entertainment tonight

I've been watching belly dancing for the last 4 hours. I haven't had so much fun since I don't remember when. Apart from the obvious reasons for enjoyment, the girls were really, really good. You could feel their energy and fun flowing into what they were performing. The dances were all really different, from different countries and different styles, from traditional ones to "fusions" of modern and traditional elements. It was fantastic piece of art to watch.

Ok, I'll start from the beginning (I hate doing this). There was this dinner we were invited to. It's something along the lines of Lebanese belly dancing performance with dinner. The reason we were invited was because one of the groups that was performing was Bulgarian girls, doing traditional dances. It was at the stonyfell winery starting at 7pm. We got there a bit late as usual and as a consequence, we had to walk 200m or so from their secondary car park to the function centre. That was cool though, because the walk was nice and you get to see around the winery. The view from the function centre is unbelievable. You can see all the central parts of Adelaide. This view just kept getting better and better as night fell upon us and you could see all the lights of the city.

Anyway, we get inside and get seated around the table by a guy in a fess. After some yummy food (which was more of an assortment of nibbles rather than dinner), the dances began. There were three sections of the program, separated by short breaks during which there was music and lots of people danced around :) As the night progressed, they were getting better and better.

The first section felt sort of like a loosen-up section. It had some experimental stuff, notably one Goth fusion, where the girl was a ghost, covered in lots of smoke, and a white eerie shawl. It finished with a bunch of kids, ranging from about 5 to 13, who appeared to have immense amount of fun. So much in fact that it was infectious and everyone was quite uplifted after that.

The second section was about the different cultures during the night. There was one belly-dance, which was combined with Spanish music and flamenco moves, along with all the bells and whistles. There were a few very modernized pieces (the kind of thing you would see in a night club, but with belly dancing thrown in it - I hope it catches on :) and notably the Bulgarian group, which was quite different from the rest, but good in its own right.

It was great to see what can be done with simple things. One of the dances in the third section involved two simple shawls. They were flowing around the dancer, creating a great sensation of water or wind flowing all around her. It was amazing that you can feel the power of nature just through her movements. Another dance was with a sword. Mmmm, the excitement … you could cut the tension with a knife … which she did (

The rest ... well, it cannot be explained - it has to be seen. I can just say that it is fantastic to see women that feel free and express it in a beautiful way.