For more photos, visit our slide show.
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Yalla! Aiwa! Opa! Raks Sharki in Egypt, Tsiftitelli in Greece,
Belly Dance in the U.S.A...
whatever name it goes by, this beautiful and exciting dance form can be
found in variations all over the Middle East, and is the basis for most of
our work, from the traditional improvisational solo to choreographed group pieces.
Includes sagat/zill/finger cymbals, veil, sword, assaya (cane).
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While not presuming to be strictly representational
of any country or area, these dances usually rely heavily
on traditional movements from
the Middle Eastern "Oriental" grouping of dances. They are meant
to evoke the feeling of more "everyday," village dances as
opposed to the more glamorous and flashy feel of the Oriental cabaret dances.
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"Our" style has grown out of several years of work together, and is
an adaptation of the Middle Eastern tradition of women's solo
improvisational dance (for some
background, see our section on More
About Dance). These are usually energetic group
dances involving a lot of interplay between dancers, juxtopositions
of soloists and varying groups, and (we hope) exciting and interesting
choreographies with chunks of improvisation mixed in for good measure.
We lean towards musical accompaniment that relies heavily on lots of
percussion. All in all, we think it's a lot of fun to watch and
great entertainment!
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While maintaining great respect for the cultures and traditions
from which the dances we study come from, we also create dances
which explore the movements and emotions of these dances as they
exist outside of cultural contexts.
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Performance versions of "real" dances of a wide variety of countries. We are including here folk line dances of the Middle East as well as Eastern Europe, and dances of the Pacific Islands.
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We developed three sets of costuming and dances specifically for performing at Renaissance and Medieval Faires. We
re-created two costumes of the Egyptian Ghawazee (street dancers) from the 18th and 19th centuries, and Tunisian (North African) village garb which has changed little over the past millenium. Although it is difficult to know exactly what dances of these periods looked like, we have tried to come up with a group of dances which we hope captures the atmosphere of those times. These are performed to live music played by our band.
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