Are you in the holiday spirit yet? The weather here has been cold and windy, just perfect for cozying up with the laptop. It's been great for writing, which is a good thing since my book deadline is coming up fast.
It's always fun, though, to take some time out of the writing day to pick a contest winner. This time we're giving away the awesome THE ART OF BELLYDANCE CD from Bellydance Superstars. We had about 65 entries this time around, and thank you to everyone who took time to play along. This winner was chosen, as usual, by my ever-helpful assistant. She was so excited to pick the winner, she nearly jumped out of the frame altogether. See:
And the winner is:
Taliba Lafleur
(Hooray!!!)
Taliba, I'll be sending you an email message in the next couple of minutes to get your mailing address.
To everyone else, thank you for playing! I'll be posting a new contest soon, so please check back to http://www.deannacameron.com/ to see what's up for grabs.
The holidays are coming, isn't that a great reason for a contest? I thought so, too! To get in the spirit of the season, I'm giving away the "The Art of Bellydance" CD. It features some amazing musicians, including master drummer Issam Houshan, Oojami, Beats Antique, Galactic Caravan, and many more.
To enter the contest, click over to http://www.deannacameron.com/. I'll select a winner at random at noon (PT) on Tuesday, November 30.
Can you believe it's been a year since The Belly Dancer hit bookstore shelves? Me, neither! But what an amazing year it has been!
To celebrate the big day, I'm giving away the "Bellydance Superstars Solos from Monte Carlo," which is one of my favorite performance videos. It features some terrifically talented dancers, including Rachel Brice, Jillina, and Sonia (posing on the cover), as well as Adore, Bozenka, Amar Gamal, Petite Jamilla, Sharon Kihara and Saida. Of course there are great musicians, too: Issam Houshan on drum and Nabil Khalidi on the oud.
And, as an added bonus, I'm also including the cute little Art of Belly Dancing starter pack. It includes a pair of finger cymbals, adhesive jewels, and a 32-page primer.
To enter the contest, click over to http://www.deannacameron.com/. I'll select a winner at random at noon (PDT) on Friday, July 30.
Only 20 days to go till publication day for THE BELLY DANCER...
This week's prize is a copy of the Bellydance Superstars' "The Art of Bellydance" CD, featuring 13 tracks that include Oojami's "Chicky," Beats Antique's "Rabat," Issam Houshan's "Mumbai Revisted," and Turbo Tabla's "Saidi Song." It's a great album for listening and dancing.
And of course the winner will also receive an assortment of bookmarks, stickers, postcards and two signed bookplates for THE BELLY DANCER for yourself and to share with friends :-)
I came across this pair of articles from Wendy Liberatore, a reporter with the Daily Gazette in Schenectady, New York.
This one is a preview of the Superstars' performance in that area on Saturday night. There's some interesting background on the Superstars, mostly based on information gleaned from an interview with Miles Copeland. Petite Jamilla also is interviewed.
This one is a review of the show. Liberatore gives it high marks for the most part, but she does have some less than glowing things to say about the tribal performances and the general skill of Jillina as the lead choreographer. She also starts the review with what I interpreted as kind of a snarky statement: "Belly Dance Superstars is a cheesy name for a polished, flashy, almost-ready-for-Vegas spectacle."
Is it just me, or does that come off as unnecessarily mean-spirited?
So what'd you think about last night's episode of "California Gold" on the Raqs L.A. event? I don't ordinarily watch the show and I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought Huell Howser covered the event in a fun and entertaining way. He interviewed several dancers, including Mesmera, Ansuya, Petite Jamilla, Leela and her Salome Jihad troupe, and a few other dancers I didn't recognize (That was one drawback of the show: a few of the people he interviewed were never identified. So if you know who they were, I'd love it if you could enlighten me in the comments section).
Howser also interviewed Bellydance Superstars producer Miles Copeland, who organized the festival along with Marta Schill, and the vendor who was selling Saroyan zills and swords (which she demonstrated), as well as belly dance costumes and hip scarves. Howser seemed fascinated by all the merchandise, but then who isn't?
I'm glad we got to see some dancing, too. The show included short bits of some of the live dance performances, but the producers also spliced in segments from Petite Jamilla's double veil instructional DVD, "Unveiled," and a DVD performance from Ansuya.
I don't know what time Howser and his camera crew were shooting, but it was unfortunate that the auditorium looked nearly empty throughout most of the episode. There was a shot or two of a performance taking place on the stage with only a few people in the audience that had seating for more than a hundred. I felt so sorry for the performers!
But all in all, it was a great representation of our dance community that emphasized its positive aspects. My favorite quote of the show came from Mr. Copeland himself when he described what belly dance is about to Howser. "It's an artform about the real beauty of a woman," he said, adding that it was for all ages and sizes. Very nice, I thought, and very true. In my book, it boils down to fun, fitness and friends. I guess I would add "fashion" in there, too, because we do love our costumes, don't we?
If you'd like to buy a copy of the episode on DVD or VHS, you can do that here.
Here's Howser with Leela and Salome Jihad for the final wrap-up of the show:
If you're a belly dancer within driving distance of the Glendale Civic Auditorium, I know where you'll be this weekend. Raqs L.A., a collaboration between Bellydance Superstars' Miles Copeland and Marta Schill, promises great workshops, great performances, and great shopping. Who could resist? Not me :-)
Update: Don't forget to bring the waivers that were e-mailed to workshop participants (one for each workshop).
Since creating the wildly popular Bellydance Superstars, producer Miles Copeland has become one of the most controversial figures in our dance community. His views are not always popular, but I thought his Gilded Serpent post on the blending of belly dance and burlesque, which you can find here, was interesting and thought-provoking. I'm not sure I've made up my mind yet. I can see the argument for dancers having a social responsibility, and I can also see an argument for dancers being free to express themselves in whatever way they choose.
I'm curious to know what others think. Care to share your thoughts?
