort of:

I think if you are interested in actual belly dancing then just keep on thinking that "fusion" means mixing styles of belly dance in one program. I support you in that definition.

Deborah
a 30-year dance vet who started out as -- just like virtually everybody else at that time -- an "American Cabaret" (aka "fusion") belly dancer.

Originally Posted by LadyLoba

What type of belly dancing does Shakira do?

One of my teachers is a native Middle Easterner, and she is very adamant that the style Shakira does is Reggaeton with a few belly dance moves sprinkled in. This would be considered a fusion style. In answer to your other comment, fusion usually refers to belly dance plus something else, but it can also be a mix of belly dance styles. Unfortunately, when you start combining, say, Egyptian with Turkish, the average dancer would just assume you were intending to do an American style (which is, by definition, a melting pot of various Mediterranean elements). OTOH, if you were doing a Saidi cane piece to a Karsilama, I think the tendency would be to simply assume that the dancer didn't know what she was doing, unless circumstances otherwise contradicted that notion.

Also...are there any other pop stars who either have a background in belly dance or incorporate it into their dancing?

Britney Spears and Beyonce have both dabbled in belly dance. Naturally, almost every singer recording music in the Middle East incorporates elements of the dance in their performances at one time or another, either directly by dancing themselves or by employing backup dancers for their concerts and music videos. As you spend more time on Bhuz, you will notice that Shakira can be a very polarizing figure. Some folks like her, some tolerate her, and some can't stand her. As far as her dancing, very few people in the community hold her up as an example of anything other than free (albeit sometimes misleading) publicity. To be honest, "I wanna dance like Shakira!" is usually one of the first habits most teachers try to break in a new student, but as I said, some like her more than others.

Originally Posted by LadyLoba

But people here seem nice...so...anyone who has seen her live, or who has seen her videos with a lot of belly dancing in them, and knows enough about the different styles to tell what kind she is doing.....just wanting to know.

Your post made me smile so much. About 4 years ago, I too saw Shakira's videos, in which she busts a few bellydance moves. I thought to myself, "I wanna do that!" I had no bellydance background whatsoever at the time, so I just went to Best Buy and grabbed whatever bellydance video they had sitting on the shelf. (It happened to the "Goddess Workout," which in hindsight was probably not the best one I could have found, but hey, it got me started.)

I moved on to the other widely-available DVDs (like Veena and Neena's) before exploring what was available to buy online.

Basically, when you get started, you're going to find that most beginner instructional videos will teach you the same set of movements, but they all teach it a little differently- some better, some worse. You will see a lot of overlap. That's OK. Just get your feet wet with a video that makes you feel comfortable.

Many times, the public library system has quite a few available- more than you might expect. Try that before you spend money. Plus, Netflix and Blockbuster Total Access have a large selection of beginner bellydance DVDs. You can get free trials for both services.

It took me about 6 months of heavy video use before I worked up the nerve to go to a class. :)

As for Shakira's "style," I think the other posters hit the nail on the head. She incorporates bellydance movements into her own style of dancing that goes with her particular flavor of music. So, if you start learning the basics of bellydance from quality videos or classes, you'll have a good foundation for whatever direction you choose to travel with your dancing.

...Just as a little aside (another Shakira fan:)) from what I've read about her: Heritage-wise, Shakira is half-Lebanese & as a youngster danced traditionally Lebanese (debke? &) belly dance...

Salma Hayek (who's also half-Lebanese in heritage) was taught a bit of belly dance by Neena & Veena, the BellyTwins, for her dance scenes in "From Dusk 'Til Dawn". In fact, the BellyTwins are dancing vampires in there, too, with the snakes!

I don't think Shakira belly dances enough to have a "style."

You develop a personal style when you delve deeply into the study of your subject matter, and when you work with it a lot.

Shakira has had some belly dance training for years and she can execute certain moves beautifully, but she only does them in the context of her own performances and her own videos, to her own music.

She is not a belly dancer in the sense that she's going out there in full belly dance regalia and dancing to Middle Eastern music. She's a singer with some belly dance training, who uses it as a gimmick in some of her shows and music videos.

She uses other dances, too, depending on the feel of her songs. Reggaeton, bollywood, tango, pole dance, etc. I think she is a great dancer overall, but as you would expect from any pop artist, she dabbles very superficially into each.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but don't be surprised if people get upset at the suggestion that she is a legitimate belly dancer.

Well, as you can tell, I'm in the "love her" camp as far as Shakira is concerned..:)

But I could sure see why a teacher would get upset at someone showing up and saying "I want to dance like Shakira" but not wanting to gain the background in belly dance...or any of the other styles she dances or incorporates into her dancing. I'm a writer and I got that in a beginning writing workshop I taught...people wanted me to "show them" how to produce a book just like one they read...instantly without learning even the basics, never mind branching off into styles or forms.

I too want to dance like Shakira...I'd also like to look like Shakira....but I wouldn't just run into a belly dance class and demand to be taught to do that.

Now the mixing styles and making it look like you don't know what you're doing....I know the poster was joking...but I'm afraid I really am going to do something like that just out of pure ignorance. I noted some of the basic videos focus on Egyptian, some Lebanese, etc...and I'm afraid I'm going to order two or three, get them all mixed up and look not like I'm fusing styles or fusing bellydance with other forms but like I'm not paying attention to my own lessons.

Originally Posted by LadyLoba

I haven't seen any of Shakira's concert openings...would love to though!

i've only seen the entrances on youtube ^_^

Shems'es website has a wonderful article, with playlists, about the different styles of bellydance, if you're interested.

Originally Posted by LadyLoba

Now the mixing styles and making it look like you don't know what you're doing....I know the poster was joking...but I'm afraid I really am going to do something like that just out of pure ignorance. I noted some of the basic videos focus on Egyptian, some Lebanese, etc...and I'm afraid I'm going to order two or three, get them all mixed up and look not like I'm fusing styles or fusing bellydance with other forms but like I'm not paying attention to my own lessons.

The music is what drives your dancing. If you understand the music to which you are dancing, then you will dance differently to say Turkish music than you will to Egyptian, even if each piece is 4/4 meter. It occurs naturally when you have well-developed musicality; some folks have an innate sense of musicality, but most people have to be taught how movement works with the music to make it "belly dance" as it fits the type of music.

As far as the idea of doing a cane dance to karsilama . . . oy! (that's painful, Toubeau), but that type of dance mistake would occur if somebody just doesn't know about saidi and karsilama; and that's something that can be very easily learned.

The kind of "fusion" found in American Cabaret/Vintage Oriental/"Old Style" Arabic is a mixture of Middle Eastern music (with some Greek thrown in); it's all still belly dancing.

I can bust some BD moves to latin music, but it's not BD anymore -- it's Deborah messing around and having a good time. Having fun with movement and dance is a wonderful thing, but I draw the line at calling it "belly dancing."

When dancing to non-ME music, most of the dancers I respect identify it as "an interpretive piece using a ME dance vocabulary." Now that description I support.

Deborah

Edited to change "western" to ME (in blue)

I will have to look in to that. I'm afraid I know nothing about the different types of music.

I really am a complete beginner to this...I don't mean to start any "Is it belly dance?" "Is it not belly dance?" type arguments...and honestly, if I did, I'm such a sensitive person I'd quit the forum. I asked about Shakira because I'm a fan, and because she's literally the only person I've ever seen who does belly dancing or has a background in belly dancing in any form. I've never seen a pure, traditional belly dance performance....just read a lot about it and seen the performances on the instructional videos I bought.

That's the reason I took "dancer-not professional" off my profile and put "other." I'm such a novice that not only can I not jump in to any argument about fusion, what's belly dancing, what's not, etc....it would be an insult to everybody here who really does dance...belly dance or any other form...for me to call myself a "dancer" anywhere.

I can do snake arms, hip circles, chest circles, hip drops, figure 8, and that very very basic shimmy they teach on the beginner videos...or at least I could...I'd have to go back over even that now.

I was actually thinking of buying that basics video that doesn't have any music on it, getting the very first basic moves down, and then working my way up......

The whole Shakira thing was just a fan's curiosity.....I'll probably look in to Lebanese style, and fusion and all that...but heh...at my level...I'm a ways away from worrying about what style I want to focus on and what I consider too much fusion to still be belly dancing, etc....a long way away.

Hey, seriously, don't get discouraged by the references to what you don't know. Sometimes we get a little academic on here because we're eager to share what we know and learn from one another. It takes time to build up your background knowledge about anything. It's A-OK to be a beginner- we all started that way. :)

Originally Posted by Jungleflowers

Hey, seriously, don't get discouraged by the references to what you don't know. Sometimes we get a little academic on here because we're eager to share what we know and learn from one another. It takes time to build up your background knowledge about anything. It's A-OK to be a beginner- we all started that way. :)

this, seconded ^_^

When I was a pre-teen, I used to watch Shakira's video, "Ojos Asi," back before Shakira hit it big in the American market (I grew up in Brazil, where she was famous for a long time before "Wherever Whenever"), and try to copy the moves in front of a mirror. I didn't have it on tape, so I'd just run to the mirror every time the video came on on MTV and try to catch the moves... lol

I learned mayas and head slides that way! Except my mayas were awful (I was lifting my heels to get the vertical movement), and the head slides I thought were going to be impossible, but a friend of mine with similar interests kept trying at home until she got it, and she told me to do the same.

I didn't start belly dance classes until many, many years later, after moving to the US. It was not Shakira that inspired me to start (although that past could have had something to do with it, on a more subconscious level), but a belly dancer named Ansuya. I don't know what it was about her style that drew me to it, but watching her I knew I HAD to dance like that.

Interestingly enough, as my interest in this dance grew and I gained more knowledge and perspective and was introduced to other dancers, I became interested in styles that are completely different from Ansuya's. So the way I dance right now and the dancers I watch nowadays are tooootally different!

So, why am I going off on this tangent? To demonstrate that most of us were drawn to this dance for a reason, but the more we learn, the more we see that there is so much more to it, so many other reasons to love it and to keep at it, and sometimes the style that we become passionate about looks nothing like whatever drew us to start in the first place.

So I encourage you to watch famous belly dancers all over youtube and see if this is what you want to do. If you are interested in learning how to belly dance, you should look for classes in your area and/or (if you can't find classes) get some beginner DVD's to learn some of the basics. Bhuz is a great resource for these types of recommendations.

2 quick notes:

I make frequent references to Shakira-but I always mean Shakira the dancer of Columbus Ohio who may be the greatest teacher I've ever met!

I HAVE performed cane using Saiidi steps to 9/8 music. For a hafli of mostly dancers and it was a blast. Just to see if I could. (One of my favorite pieces of music is by Kahol and it has a steady Beledi beat underlying a traditional Scottish reel. For practice I play the beledi on zills-and dance to the reel. I like challenges)

Oops...sorry if my "Shakira" posts were confusing to anyone. I don't know of "Shakira the dancer of Columbus, Ohio" so when I say "Shakira" I always mean "Shakira the famous pop singer originally from Colombia" She's a favorite celebrity of mine...and the reason I got interested in belly dance in the first place. I never get that deeply in to favorite celebrities, so I'm not a hundred per cent sure what her full name is...but I know that "Shakira" is her actual real first name as well as her stage name.

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is the Colombian pop star. Shakira the dancer from Columbus, Ohio, is a highly regarded, workshop-caliber teacher who organizes the Personal Best Dance Competition every July. She is also an expert practitioner of Alexander Technique. Shakira the dance teacher was using that stage name long before Shakira the pop star appeared on the entertainment landscape.

Originally Posted by Lesgemini_Zafirah

...

Salma Hayek (who's also half-Lebanese in heritage) was taught a bit of belly dance by Neena & Veena, the BellyTwins, for her dance scenes in "From Dusk 'Til Dawn". In fact, the BellyTwins are dancing vampires in there, too, with the snakes!

Untill I got internet I never even realised Shakira was associated/used b dance lol!....

Originally Posted by LadyLoba

I will have to look in to that. I'm afraid I know nothing about the different types of music.

I really am a complete beginner to this...I don't mean to start any "Is it belly dance?" "Is it not belly dance?" type arguments...and honestly, if I did, I'm such a sensitive person I'd quit the forum. I asked about Shakira because I'm a fan, and because she's literally the only person I've ever seen who does belly dancing or has a background in belly dancing in any form. I've never seen a pure, traditional belly dance performance....just read a lot about it and seen the performances on the instructional videos I bought.
.

Hi Ladyloba, on Bhuz there's a 'fan' thread - you should go there to check out the dancers if youre stuck for where and who to look for :)

Well now I know why Shakira (from Colombia) uses only her first name professionally for American audiences...we'd never remember that :)

I have been watching some belly dance clips...I like them all....

One of my favorite pieces of music is by Kahol and it has a steady Beledi beat underlying a traditional Scottish reel.

Ohhhhh. What song? Where do I get it??

And if you ever get to take a class with Shakira (Ohio bellydancer, not the singer) do so by all means. She's and incredible teacher and a sweet sweet person.

I am nowhere near Ohio..but oddly, I have found a lot of studios and teachers offering "Bellydance like Shakira" and "Shake it like Shakira" classes and workshops...promising to teach her signature moves from belly dance and some latin dance moves she uses a lot. Hmmmm....I'd love to...but most of these students are going to take one lesson or workshop, then put on stiletos or platform shoes and go out to a crowded club and try these....I see thrown out backs and twisted ankles.....

Originally Posted by Kat144

Ohhhhh. What song? Where do I get it??

I don't know if it's available for download; the song is "Far From Home", the band is Kahol (they're Israeli), and the CD is 'Far From Home'. I got it from CD Baby.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kahol

I like Shakira. Even though she gets blonder and blonder and thus reminds me a little of Pamela Anderson, she doesn't seem artificial, but like a genuine person, like someone you can hang out with, like a great pal. She puts on a good show, she's a great live act and doesn't seem surgically altered. But I see her as a real latina, I don't see the Arab thing in her. Like with Saida, what she represents is a very latin woman thing, and Saida is of Lebanese descent (but her name first name is Verónica :-).

Originally Posted by raqFariha

i think her bellydance choreographies, the ones that are just bellydance, were created for her by Bozenka..

Shakira has worked with other BD teachers, such as Myriam Eli, and many other choreographers. Bozenka is credited for being a choreographer in Shakira's "Tour Of The Mongoose" from 2001 and in her new 2010 tour, "The Sun Comes Out." They were actually up here in Toronto working on her material just a couple of months ago!

Originally Posted by yameyameyame

Shakira has had some belly dance training for years and she can execute certain moves beautifully, but she only does them in the context of her own performances and her own videos, to her own music.

Small detail, but she has also done a short veil dance to Enta Omri at her 2006 "Oral Fixation" tour, and most recently did a drum solo at this year's tour to drum solo music that was not from any of her songs. I'm still looking to see if it is an origial piece or a cover to a ME song I just didn't recognize.

As for other popstars using BD; we can't forget Hilary Duff bellydancing in her Stranger vid, lol.

And I was quite invoved in a does-Shakira-bellydance discussion/debate, and I think most agreed that she incorporates BD moves in her dancing, but she neither belly dances nor is a belly dancer. IMHO, however, I still believe that she belly dances, be it for a short time on infrequent occasions, but it's still bellydance nonetheless... but in the end it really is about semantics and what you define as "bellydance," which is a debate that will probably never end! And it doesn't matter because my love, respect, and admiration towards her will remain unchanged. ..g.: