Some of her costumes are out there, I won't argue with that. I don't believe these are *new* photos; she's been dressing in a less extreme manner for a while now.

But more importantly, after taking a workshop with her and seeing her dance in person, I can say that none of those things you say about her are true, except in the eyes of people who cannot see past the costume choices. She is a strong, vibrant and above all warm teacher and dancer. She could wear a potato sack or nothing at all and her dance would still radiate pure love, if you care less about the costuming than the dancing.

Dina is not the reason for the fundamentalist upswing in Egyptian society. If you knew anything, you would know the reason.

i really don't know where to start on this one.

1) dina demands respect and her choice of costume is her choice. If thats what she wants to wear thats her choice. We can decide to not like it, but regardless we should be paying attention to her dancing and respect what she has brought to the art.

2) "She has it in her power to really turn this dance into something more classy; yet, she insists on bringing it down to level that resembles porn. " Dina has revolutionized the dance in her own way. She has completely changed the course of dance in the modern egyptian form. And one of the reasons she was sooo noticed was her choice of costume. Some of her costumes are normal to standards and some are outrageous but regardless of what you think, she does what she does because she wants to, and that calls for respect. She isn't conforming to what you want, or what they want. she's making her own path.

3)"It's no wonder that the fundamentalists are doing what they can to stamp out this rare and beautiful dance. Dina seems to enjoy contributing to the deterioration of the acceptance, celebration, and love for the dance simply through her costumes. I hope that no one here in the USA or the West or the rest of the world follows suit. " .....oy, fundamentalists would be doing what they could to stamp out anything has empowers women, and takes that verys from the normal "every man" standard of society. Dina isn't hurting the dance anymore than a woman who walks around in an outfit that shows some leg. It a male controlled world and the more they contain and control the sexuality of women the more they keep us as women "in our place". Dina wearing what she wants in a fantastic example that it doesn't matter what you wear its hold you conduct yourself. Shes a very upstanding and respectable. People don't like when women do what they want and show that they won't be controlled by anyones narrow thoughts.

I hope that every woman can be as brave and dina to do what they want and believe regardless of a repressive sexist society

:o)

Amanda Rose

(p.s. sorry in advance for spelling errors)

Her costumes when she performed in Montreal were tasteful. I think perhaps her tastes have changed.

What she wore to watch the show was a bit saucy, but honestly I think we should be able to wear whatever we want in our spare time.

Dina is voluptuous in her dancing as in her costume. But she is NOT porn as some claim. She just chose to embody the woman that feels and desires emotionally and sexually and this woman that lives in every woman's body and soul has been labelled indecent, or a slut/sharmuta all over the world. Now that should make us think twice why that is so...
To me Dina is a true feminist - at least in the surroundings she lives. So I'm with Dina - but not for imitation because IMHO you have to understand the point she is making, even if it was unintentionally (but Dina is not a stupid woman).

If I was living among people that kept telling me I was dirty (because of dancing and because I'm not circumcised), I would feel almost obliged to take the role of the rebel, because I would never accept anyone calling me dirty for how I'm born and for what i love. Dina doesn't give in, so go Dina!

speaking of "if you got it flaunt it!" Who has better legs than Zizi Mustafa??

www.youtube.com/watch

:)

You know Sausan, It's really interesting that you claim to solely know the "One True Egyptian" form "bellydancing", and yet when an Egyptian dancer, i.e. one the dancers that you yourself claim to emulate the "true form of this dance from" suddenly does something that you disagree with, you turn around and say that it's not representative of this dance. If you truely believed that then why complain over a whale tale? After all, Dina's the Egyptian dancer, not you.