Kyria's journal

I nearly fainted when I heard that Jillina's Bellydance Evolution show was coming to the Netherlands, doing 28 shows in five weeks. I immediately knew that I absolutely needed to see this show with my very own eyes.

You see, Jillina and I go way back to the time when I was a baby dancer, practicing in my livingroom with the dvds that I bought in eBay.com. At that time, it was extremely hard to buy stuff online, let alone from the USA. I started out with the cheaper dvds, like the ones from Veena & Neena, upgrading *cough* to Dolphina's dvds. After a rather disappointing try of Rania's dvds, I spend the big bucks on the Bellydance Superstars dvdset with Jillina. You can say what you want, but that woman works her ass off and has always done so. Look through the slightly dated costuming and the cluttered background and I see one of the most dedicated and knowledgable belly dancers I know.( Read more... )

I got reply from the manager about the class flyers (see last post) and all he said was 'thank you for your input, we'll put your flyer in our newsletter and promote you on our website'.

I'm curious which one he picked, we'll have to see :)

I watched BDSS-solo's from Monte Carlo yesterday. I somehow feel that the term 'superstar'is not appropriate for this product. It feels like mre of the same thing, but not as good. Jillina did a dance to live music that was very Jillina. Her dancing was good, but the music was uninspiring. Rachel Brice also danced to a piece of uninspired music and she's danced better. Petit Djamilla performed in a glammed up hotpants and bikinibra. That was a big nono.

Bozenka is a new addition and a good dancer. Sonïa danced pretty and bland (but that's not new). I loved Sharon Kihara's performance, including the her peacock tatoos that had green glitter on them so she really stood out on stage. Saida did several numbers, but she also was good but not earth shaking. Where is Ansuya?

I also took a quick look at the Amani around the world dvd that I borrowed from ikaiya . It has several performances from 'all over the world' including egyptian baladi. As far as I can tell is Amani a good dancer, with a very distinctive style. Most performances are Amani in a different outfit, dancing in the same style. I liked half of them (won't go into details right now, have to watch it better first). Her interpretation of egyptian baladi is lebanese bellydance with a twist (way too much frills for egyptian). she has the tendency to wear costumes that close high on the waist, which is not a good look.