Koresh’s Come Together Dance Festival
I had the honor of being chosen to perform at Koresh’s Come Together Dance Festival in Philadelphia in November of 2019. It’s been a dream of mine to have bellydance on the same stage as mainstream and even commercial dance. My early training and professional career as a contemporary dancer in NYC, has really helped me mold my current bellydance style. I am so happy that I am able to fuse my love of my own indigenous art-form with contemporary dance. People always ask me if I have training in other dance styles as they see the turns and lines that I incorporate in my bellydance performance.
Of course, having that training naturally sneaks in but believe it or not, bellydance and contemporary dance do have some similarities. First and foremost, the fluidity! Both genres require strength for suppleness and smooth transitions. I feel the same muscles being fired when I want to be fluid. The other similarity is expression! Each tell a “story” with the body and can have feeling of abandonment. In some cases, bellydancers perform to the lyrics of the song while contemporary dancers more than likely create the lyrics with their body.
I would love to teach contemporary dance concepts to bellydancers so that they can refine their performance and get more out of their movement. I would also love to teach bellydance to contemporary dancers so that they can work their bodies in a different way. As Martha Graham once said… “Dancing is just a discovery. When a dancer who is highly trained in one form and begins to explore a new dance style, there is much more to discover.”