31 Jul
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn3EFPOuEGM[/youtube]
I have been very lax about posting recently. A combination of deadlines and too much travelling but I am back now and I promise you not to forget my belly dancer of the month any longer. So, for this month, I am offering you a double bill: a beautiful dancer, Randa Makhoul, gyrating to the music of Mashrou3 Leila, my favourite Arab group. I didn’t know Makhoul but am glad to have discovered her. She is pretty, has a gorgeous body and dances beautifully. What more to ask of a belly dancer. Perhaps to have the class of a Tahiya Carioca but not many do, so, she will do, for now and at a later stage in other clips. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy her and Mashrou3 Leila as much as I do.
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6 Jun
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH5e7nkoMzQ[/youtube]
Last month I forgot to post a belly dancer. Too much travel and work but here is my choice for this month, a very young Tahiya Carioca who as you you may know is my all time favourite. It is a rare clip from a 1936 film called The Police Station (I think it is the right translation for Khafar al-Darak) where she must have just featured as a dancer as the first film mentioned in her Wikipedia entry dates from 1942. And even if she is already moving beautifully, you can see from her expression if nothing else that she is not yet an experienced dancer. Still, she is totally lovely and definitely worth watching whether you are a Tahiya fan or not!
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2 Apr
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajXhtwK2jkU&list=WL66918C3DDD6B43AA[/youtube]
I don’t normally like contemporary belly dancers but my ‘cousin’ Saida is an exception. She has the most perfect body for her profession, full without being plump and without any skin pleats or love handles. Just smooth curves. And she moves her body beautifully and sexily without any hint of vulgarity. I also love the costume she is wearing in this clip with the high slit on one side revealing her perfect hips. All in all a delight to watch. One day I will find out if she really is my cousin!
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6 Mar
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ywdYS5MGfo[/youtube]
Yesterday, my great friend Reda sent me a clip of a belly dancer for my monthly feature all the way from Beirut. It was actually his father who had suggested her and even though she is pretty terrific, I felt she was a little vulgar for here. So, I trawled youtube looking for a more sober one but instead I came across a chorus of of mermaids belly dancing on the beach and luring men to their death with the sound of a derbakeh (or drum). The whole set up is preposterous and the dancers are not even that great; and if anything more vulgar than the one I spurned. Nevertheless, there is something irresistible about them in that seaside setting. Perhaps it is to do with my Sicilian plans that I warmed to them, or perhaps it is to do with the oncoming spring. Anyhow, I decided to go for them as my belly dancers for this month and I hope you will warm to this rather surreal choice as much as I have!
