Turkish Belly Dancers - looking back: Sema Yildiz

After my recent trip to Istanbul, I felt I should post about the teachers I've been learning with.
The first is Sema Yildiz, a belly dancer and artist in the truest sense of the word. As the Daughter of a farmer, she began dancing at a very young age and with her Turkish Romany origins now has a strong Romany Gypsy student following.

Over the years, Sema Yildiz has influenced and trained many of the dancers in Istanbul today including Didem. Sema dances like a lady with a youthful charm and has a great wealth of knowledge. After I had spent time with her she was off to teach workshops and perform in Canada which proves that she has an ever growing international following from all over the world. This Summer you can take workshops with her in Greece.

Here is a rare piece of footage of Sema Yildiz dancing in 1976. You have to remember this is a era before YouTube, dance congresses and weekly classes so much of what you see is self taught. Enjoy! :)

Shimmy hugs,

Tevec

Happy New Year message

Happy new year to all!

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas and New Year festive period, and that you got a chance to catch up with family, friends and rest.

Last year flew past so quickly and here we are safely landing in 2015.

How many of you have made New Years resolutions? If so, have you kept to it?

Change is all about priorities. Sometimes the intention is there but it can be a struggle to prioritise that change as it may be out of our comfort zone or we're not use to the routine yet. If you don't make your goal a priority, then it won't work out.

For the past few years I haven't made New Years resolutions, instead if I want to change something I'll act upon it anytime of year and work to stick to it. It is tough but discipline and the desire to succeed will help you through, which is why you have to really want it. Once it becomes routine after a couple of weeks you be on auto-pilot and it will be a breeze. The first couple of weeks are always the hardest whatever your want to change.

Don't give up, stick with it. As I always say anything worth having it's always hard.

I wish you all a happy, healthy and memorable 2015. Let's make it a great one!!

Shimmy hugs,
Tevec

Belly Dance Performance Palmers Green Festival, North London

photo credit: Palmers Green Festival, North London

London Arabic Live Music Event: The Arab Quarterly

Last month, I went to The Arab Quarterly, a live Arabic music and dance show organised by Melanie Norman and Chalf Hassan of The Arab Quarter Band.

It was a real treat as there aren't many Belly Dance events in London (and mostly probably outside of the Middle East) where you can listen to live music nowadays. 

Being Turkish I grew up listening to live music at parties, weddings and at Turkish School. I kind of figured that it was the norm until I started to learn Belly Dancing.

Strange right?

Held in the Islington Assembly Hall, home to many live music events, The Arab Quarterly is a splendid mix of different dance styles and passionate music of The Arab Quarter Band. The venue adds a touch of old school glamour, a feeling of what it was like back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s to dress up, go to a music hall to watch live bands and enjoy the music in the moment.

Some may argue that we've lost that sense of being in the moment and that we view everything through our smart phones even when we're there in person watching a performance. The Arab Quarterly brings back these feelings of capturing the moment and sucks you in to the sounds and colours of the musicians and performers.

The Arab Quarter Band is central to the activity of The Arab Quarterly and is lead by Chalf Hassan. These gifted and professional musicians bring between them an extraordinarily rich heritage of decades of Arab music making, a vast repertoire, and expertise.

Having just returned from Istanbul where live music is common and all around, it was a great evening which reminded me of my recent trip.

Well done to all performers they were great and so different, which made for a good variety. One thing you're guaranteed to get with Belly Dancers is beautiful costumes, and beautiful they all were.

Overall, the night flew by and I was thoroughly entertained. If you're in London and love Middle Eastern music this event is definitely for you. Congratulations to all those involved in the organisation of this wonderful event. It's got grandeur, class, live Arabic music, a great line up of dancers and a bar. What more could you want!

Find out more about The Arab Quarterly live music event: http://www.arabquarter.co.uk/store/index.html

Top 5 tips for working in a belly dance theatre show

Belly dance theatre is still quite a new concept in the UK. Many other dance disciplines have been producing theatre shows for a while now and with experience comes knowledge. 

Fresh from the UK tour of Aladdin, here are my top 5 tips for belly dancers and fusion artists working in belly dance theatre shows.

1. Don't take yourself seriously - Depending on how much creative control you have, spend the time developing your character and don't be afraid to make a fool of yourself or take your self too seriously. I was lucky, I had full control over deciding who I wanted my character to be and I really thought about what my character would add to the show. For me, I wanted to add the comedy element so I had to think about how I could incorporate that with belly dance.
2. Rest - When you're training hard, you need to rest in between rehearsals, shows and other commitments that you have. I was dancing 7 days a week teaching classes or performing, which caused fatigue and foot stress resulting in poor technique and pain. You need at least 1 day off in the week to recover and at least 8 hours of sleep per night.
3. Be open minded - Even if you don't learn a new style of dance in a theatre production, you will always learn something new, even if it's learning what you don't like, you will learn something. A great example is that 5 of the muses in the Aladdin show were tribal dancers and they had to learn shabbi and oriental routines.
4. Eat well - Long rehearsals mean long hours and rushing from 1 place to the next. Some days I even had chicken masala for breakfast to give me the energy that I needed to last the day. It's good to be organised and have protein bars, nuts, water (and chocolate) on you just in case you get caught out.
5. Warm up and cool down - it's important not to be lazy when it comes to warming up properly and cooling down. When you're in rehearsals, a lot of time is spent sitting around even after you've warmed up properly, which is the easiest way to get an injury. Keep the body warm with leg warmers, scarf and layers.

If you've been in a show or are currently rehearsing for one, please leave your comments below as I'd love to hear your experience and any tips or advice that you may have.

Costumes and Make Up - A Belly Dancers Delight

One of the reasons I love being a belly dancer is the dressing up element, so I had to write a post about costumes and make up.

Materials for my next belt project

Getting ready for a performance brings about a certain nostalgia like when you were a child rummaging through your mothers glad rags and stilettos imagining yourself in a fantastical land with fairies and wizards (or was that just me?).

With belly dance costumes the possibilities and characters are endless whether your style is geek chic or demure there is no such thing as too much glitter or sequins. When watching different belly dance artists you realise that no two costumes are the same, each dancer has the opportunity to be as adventurous as they want to be.  You can create a glamorous 1940s diva, a mystical tribal goddess or a sassy saidi village girl. Before I started performing as an adult I used to be a bit of a tom boy but experimenting with costumes and make up for performances has definitely opened my eyes to a whole new world of femininity.
My virtually non-existent make up skills are now considered acceptable and I even find myself watching YouTube tutorials and searching for the latest make up look; I would never have done that before. However, that being said, I will always struggle with fake eyelashes; the amount of times I've performed with those little fluttering things only for them to start falling off mid-performance....grrrrrrrr.

You quickly learn to become creative with your costume too. Due to the cost of professional costumes I tend to make my own bedlah (bra and belt) sets and skirts. Also being a UK size 6 I struggle to find costumes that actually fit and look good on a petite young lady.  Even though it can be a long process making your own costume can be fun and very individual.  At the moment I am making a belt for the Aladdin Dance Theatre Production taking place in February. I'm working on a theatrical and magical Sorcerers Assistant belt with lots of layers and tassels. It will have a lot of sheen, bling and detail so that it can stand out within a stage setting. I can't wait to post a picture of it when it's finished and ready to wear.


VIP TIP: A very important tip for my fellow performers, what can sometimes look garish on the street will look normal or even plain on stage so don't be afraid to add extra bling, jewelry or a touch more lipstick to help you stand out.

+Belly Dance with Tevec Dance

One of my hand-made costumes

ALADDIN BLOG ENTRY #4 - flying minions, bum treasure and freak outs

Arrgggggghhhhhh!!! We had our second session as a group a couple of weeks ago. We discussed personas and how to move little but make huge impact using your bum treasure. Oh boy was this hard and something that I am not used to at all. I'm used to big movements, spinning across the stage and prancing around as light as a feather, a bit like a Belly dance Tinker Bell. Lets just say I was way out of my comfort zone but it was a very, very useful session. thank you Delilah for helping us to explore our bum treasure and prize cow (it goes into greater detail in her book Performance Mastery). Of course seductive Demelza Fox did not have any issues with this at all. Wait till you see her in action!! :D


Location:London