Siobhan Camille of Greenstone Belly Dance spoke to Chudney Raks, a reknowned dancer from the USA to chat about aaaall the things! Practice, confidence, group work, growth mindsets, musicality, and more!
Watch the interview with Chudney on the Greenstone Belly Dance IGTV below!
I’m super excited to have been interviewed by Tiffany from the Yallah Raqs podcast to talk about injury prevention for belly dancers! In the episode I talk about my research on injury in belly dance to share some tips for injury prevention for dancers.
If you’d like to check out the whole episode, find it on the Yallah Raqs podcast feed.
Belly Dance Summer School is sold out in Delft and all finished online! However, we’re fundraising for two important causes this August: Movement 4 Black Lives and Vanessa of Cairo’s Artist Relief Fund.
We are offering an open 30 minute fundraiser class on Instagram Live on Wednesday August 26 at 17:00 CEST (5pm Amsterdam/Berlin/Paris). The class will be focused on shimmies, and we’ll dance a short combination!
We welcome you to join us, and consider making a donation to one of the above links. We are also happy to donate on your behalf, and 100% of all proceeds from the fundraiser class will go to the causes (10% of all proceeds from the regular Belly Dance Summer School classes go to the causes).
Join us online via the Greenstone Belly Dance Instagram Page on Wednesday August 26!
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This article was originally written for Greenstone Belly Dance Newsletter recipients in June 2019. Want to receive nerdy new belly dance articles as soon as they’re published? Sign up to our semi-regular newsletter!
As belly dancers, it’s important we work on our musicality so we can better understand and interpret the music that we dance to. If we are not from Middle Eastern or North African countries, this can mean spending a bit of extra time getting used to new sounds! Let’s spend some time learning about some rhythms you’ll often hear in belly dance music.
4/4 Rhythm: DD TD T
Listen to a sample of this rhythm below:
I prefer to call this rhythm “masmoudi saghir” (“saghir” means “little.” This rhythm is the little masmoudi; there is another rhythm called “masmoudi kabir”, which is the “big” masmoudi, and sounds a bit different). I prefer to use this name instead of ‘baladi,’ because the word baladi actually evokes the image of a particular style of dance.
Baladi means “of the country/land” in Arabic, and there is a music style that is usually improvised called a baladi progression. For belly dancers, the performance style that goes along with this progression is also usually improvisied. A baladi progression may or may not have the masmoudi saghir/baladi rhythm in it. Just hearing the masmoudi saghir/baladi rhythm does not indicate that the song you are listening to is a baladi progression, or that the song is suitable for a baladi-style performance.
Masmoudi saghir is a super common rhythm, so you’ll hear it in a range of styles of music, not just in ‘baladi’ style music. Here’s an example of the masmoudi saghir rhythm in a song, starting at 2:50:
Looking for more resources Maqam world is a great place to learn more about Middle Eastern music! Check out the Maqam World Reference on the masmoudi saghir / baladi rhythm.
Want to learn more about Middle Eastern rhythms? Join our upcoming online Belly Dance Summer School class for our Middle Eastern Rhythm study!
Join us on Wednesday August 5 and 12, 2020, from 18:30-20:00 CEST (Amsterdam timezone; around lunchtime for most of our North American students) for a deep dive into Middle Eastern musical rhythms, and some fun combinations to dance on them! We’ll be covering some of the basic rhythms, as well as some special tricky ones! This mini-series is suitable for belly dancers of all levels. Register and find all the details here.
Learn more about the Malfouf rhythm in another blog post here.
Hi everyone, Greenstone Belly Dance director, Siobhan Camille, here!
I am delighted to share that I came 3rd in the Professional category of the Hamilton International Bellydance Competition 2020, and also received a special Judge’s Designation for Excellence in Stage Presence!
I had a fab time dancing at 1am at the results show on Sunday morning !😂 I stayed up until 3:30am Netherlands time enjoying the other dancers’ performances (and a particular shoutout to some of my Montréal dance friends, Leyana and Layal, I was so happy to see you dance again), and by the time I got into bed here at 4:30 the sun was waking up!
A huge thank you to the judges for their considered, constructive feedback. I highly recommend entering the HIBC to anyone seeking thoughtful advice to further their dance journey. And a big, big thank you to Aziza for encouraging me to enter.
A massive thanks to Eshe Yildiz. What an amazing, hardworking and caring woman this competition organiser is. I have a new favourite (paraphrased) quote thanks to Eshe: Don’t be afraid to sing your own praises, because every time you do, you’re sticking it to the patriarchy!
You can find the full video of my award-winning performance on the Greenstone Belly Dance YouTube channel. If you’d like to see my performance from last night (and epic 50 second costume change) head over to the Hamilton International Bellydance Competition Facebook page to watch the recording. It won’t be up for too long!
An extra special thank you to my friends in New Zealand, Germany, the United Stated, and Canada who tuned in to watch me perform live at the results show. I truly appreciate your support.