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At Danceorientation I was assigned to provide an oriental dance performance during the breaks. There were oriental snacks and drinks. What is Oriental Dance? Though people say mostly belly dance, it isn’t entirely correct, because in this dance it is mainly the hips that are moved, but also the abdomen, shoulders, chest, head, and so on. It is a Middle Eastern dance where different body parts are isolated and these movements combined. There is a lot of variation in styles, depending on the region, sometimes soft, sometimes very strong. This of course is accompanied by oriental rhythms and melodies.
What belongs to the repertory of oriental dance:
Hips => square, move left/right/front/back, tilt left/right/back/front, circles (horizontal and vertical, small and large), figure 8 (vertical and horizontal in both directions), accents (right left with flat feet, front/side/back with pieds tendus, down, up, down left and right (like a scale), shimmy, 3/4 shimmy in different ways, and so on
Chest => above/inside (not forced, by breathing in and out), left/right, front/inside, circles (facing up/in front), accent up, accent down
Arms and hands => snake arms, turning with the hands, graceful hand position
At the first performance I started with a classical song. In the beginning of a performance I often dance in front of the tables with enough space. As time goes by, I move between the tables and interact with the people sitting. Some of the ladies are very enthusiastic and it doesn’t take long to convince them to dance with me. That’s part of a performance as it would be in a restaurant. First a dancer shows her art, then she approaches the customers to invite them to dance.
Taking the event into account, I also chose a song with mainly percussion to stimulate the ears with the rhythms. I also used typical Egyptian music that is rhythmic and festive.
During the second performance I used luminous isis wings. This to give an extra dimension in the evening. Happy to hear afterwards that some visually impaired people could still see the lights.
