Thread: post clips of yourself of others working with live music!

Samira Shuruk's new hafla in DC at Alf Laylah Wa Laylah got me excited about the possibilities of dancing with local live music again (there just aren't enough live music/dance venues in this city). I love the unpredictable, spontaneous nature of it. Dancing with live bands just really brings out a certain edge to the dancing.

Anyway, it made me realize I'd love to see clips of other dancers working with live bands. Please post your favorites of yourself or others! Feedback welcome too!

I'll start with a clip of my own:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCQv7PPpTdg]YouTube - Ariel at Alf Laylah Wa Laylah[/ame]

And add one of someone else (Mariyah from NYC, working with Transitions/Souren Baronian/Haig):

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFHYJB7vWVk]YouTube - Oriental dancer Mariyah - New York - bellydance - veil[/ame]

Can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Not a whole band unfortunately, but with live drumming by Duo Malek and Pasha

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac5D6HXV2iI]YouTube - Khalida ft Malek and Pasha at Eyneburg festival - May 2009[/ame]

One more :)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEQiP_qf6H4"]YouTube- Khalida with Malek and Pasha - Eyneburg May 2009[/ame]

Great video, Khalida! Beautiful dancing. Oh, and wow...I loooooooove your costume. ;)

one of me:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P1r3TtpMsM]YouTube - Ya Salaam! Shems with the Sahara Band - Taksim[/ame]

and a few of my all time favorites:


one of Randa:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB75nuELOq0]YouTube - Randa Kamal 2[/ame]


one of Suha:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-zLFbuNHsc]YouTube - ‫عرب تقدم سهى ديب. الرقص الشرقي الأصيل - Suha Deeb‬‎[/ame]


one of Tulay:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmKu2dxgkpE]YouTube - Tulay Karaca with live Turkish music,Turkish Belly Dancer[/ame]


one of Nadia:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqlnZtChZCw]YouTube - Lebanese Dancer Nadia Gamal Zills and Assaya 1/2[/ame]
(actually...I want to post a different one of Nadia...maybe I will...)

one of Fifi:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcBdbCbuhzc]YouTube - Fifi Abdou much Shimmy!!![/ame]


one of Mona:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJQdIirBXHI]YouTube - Mona Said Kariat Al Fingan PT2[/ame]

one of Aza:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ujfEZ0Cx0]YouTube - Aza Shariff[/ame]


one of Lucy:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L91GJqgtnAk]YouTube - Lucy - Lissa Fakir - Oriental Dance Great[/ame]

btw - nice job on the balady Ariel- you have such a great personality when you dance.

<3

Shems

just watched yours too Khalida - super cute.

edited to update :)

Thanks Shems! I enjoyed that clip of you as well! From your recent student show?

And Eshe...I am ANYTHING but a purist, so I'm sure I will love them. :)

*gulp* here goes :p.....lol, the first vid is 2 years ago, it's Wolgemut, a band I dance for every season. They didn't want BD for this piece, more like the moves n wings to embody the music, the song being 'Tourdion', a rennaissance piece which is french for 'turning' or something :p

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-537SPe56k]YouTube - Wolgemut 9-20-08 III - Tourdion[/ame]

there's one from 2009 that i have to find and upload, which involves sword and more BD movement with the same band....unfortunately, i haven't had the good fortune to dance with a good ME band since the late 80's :p

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IMmua5gs4M]YouTube - Norma, Detroit Belly Dancer, Star & Stripes Taqsim Drum Solo 1[/ame]


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeHsrPCtE6A]YouTube - Norma Detroit Belly Dancer Live Improv drum solo[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoMKrakbmA4&feature=related]YouTube - Shadiah, Detroit Belly Dancer, Live Beledi with Drum Solo and Zills[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxSkN7dRYQA]YouTube - Jehan, Vintage Detroit Belly Dancer, Folkloric Part 2[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHrBGZa9rmw]YouTube - NJ Egyptian Casino show with classical Arabic orchestra and belly dancer Soraya.[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywqSRPv4MCg]YouTube - Aida best belly dancer ever[/ame]

Thanks Ariel and Shems! Love both your clips as well!!

Omigosh Ruta! So much fun! I didn't know you danced with Wolgemut... ;)

Thanks for all the clips, Norma! I particularly liked the ones of your drum solo and Aida. So much good footage to watch. :)

Hey, that's Jehan of NYC! love those clips!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz7bQMuxYfA]YouTube - Mariah and ISHTAR (Live!)[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaDQ30tn6LY]YouTube - Mariah[/ame]
A couple of me live dancing 9/8.
Mariah of OHIO, USA WoooHooooooo

Oh and thanks for posting my clip Ariel. :) I loved seeing yours too.

Most of the videos on my youtube channel are with live music...
YouTube - sleepybird's Channel

Here are a few other favorites...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mkGJXYY4eY&feature=related]YouTube - Sira Bellydancer NYC[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzM7U68LPws]YouTube - Mona al Said **Zara's Favourite! 4 Drum dance full vers.[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7aDFJfN400]YouTube - Scott Wilson & Elena Lentini, 1981[/ame]

I love this clip of Bozenka, found it the other day:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmExCRoNRj0]YouTube - Drum Solo Bozenka & Fadi El Saadi[/ame]

Have been on a Latin American belly dancer kick lately, so also like this one:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t01m9PDCun4]YouTube - Mahaila El Helwa - Brazilian Bellydancer[/ame]

Gulp, posting this one of me and a dance friend. Disclaimer: This is a fusion duo piece to non-traditional belly dance music. It's a mix of choreography and improv:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW18MbkNrQk]YouTube - Emilie and Danielle of Znama Dance Company[/ame]

Here's fusion with Beatbox Guitar from NYC
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY7lWgCnqRo]YouTube - Rakkasah East 2009 Tanya with Beatbox Guitar (Fusion)[/ame]

Here's my performance with Djinn at Rakkasah West, 2008...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTSynmH0_4Q]YouTube - Jewels @ Rakkasah 2008[/ame]

Originally Posted by mariyah13

Hey, that's Jehan of NYC! love those clips!

Yes that is her. I have a couple more clips of her in my channel under uploads.

YouTube - NormaDancer2's Channel

Here's one of me...It's almost 3 years old, I sure hope I've improved since then...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rv-qYfxDHo]YouTube - Na'ima at Taxim[/ame]

There are so many wonderful clips here!! Thank you all for posting these, they are inspiring!

Ariel, great thread, and you are so fun to watch--what a great prescense you have!
And other favorites: Eshe, no matter what you dance to, you are so joyful.
You can see your love of dancing, and I give you so much credit for dancing to everything!

Shems, you are just mesmerizing to watch, wow!

And of course, the Bozenka drum solo took my breath away..
I will watch that one a few dozen times for sure.

I did so not know what music I should use for Rakkasah - and I am very happy I chose the live band!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouSGxfJBoVs]YouTube - MEISSOUN - Raqs Sharqi Improvisation - Rakkasah Festival[/ame]

MEISSOUN

Originally Posted by ANISAHDANCER

And of course, the Bozenka drum solo took my breath away..
I will watch that one a few dozen times for sure.

If I could just have the talent she had in her pinky finger....

But we are an amazing community of dancers. I'm so impressed by what I'm seeing!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3_14kEZSaU]YouTube - Leyla Lanty & Khamis Henkesh Ahlan Wa Sahlan 2007[/ame]

Gosh given the by now hundreds of shows I've done in the past few years to live music, you'd think I'd have any videos - alas, my best shows are never videotaped. BUT there was a videographer at this one, and he did put it on youtube, and even though the lighting is atrocious and the singer is off-key (my pet PEEVE) I'm actually relatively pleased with it!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV2s0npoMZw]YouTube - Maestro Beirut Night Part 1[/ame]

Originally Posted by ANISAHDANCER

There are so many wonderful clips here!! Thank you all for posting these, they are inspiring!

Ariel, great thread, and you are so fun to watch--what a great prescense you have!
And other favorites: Eshe, no matter what you dance to, you are so joyful.
You can see your love of dancing, and I give you so much credit for dancing to everything!

Shems, you are just mesmerizing to watch, wow!

And of course, the Bozenka drum solo took my breath away..
I will watch that one a few dozen times for sure.

I agree with you!!!


Question for the dancers who have posted a video, are you dancing to songs you know or is it music you have never heard before?

Typically if it is a song, I've probably heard it before but that is not always the case. Sometimes they would throw in a song I'd never heard of. But most of my videos were at the end of my career where I was already an established dancer and I more or less got to dictate the show I wanted. But sometimes I'd tell the band to play "whatever"!

In the two videos I posted- one was taqsim drum solo, the other a drum solo. That is totally ad lib. They never play it the same way twice.

Originally Posted by toria_dances

Question for the dancers who have posted a video, are you dancing to songs you know or is it music you have never heard before?

Yes and no. A taksim is always a new improvisation, as are baladi taksims, but they do follow a certain general format that you can predict - On the clip I posted they wandered into another song a knew, bitwanes beek, but I wasn't expecting them to play - you can see in the video, if you are looking for it, where I went over to tell them to nip it in the bud, they were supposed to go straight from taksim to tabla solo, but they just wanted to go on and on....

In general I ask for specific songs that I want to dance to, how the band decides to play them (or if they decide to play them) can be an entirely different matter.