Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

topic posted Tue, February 3, 2009 - 3:25 PM by  Nuria
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The more I watch it the less I understand foot- and hipwork. I love a lot of the typical modern Egyptian moves and effects but this doesn't look like sound technique at all. She can really hurt herself, feet, knee, spine, if she always dances like that.
posted by:
Nuria
Germany
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  • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

    Wed, February 4, 2009 - 11:59 AM
    I think the key to being able to do so much bouncy stuff is having really strong musculature to support--and I'm sure as a long time pro, she has that musculature.

    Soraya (Soraia, I've seen it spelled different ways) was also trained by Lulu Sabongi in Brazil, and to me you can see a lot of Lulu's influence in her dancing, especially in the more open-legged stance. It looks a lot less awkward in a skirt than in those pants.
    • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

      Wed, February 4, 2009 - 3:01 PM
      Yes the legs wide apart, hm I noticed that. I actually believe that maybe Raqia has the dancers do extra fitness or so, because Randa, Dalila, Soraya and so have remarkable abs, a muscle tissue almost like from bodybuilding. I don't usually see on other bellydancers.

      No what I meant is on taqsim. You can't do really mayas standing on the outside of your feet - if due to shoes, then: wrong shoes, wrong technique and the hipwork to me looked plain clumsy, maybe in an effort to do everything bigger, be more active, but all moves on the outside of the hips...
      Yes I so enjoyed the first minutes that I watched a couple of times before I ever continued, so that was a real downer! For Soraya I believe is a real Cairo star of the moment and I like watching her in a skirt.
      • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

        Thu, February 5, 2009 - 5:52 AM
        I watched the whole thing - it seemd to get busier, no move more than 4 counts? But I missed the foot thing you mentioned. Maybe when she gets older she'll slow down a little :-)
        • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

          Thu, February 5, 2009 - 11:46 AM
          Her dancing seems to have a lot of Latin influence- including the arch and the way she uses her feet. Her shimmies, too, look Latin to me. She's popular in Egypt though- they appreciate the fusion aspect. She always looks quite fast and busy to me...but I attribute this to her Latin background, too. The influence from Latin dance will effect Egyptian dance just as ballet, jazz or hip hop background will effect it.
          • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

            Fri, February 6, 2009 - 3:33 AM
            ok since I have done a few workshops with Saida recently: seeing that a lot of their bellydancing happens on stage, they seek to make moves big and dramatic, because all the small nice moves are not very easy to see, that would be rather restaurant-situation. Even though, Saida's technique is flawless and although she seeks the extrovert thing all the time, she has this concentration of energy in the body middle and uses the right muscles. The hurried thing in Soraya might be a samba influence, also the tough stepping all the time. I love many aspects of her style, but still taqsim I prefer with that mysterious thing of inner strength and subtle hipwork, speciality of bellydance, if not the dance looks the same all the time. I think she always wears shoes because she's pretty short.
  • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

    Mon, February 9, 2009 - 6:08 PM
    To me her being from Brazil is showing. Which being a Latina I don't find it as a bad thing. But I don't claim to be an Egyptian Style dancer. Which I don't know if she does. I agree with Samira. It's got Fusion going on.
    • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

      Wed, February 11, 2009 - 7:37 PM
      I watched it and a) regarding Nuria saying "I love a lot of the typical modern Egyptian moves and effects " I did not think, this one looked particularly Egyptian at all and b) I did not see any "dangerous moves" except maybe that one of suddenly going down on one knee and back up again around 3.45 or somewhere near there, but if you are used to floorwork you should have the muscles and technique to support that move safely.
      To me she looks like one of those typical Beazilian dancers who have been shaking their hips most of their lives, long before becoming a bellydancer, they all have this very natural quality that I find so refreshing (well, ok, I do not like Lulu). Also, as someone said, the high heels- this girl is wearing a kind of jazz/ballet slippers, I have those too, my tango teacher from Argentina used those occasionally.
      And I did not notice anything unusual about her abs. If so many of Lulu's dancers have such remarkably defined abs, it is more likely due to liposuction than anything else, I would say. ; )
      • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

        Thu, February 12, 2009 - 2:05 AM
        Hm, I meant the dancers taught by Raqia Hassan, not the dancers taught by Lulu Sabongi when talking about muscular abs.
        • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

          Fri, February 13, 2009 - 12:47 PM
          And Raqia's dancers look like they built those abs themselves :-)
          • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

            Fri, February 13, 2009 - 1:12 PM
            When I look at Randa I'm always thinking that she must be doing weightlifting or whatever bodybuilding. Seriously. Also her shoulder muscles are unusual. I guess Raqia Hassan style with hard accents (see Dalila?) is maybe easier to do if you do a little bodybuilding. Or it's for being in shape or having spectacular bodies, don't know.
            • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

              Fri, February 13, 2009 - 9:07 PM
              As far as having "spectacular" bodies goes, keep in mind that cosmetic surgery may be just as popular among Turkish and Arabic dancers as it is in South America. Remember that old video if Dina in her twenties that somebody once posted? Before silicone? All those Turkish dancers with their fixed noses? Asena looking as artificial as it gets?
              Cindy Crawford once said:"Everybody wants to look like us but I tell you, we don't look like that either..." ; )
              I watched the video of your little dancer again and still cannot find anything looking very dangerous, awfully weird or hurtful, other than having a bit of a Latin flavour.
              Then I watched Delila of Cairo, LOL. Look at this! So much for making a "grand entrance". ; ) ; )

              www.youtube.com/watch
              • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

                Fri, February 20, 2009 - 7:52 AM
                Wow - I was thinking she looks like a fusion of Turkish & Egyptian, then looked at her channel & see she's in Spain? Maybe she's spanish - the moves are nice if kind of hard & fast, but her hands - are ....odd...?
                • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

                  Fri, February 27, 2009 - 12:23 AM
                  Odd? I would not call dancers who are not following the well klnown cookie cutter style "odd". She is not using her fingers separately. Maybe she has had some training in katak, classical Indian dance? Or whatever, it is a certain style she learned somewhere I supposed. What's it called, "pharaoh arms" is using hand shapes like that too.
                  She is not Spanish, she is performing at a festival in Pamplona in this video, as a guest from Cairo.
                  My personal guess why this looks performance more "Turkish", as you call it, is that this is Spain. The Egyptian moral police is not watching and she can move any way she wants, without being fined for doing this, that or the other. In Turkey, there are no restrictions on bellydance moves either. And Egyptian bellydance used to look very different too,before the fundamentalist government cracked down on it.
                  • This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.

                    Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

                    Fri, February 27, 2009 - 7:25 AM
                    i dont find her personally very entertaining...it lacks a degree of passion and drama that i like.
                    and she is way too bouncy an dkid like for my taste but i dont see anything really wrong...sure her footwork is a little different at times, but one thing you always have to remember..sometimes a person has a paticular issue with their body, or possibly injury etc etc. that means they have to perform somethign differently than others. it could just be she trained that way for years, or maybe she has an ankle issue and has to do things like that.

                    i know i was born with a muscular condition that causes me to have to compensate with other muscles for certain moves....and if someone really watch's me, they might notice and go wtf...but i dont have a choice.

                    so unless you ask her yourself..no way of really knowing
                    • Re: Raqia dancer. Questions on technique.

                      Fri, February 27, 2009 - 9:13 AM
                      Hi Monique. I don't mind the bouncy thing, she seems sort of a jolly, light hearted character. I watched several clips of hers and I actually always thought she had a sound technique. It's ok if not everybody sees it like I do, it's just my impression. But I will specify: There are moments in which essentially the moves should be generated by the hips, the strength and the impulse coming from the inside (that concentrated energy that makes Dina's magical hips), feet would follow, and where she actually seems to use her feet (sort of staggering) and thighs to get the hips moving, which to me looks just messy and like bad technique. Like a picture falling apart, like she hadn't got that inner middle. Especially when at the same time she has to make moves with arms and upper body so I wonder what actually would be a taqsim in her understanding. Moments where I found, later there are others, are f.e. 2:10-2:20, 3:07/8, 3:55-4:00, later on another taqsim. It doesn't look like she is very varied at all. Still I used to like her.
                      Dalila is an Italian woman and as Soraya a successful dancer in Cairo. To my taste she tries to hard to be another Dina. But she's not my concern here.

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