Elibelinde
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About Elibelinde

About Me

I'm a dancer and painter; I teach oriental dance in Chicago and I've been performing professionally since 1974 I think:)

I am still learning:)

The fusion and Tribal movements interest me artistically, although I prefer Middle Eastern music.

I keep looking for good modern pieces as well as studying the really old music.

My Favorite Dancers

There are many wonderful dancers but my own dance heroine is Nadia Gamal - she showed the dance as a real art, an art capable of the full range of human emotion.

Using mind, soul and body to the fullest - not being afraid to go to the edge emotionally yet keeping the beauty and clarity of the form -

I also love the Golden Age Egyptian dancers. They epitomized elegance and their music was superb.

I love Orit Maftsir.

I think Rachel Brice is terrific - she's created a persona - being creative, being unafraid to explore the new - that's important I think.

My Favorite Costumes

My all time favorites are pieces I made - my big heavy silver coin bedlah from the '70's and a black and silver skirt and cape from the '80's - it's just totally "me."

I'm working on a red beaded bedlah though, I think it's gonna be amazing:)

My Dance/Music Style

I'm eclectic. I love Turkish dance, I love Egyptian dance, I love music from all over the Middle East and beyond.

So, my style reflects the music, the music drives the dance - I love Turkish Rom, classical styles, flamenco, Gharnati, the wonderful Sephardic repetoire. I'm studying the very old romances, the Andalusian styles - they all have something to say. Armenian music is incredible - Yemenite - music from the Silk Road cultures. I love the dances of Rajasthan. I think the Eastern influences are profound - but also the African.

I look for things that are beautiful, things that say something, things that will last. The body is just an instrument, a prism - let the spirit enter.

My Favorite Music

Again, there is so much that's wonderful, so much beauty - it's impossible to pick one favorite - still I can say -

I'm not fond of mechanized music. Drum machines - mechanical music - I vastly prefer traditional instruments. I think electronics can add to the aura of a piece but they can also destroy it - so - whether I like a modern piece will be on a case-by-case basis. Overall then I prefer the older styles just as I prefer classical Western music to Western pop.

I do love a range of music though - from the courtly to the folkloric. I love the elegant, wiry line of a classical piece and hard driving pulse of a saidi. I love the Francoise Atlan and I love Fatme Serhan - I love music, especially, that challenges a dancer. This might be a joyous drinking song or a tragic lament - either way I love music that inspires, music that makes you want to dance and to go beneath the surface, find the gesture that brings the audience into the song.

My Inspirations

Started with ballet - still love great theatrical art - on all levels - but I see oriental dance as performance art. Thus - maybe I'll find inspiration in a folkloric piece or a zar, a flamenco, a dance from Rajasthan.

My teacher studied with Jamila Salimpour so she was obviously my most direct inspiration as an oriental dancer - but also Ibrahim Farrah - my teacher went to seminars with him - and his view of the oriental dance as a classical art is one to which I subscribe. I don't see it merely as entertainment though it can be -

Plus, my teacher. Anne Lippe, taught us much of Jamila's Bal Anat choreography - that in turn traces back to various ghawazee dances - but of course as the internet has opened up the world I've kept studying.

I performed full time in nightclubs for about 16 years, traditional Greek and Middle Eastern clubs where the audiences were primarily immigrants. So I worked with dancers from the East, my own style evolved over time and has continued to

Anything Else . . .

My website - has some paintings, pix, videos, articles etc, and I hope to keep expanding it.

http://www.elibelinde.net

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Chicago, USA