Thursday, May 27, 2010

Porn Face

The dancer is hot, and right on. Layla ( or Samira, or whoever....bear with me this is a fictional story) casually tosses her hair and goes into a perfect backbend. My BFFF and I look at each other. It is great being BFFF's with a bellydancer, you can talk shop, and enjoy shows together. We give each other the," this is so much fun " look.
Then it happens. The dancer in what she thinks is a display of passion, makes the porn face. PORN FACE. My BFFF and trade elbow nudges and looks of disgust. Like a fruit that you bite into and then halfway through discover it is rotten, it is ruined for me. Aziza Al Funky Face could sprout wings and fly at this point and I would be unimpressed.

Definition - Porn Face: The moment in which a bellydancer, thinking she is displaying passion, or intense feelings, or being super Egyptian or whatever, makes a face that either A. looks like she is in pain, or B.looks like she is having an orgasm.

Porn face, my friends. You know, maybe I sound like a prude, but I am not. My second husband ( current and hopefully last husband) took years to slowly convince me that free love and living in a commune was nasty, unnatural and a disease minefield. I am a HUGE proponent of gay rights. I even ( please don't read this mom), toyed with the idea of going to " the other side" for a little bit, then decided that I was very happy with the side I was on, thank you very much. I have been to many strip clubs, I think porn is kinda fun sometimes, and I have an open mind. I think that whatever your sexuality, as long as it isn't illegal or harmful, go on wit your bad self! Enjoy yourself! Sex is natural, healthy, great even.

BUT when a dancer is performing, and she means to display passion, please please please, keep the expression one of passion, not porn.

I am all for passion. I absolutely hate the bellydance school of " I -must-keep-this-unnatural-smile-plastered-to-my-face-the-whole-time" . For that reason I enjoy watching tribal and fusion dancers, they don't feel the need to smile. I definately think that music should overtake you, that your whole body right down to your nose should dance. Let it wash over you, let you become it.

but for the love of god,...." I told you to sell it,not give it away" - Jerome Robbins
Have a little dignity.

I had an oh no moment the other day. I was dancing and thoroughly enjoying myself when I felt my face crinkle into a contorted position. I immediately stopped what I was doing and ran to the mirror to make sure that my face was saying" this is so awesome, I almost can't stand it" , and not," Oh Oh yes yes yes yes YESSSSSSS!". Luckily it was passionate, a little pain/passion, but not porn..... but like my hands which sometimes go floppy when I am super concentrating, I gotta watch it from now on.

This ain't that scene in When Harry Met Sally, folks, this is bellydancin'.  

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Decorate Like A Shiek.....

For a lot of us bellydancers, bellydancing is just a hobby like tennis or tai chi. We go to class and then go back home to our white bread-pottery barn-soccer mommy lives.
Then there are the others.( like myself) Take this recent conversation I had with one of my teachers...

Me: "I love my neti pot, the thing works wonders. I hate that it looks like a big blue dildo, though".

Teacher:" oh I got one of those clay ones, so it will go with my decor".

Me: " You mean that you have your house decorated middle eastern bellydancer style, AND you coordinated your NETI POT to match?"

Teacher: " yeah it is so cute, it looks like a little Aladdin's lamp"

Well, frankly I don't have the time to coordinate neti pots, but I do love ATME ( All Things Middle Eastern). Even BB (Before Bellydance, can you see that I am all about the abbreviations today?), I have loved anything that even hinted at that part of the world. As an 11 year old I tried to decorate my room ME style, which meant throwing the one hip scarf I owned over my window and believe me, it clashed greatly with the yard sale chic decor that my mother had not so painstakingly done. But damn, I was proud of that scarf.

Two years ago I had a hookah party.( I am addicted to smoking hookah)...I did some cool things, including making a zillion pounds of chicken shwarma, and dressing a mannequin up like a bellydancer and posing her at the door, but the really cool part was that I didn't have to do much decorating. Actually, I didn't do any decorating. It was a nice revelation that bellydancing already fit right in with my tastes which have always been sort of exotic.
    
     So if you are yearning to break free of the pottery barn, if Target chic is getting you down, here are some places and sites to getting you started on the Bellydancer Decor thing. Which is also titled "one-more-step-into-bellydancing-becoming-a-part-of-everything-you-do".

 Don't tell your husband that you got the idea from me.

Linkey-poos:

Star of Morocco Georgous stuff!

Egyptian Marketplace 

Wunderly ( more high end stuff)

you get the picture...

Don't forget Ebay! Yard sales! Get a mental idea,color scheme, and general idea of what you want then put it together. I am NOT a big fan of paying retail, so why not hunt for what you want.

Have fun!