Can you guess what I was doing?

[dawny0826]

Originally Posted by Djamila

Shoulder shimmies! That's a good term!

We just call it... lol... well I can't say it on RF, here.

What about figure eights and hip drops. Do you have similar terminology?

Snake arms. Camels. I love belly dance.

if you have any clips of Bosnian style belly dance...bring it!

Bellydance is one of my favorite forms of expression and exercise. I love caberet style.

[Djamila]

The fire dance is probably the most elaborate you'll find here...

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?doc...q=gypsy+bosnia

It's common throughout Muslims in the Balkans.

[dawny0826]

That's like cabaret style (if it isn't caberet).

Cool!

[Djamila]

Yeah, ours tends to be very sexual. Belly dancing did exist as a folk art in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It's only cultural purpose was as a form of seduction, so that impacted the style of the dances.

[dawny0826]

This is Ansuya, my favorite Bellydancer. I love her videos. She's American.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRRwzfoCVNg

[Hacker]

That's interesting, it looks fun but it's also prolly difficult to learn huh? I mean she moves her hips so fast, wouldn't it take practice to achieve moving one's hips that speed?

[Djamila]

It's not difficult to learn, really - but it can be an exercise in futility. You can always improve your flexibility, but in general you either have it or you don't. If you have it, practice and determination will show great improvements. If you don't, they will as well but you'll never achieve the effect in your audience belly dancing is supposed to.

[dawny0826]

It's challenging but super fun! Like anything, you have to work at it.

I found bellydance by accident and it is still my favorite form of dance. I know very few people in my "real" life who find it exciting...so...I jump at the chance to talk about it here.

[Djamila]

Oh I love it.

There's certainly a difference, though, between us, Dawny.

It seems belly dancing in America is a disciplined form of dance. It has rules, set moves - you listed some names - like ballet or something else.

In Bosnia, it's just dance. It's what you do to a good beat a the club, it's what you do joking posing for pictures (lol). It's not a set dance, it's part of the wider, normal, pop music dancing.

There are rigid, pure, authentic dances like the fire dance, but when you say "belly dancing" most people will just think of nightclubs, shaking it, etc.

[dawny0826]

Originally Posted by Djamila

Oh I love it.

There's certainly a difference, though, between us, Dawny.

It seems belly dancing in America is a disciplined form of dance. It has rules, set moves - you listed some names - like ballet or something else.

In Bosnia, it's just dance. It's what you do to a good beat a the club, it's what you do joking posing for pictures (lol). It's not a set dance, it's part of the wider, normal, pop music dancing.

There are rigid, pure, authentic dances like the fire dance, but when you say "belly dancing" most people will just think of nightclubs, shaking it, etc.

It's actually the same here, only those who actually set out to learn and practice belly dance know the technical terminology and origin of the dance moves.

There are Americans who preform and take belly dance as a class, like ballet but you can spot hip drops, hip circles and camels everywhere...

I'm fascinated by bellydancers like Ansuya, Veena & Neena Bidasha and Rania Bassonis (spelling?). I have a great interest in bellydance, probably moreso than the average American girl.

Bellydance in America is both disciplined dance and freeform...