Lessons Learned from the 2010 Belly Dancer of the Universe Competition, by Marlena Shaw

Note: Marlena Shaw is a wonderful dancer and dear friend who set out to compete in the Egyptian-style category of this year's Belly Dancer of the Universe competition, which was held over Valentine's Day weekend at the Long Beach Convention Center. I asked her to write about her experience, and she generously agreed. Thank you, Marlena!

As far as the competition, I would have to first say that this was my first experience ever competing. I wasn't sure what to expect. Tanya and Atlantis do an amazing job organizing the whole event - it was very professional and well done.

My experience in the dressing room was good. I met several of the girls and made friends with Zondra from Georgia. She was so sweet, a typical Southern belle, and we nervously chatted as we got ready to compete, putting every accessory on, looking in the mirror more than enough times and waited to find out what our order was to "prove our Egyptian" stuff. Zondra was first and I was third in the lineup out of, I believe, 24 young ladies. We both agreed that was good so we would be able to watch the other dancers after we were done.

The assistant escorted us down the back hallway to get ready to go onstage after our name was announced. Zondra was waiting to go onstage as another dancer and I waited and chatted in the hallway waiting for our turn. She was tall, from Northern California and had a custom-made costume by her mother. It was beautiful and so was she.

We discussed the music requirements and I casually asked her about her drum solo. She said, "Drum solo? I thought that was only for the finals." I felt really bad telling her she was supposed to include a short drum solo in her preliminary performance. She also mentioned that she decided to enter the competition just a couple of weeks prior.

Well, much to my surprise, she ended up one of the finalists anyway. I guess all my months of preparation and costs, including a professional music editor cutting my music just perfect (including a drum solo), my diet to lose weight, and the early morning practices in my living room really didn’t make a whole lot of difference in the competition.

As I finished my "Egyptian piece,” I felt pretty good, at least I thought. After changing and then watching the other dancers (which by the way were amazing), I thought I was in the "Egyptian category," but to me it looked more like American Cabaret or Lebanese style of dance. Most of the dancers I saw were filling in every second of the music with choreography, pops, locks, shimmies, etc. with not a lot of feeling. I did see a few that looked like Egyptian style dancers, but not the majority. I was thoroughly disappointed and felt even embarrassed. I felt like I was misinformed about what I was supposed to do, the requirements, the style. It seemed that a lot of people were coming up to me and saying, "I loved your Egyptian piece, what are these other girls doing?"

So, either I am out of the current Egyptian style and unaware of what Egyptian is anymore, or maybe the "new Egyptian is Lebanese," which is what the rumor was. Anyway, one of my friends who was there (who has been around for quite a while) was disappointed as well. I guess this is what happens every year. People are scratching their heads saying, "was that Egyptian?" as they watched a young energetic dancer on the stage.

I must say that it was a good experience for me as a whole. I worked hard and feel like my dancing is better for it. I also gained a lot of confidence that it doesn't matter if you get a trophy or not, what matters is that you dance true to the style you are, and each of us has our own unique style in some way.

Well, that's my experience with BDUC. I'm waiting to get my judges scores and hopefully will learn something from them.

You can find the results for this year's competition here.

And the lovely photo of Marlena was taken by the always awesome Rachel, founder and humble leader of OC Belly Dance Connection meetup group.

Foreign belly dancers in Cairo

Here's an interesting article about the relationship between foreign dancers and Egypt's belly dancing industry.

It comes from the McClatchy Washington Bureau, and you can read it here.

Also, check out the video clip. It's a 43 second drum solo by Aleya Pena of L.A.

Coming attractions

You meet the nicest people in the darnedest places... On Thursday I was speaking at the Romance Authors' Tea for the Friends of the Huntington Beach Library, and I had the good fortune of meeting Michelle, a fellow pupil of Angelika Nemeth. She told me about a couple shows coming up that will feature Angelika, as well as other local belly dancers.

At 6:30 p.m. Feb. 28, the "Orchid Dance Show -- A Global Experience" will take place at Orchid Restaurant. The show will feature Angelika, Fahtiem and Lee Ali, and all proceeds will be donated to the relief efforts in Haiti. Tickets are $30 at the door, $25 in advance, and include dinner and the show.

The restaurant is at 3033 S. Bristol St., Costa Mesa, and the phone number is 714-335-7349.

The second show is "World Dance -- A Colorful Celebration of Movement & Ritual" at the Orange Coast College Robert B. Moore Theatre at 7 p.m. May 21.

The show is directed by Angelika and, according to the flier, performances will include classical dances from Southern India, dances from Egypt and Persia, Latin dance styles, African drumming and songs from around the world.

Tickets are $10 for the 7 p.m. performance, and a free concert will be held for schools at 11 a.m. Call 714-432-5967 to register classes.

To buy tickets or for more information, call 714-432-5880 or click here.

A new giveaway for February

What's red and gold and jingles all over?

The new hip scarf I'm giving away in the February contest over at DeAnnaCameron.com, of course!

To enter the contest, visit my Web site at http://www.deannacameron.com/ and follow the contest link.

I'll be choosing a name at random on Friday, February 26. There are more details on the contest page.

Don't miss this chance to add to your collection :-)

Hey, you're never too old to belly dance...

Despite what Piers Morgan of "Britain's Got Talent" might think, 71-year-old Jan Price of Aberdare is certainly not too old to be belly dancing. She looks great, if you ask me. (Yeah, I know, no one did, but I'm putting in my two cents anyway...)

It was extremely rude of him to buzz her off before she even had a chance to show what she could do.

"Piers said that women of a certain age like me should think before they got up to dance - he obviously thought I was too old," Price says in the article.

You can read the full online BBC article here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southeastwales/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8487000/8487121.stm
And there's a great audio interview with Price, too. Access it just below her picture.

Pics from NAMM 2010

Mr. Scribbling Gypsy (my darling husband, Austin) was awesome enough to take these snaps at this year's NAMM Show, which is one of the largest music product trade shows in the world. It was held January 14-17 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

These are some scenes from the Remo booth:

Master drummer Donavon Lerman and Ed Lee

and international drumming star Issam Houshan

Update on the belly dancing ban at a church in Georgia

Here are a couple of updates on the belly dancing ban at a church in Georgia.

The first is a letter Jezibell Anat wrote when I asked for more info about her troupe being disinvited from that fund-raising benefit (which you can read about here:
http://scribblinggypsy.blogspot.com/2010/01/belly-dancers-excluded-from-church.html)


Hi DeAnna -

Thanks for contacting me. I did not realize this was going to spark so much interest. So here's more info - I know the details may seem cumbersome, but I think it will clarify things for those outside the area:

The Miller is a historic theatre in downtown Augusta that has deteriorated, and restoring this building is part of the mission of the Symphony Orchestra of Augusta (SOA). Four high school seniors wanted to raise funds for the Miller as their senior project (seniors have to design and implement a special project as part of their graduation requirement). So in association with SOA and other mentors, they planned an event consisting of an afternoon talent showcase, with community judges. All the acts would pay $10 to compete, and the top ten would perform in a benefit in the evening. The location was West Acres Baptist Church - the church was not sponsoring or organizing this event at all but was simply renting the space to the students for this benefit.

Michael Ryan, the student who had started this project, contacted me in November about performing in the showcase. Half of Eastern Star was out of town that weekend, but the rest of us decided to participate because it was a benefit. So we put in our application and fee, and no one said there was any problem with the belly dancing. Joyce, a member of Eastern Star also submitted a belly dance she had done with other friends to"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", and a couple of other belly dancers were scheduled for the showcase as well.

On Thursday Michael called and said there were some concerns about what we would wear. We talked about belly dance costumes, and I said we could cover our torsos if that was a problem, but he said everything would be OK. On Friday afternoon he called again, and he was very upset. He said they'd just had a meeting at the church, and the church refused to allow any belly dancing, even if we were covered up. Michael said that they had known we'd be belly dancing for over a month, and he offered to refund our fee. He said it was very unprofessional of them to ban it the day before the event, and that he would never rent their space again, but for this event he had to comply. Other forms of dance were OK, just not belly dancing.

I don't know why the church people changed their mind on the belly dancing. The only thing I can think of is that there was an article in the local paper on Thursday mentioning that there would be belly dancers, so maybe that offended someone - http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2010/01/07/ent_562164.shtml

My first thought was to pull out completely, but the kids had put a great deal of effort into this, and not participating would only hurt them. Joyce and I talked - the other member of Eastern Star was sick that weekend, so Joyce reworked "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" into a lyrical piece, and I did a zambra in a dress to "La Isla Bonita." The other belly dancers made theirs lyrical as well, so everyone still danced. It was just very upsetting that our specific dance form was banned, and at the last minute.

I studied, taught and performed in New York City for many years, so I am used to a liberal environment, and a professional belly dance scene. Things are very different in Augusta, GA.

Thanks,
Jezibell

I really appreciate that Ms. Anat took the time to share more information about her experience. Many of the comments that have been added to her letter to the editor on the newspaper's Web site have also tried to implicate Ms. Anat's affiliation with the Wiccan religion as the reason the church barred her troupe. If that had been their concern, I don't think they would have barred the other belly dancers who were scheduled to perform. So it seems other forms of dancing were allowed, some of which even had dancers dressed in skimpier outfits than the belly dancers.

The second on is that there is now a letter from a member of the West Acres Baptist Church (http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2010/01/19/let_563697.shtml) that is worth reading. This member seems to have made his judgement that belly dancing was an inappropriate dance form to include in the benefit because he had seen it a few times when he was a young man. It's unfortunate that it seems he and his fellow church members who were in on this decision didn't take the time to view the performances of the dancers in question. If they had, maybe they would have a different view of our dance form.