The Ellen Show's Dance Dare - Bellydance Edition!

Check out what I did between classes yesterday:

Hopefully I catch Ellen's attention and get on the show! Laugh, share, and like it!

I LOVE LOCAL DANCERS!!!

It is amazing that here in Toronto we have so many out-of-town bellydancers come and give workshops & shows! It seems every month or more there's something new and exciting to attend here! I even hear dancers complain about how there's too many great events that they can't attend them all (oh, come on... that, my friends, is a golden worry - stop complaining!) The thing that often gets overlooked with everyone hyped up about what the next workshop is, is how amazing our own local teachers and dancers are. I think we often take for granted what we have right under our own noses!  I'm not a huge workshop-taker, but I've taken my fair share through my years in bellydance. It's always good to get a fresh perspective and some new energy in our dance.  But, you can get all that and more right in your own neighborhood as well!

Years back I was really awakened to this fact when I was prepping for an IBCC solo piece that I had decided to have choreographed by three very different local dancers, Yasmina Ramzy, Audra Simmons, and Roula Said. I took privates with each of these incredible dancers in the months leading up to the show and learned sooooo much! Yasmina was my first and primary teacher, but I had been off on my own for a while and it was a wake-up call to have her call me out on a few beginner movements that I was going a little crazy on - my forward twist walk was all over the place and my hip-kick was too bouncy! It was also cool to be back in a Yasmina Ramzy choreography - so different from my own creations! Audra, of course specializes is tribal-fusion which is so very foreign to me. I love watching it, but when I try it, I feel very awkward and like it is a whole new dance form I am learning! Audra danced with me back in the day in Arabesque so she has the Egyptian cabaret background and can kind of translate these funky moves for me in my own vocabulary which made the process a little easier! Her choreography is dark and brooding which is something I don't ever do - crazy! Then there was Roula, who at the time I didn't know so well... I had never even taken a class with her before this! She was choreographing the saiidi section of my solo. I had done lots of saiidi and it is one of my very fave styles, Roula brought a whole other style of saiidi to me which opened me up to all sorts of new ideas with that! Roula had a very different way of teaching which was refreshing!

After this awesome experience I have been very excited to try to take advantage of any opportunity I can to take from these and other local teachers. With my family and work, I don't always have the time, but it is always on my mind. I often think things like I would totally travel to another city to take from one of our local teachers so why wouldn't I just take advantage of what we have right here!

Same goes for watching inspirational shows... I've written before in mid-bits IBCC reviews about how amazing our dancers always are, I'm always amazed by our dancers!  And vow to get out to see more of their shows!  Go see local dancers at restaurants, festivals, Bellydance events, etc. Some of my faves that I think you should go see NOW are Melissa Gamal (of Arabesque) who performs regularly at Arabic restaurants,  Cassandra Fox, Teressa, Denise Mireau, Danielle Davies, Audra Simmons and her group, Lavish, and of course Arabesque Dance Company (see more below), you could even check them out on YouTube to see what I mean! A lot of us (me included) obsess about how amazing YouTube clips of Saida, Tito, and Dina are , but we should also look locally and then be so happy cause we can actually see them perform and learn from them anytime right here... But, this is where the problem starts I think - we always want what we can't have!

More on Arabesque Dance Company and Orchestra and their shows... C'mon people, it doesn't get much better than this... ANYWHERE!!! They are phenomenal... The dancers are A+, the music is perfect, venues are always grand, such interesting choreographies, I could go on and on and on... What more could a Bellydancer want? So it makes me mad when people are scrambling to get to a Bellydance Superstars show or the latest star in from wherever's gala show yet they miss an ADC show cause they saw their last one or ???  Their newest big show, Jamra is coming up in February - don't miss it!!!

I'm going to start posting my very favorite inspirational YouTube clips of Toronto dancers more often and I would love to hear what you all think on this topic as well as your personal favorite local dancers!