I won 2nd runner up at the Eilat Festival Contest!

Yay!
I uploaded the video here: www.youtube.com/watch and lots of nice pics could be found on my website www.bellysophie.com
Hope you enjoy them!

Making a Ghawazee Coat

Several people have asked me about the ghawazee coat that I wore at my last performance. I uploaded some pics with commentaries to my website. You can watch them here: www.bellysophie.com/2008/05/.../#more-43

New Finger Cymbals Solo

www.youtube.com/watch

New Performance Video

I uploaded a few fragments from my recent performance.
www.youtube.com/watch

My Website

My website has overgone a complete face lift. I upgraded to new wordpress version, changed the default theme and added 15 new entries. It has now my Istanbul trip blog, notes about my new school (Center for Middle Eastern Music) and a couple of entries on Israeli legendary dancers.
Check it out:
www.bellysophie.com/

Youtube video

I added a video of me dancing at the Dolphin Reef in Eilat, check out my profile page!

Article for Gilded Serpent

My article on the Oriental Dance Festival in Eilat is up on Gilded Serpent. You can read it here:
gildedserpent.com/art37/Sop...Fest06.htm

"Artemis - Turkish Style Belly Dance" Review

Introduction
The video starts with an introductory description of Turkish Oriental Style. Artemis points out the similarities and the differences between the Turkish Oriental and the Egyptian Oriental Styles, using excerpts from the "Bellydance!" and the "Second Awards of Belly Dance" to illustrate her observations.

Music and Rhythm
Artemis introduces us to the 9/8 family of rhythms, specifically the Karsilama, and makes an important distinction between the Romani Karsilama and the Cabaret Karsilama, and how the difference between them affects the dance.

Isolations
There are total of 9 isolations presented in this section. Artemis shows each isolation from 3 different angles (front, side and back), her explanations are clear and she uses lots of imagery and creative ideas to get her instructions across. Most isolations are demonstrated to both the slow and the fast versions of Karsilama, and although most of the isolations would be familiar even to a beginner level student, they are tweaked to hit the 9/8 accents. The isolations are: head slides, shoulder shifts, shoulder shimmy, shoulder rolls, abdominal undulation top to bottom, pelvic isolation 12 o'clock up, knee-driven hip shimmy, hip circle, hip circle with knee bounce.

Turns
Artemis teaches 2 types of turns: 3 step to 9/8 with accent variations and the barrel turn. I was particularly fond of Artemis's instructions on spotting during barrel turn.

Steps
Once again Artemis demonstrates how familiar steps are adjusted to fit into both slow and fast Karsilama. She starts from the basic step (front-back-back-front) with embellishments, then proceeds to step-hip, travelling shimmies, step-together-step and travelling full-body undulations. Then Artemis teaches knee lifts and Eva hops. In the end Artemis combines the steps together, first to the slow and then the fast rhythm.

Gestures
In this section Artemis presents gestures that are intrinsic to Turkish Oriental style. She warns from over-indulging in gesturing, and suggests to rather use them as accents. She also points out on cultural differences between Greek, Turkish and Egyptian audiences that the dancer should be aware of.

Combinations
Artemis teaches 4 slow combinations, that employ many of the movements reviewed in previous sections. Then she moves on to teaching a short choreography to a fast Karsilama, using a very famous song 'Rompi-Rompi'.

Performance
This is by far my favorite part of the video. Artemis first dances to 'Rompi-Rompi' and then to 'Keman Karsilama'. Her performance is passionate, joyful, truly captivating, and it showcases her superior sense of music and rhythm, vast movement vocabulary and her zill virtuosity. Through her dance you could see the profoundness and uniqueness of Turkish style.

Notes on Production
As with other IAMED instructional DVDs the production quality is superb. The decor is unobtrusive, and Artemis's leotard is in good contrast with the background, we can clearly hear her voice and the camera focuses exactly on the parts of the body that are of interest to dancers. The credits contain information on music, costume, photography, as well as contact information of various artists. Total run-time is 2 hours!

Wishlist
I wish that Artemis would not look so often on the floor while demostrating the moves. She does look at her audience during verbal explanations, and she looks just ahead of her when she demonstrates the moves from the side and the back, however she often does not maintain visual contact with the camera while showing the moves from the front. I found it very distracting at the beginning, but got used to it quickly. I also wish there has been a zill section. Artemis shows great zill proficiency (speed, tonalities, taste) and I wish we could learn more from her on the subject.
My last wish would be that the combination sections would have been shot in front of a mirror, so it would be easier to follow the steps.

In conclusion, I enjoyed Artemis's instructional style and her warm presence and I would recommend this video to anyone who wants to learn more about the Turkish Style of Oriental dance.

Layali Yasmina

This Sunday I spent about 2 hours digitizing 'Layali Yasmina' VHS that I recently got on sale from Nourhan's website. Now I have all the choreo bits as separate videos, and I put the first 2 parts on repeat and practiced them over and over again for about 2 hours. Damn it! This choreography is too fast for me, and it combines elements that are extremely difficult to execute even on their own. I genuinely suck at spinning (barrel turns), and this choreo is loaded with spins and turns, one on top of another. Our thick carpet doesn't help either: I'm afraid of injuring myself, but then, where would I practice? I was thinking of taking private ballet classes to focus on spins, turns and transitions, but now I truely believe that nothing will help, until I correct my posture, and it might never happen.

Regarding the video: it's definitely geared towards advanced students. I dare to say that at times I don't agree with Yousry's interpretation, but then I don't have the CD with the music, so I might be missing accents here and there. I really like Nourhan's instructional style: she gives lots of performance suggestions, advises on variations and costume choices. I also find her pleasant voice very calming, compensating for the fuzzy background they decided to use (I wish Nourhan would have performed the choreo in front of a mirror).

Overall I find the video very challenging and I doubt I could have practiced the choreo playing the VHS itself: I just wouldn't have the patience to constantly rewind. Perhaps the DVD version would be much easier to navigate through.