I met Zoe Jakes!

Jezebelly

There aren’t enough good things I could say about this performance.

For one, the music was fantastic and jezebelly did a spectacular job dancing to it.

The uniformity, the fluidity of the moves, the uniqueness of the piece as a whole… this video is just plain great!

Except for that person coughing!! ; )

BellyCraft

Zoe Jakes

Wow, what can I even say about Zoe Jakes in this video?!  Her movements and expressions are very subtle and serpentine, but ever so powerful.  Her dance truly captures the essence of divine femininity; its graceful, strong, and deeply captivating. Enjoy :)

~Kelsey

Guys can dance, too!

When most people hear the term “belly dancing,” I’m sure the image that immediately comes to mind is of beautiful, thick hipped women dawning coined bras, heavy jewelry and costume makeup while enchanting their audience with feminine and serpentine movements. This is an accurate vision, for the most part– but theres a missing piece! What many people don’t realize is that bellydancing isn’t just for women, a bellydancer could very well be a man! While male bellydancing hasn’t exactly spread to Tribal belly dance,  it’s popularity has sky rocketed in recent years; sparking lots heated of debate and controversy. Yikes!  But, the controversy isn’t the only thing thats hot… ;)

What is Tribal Bellydance?

Tribal style  is a bit hard to define, but I’ll give it my best shot… Tribal belly dance (also known as ’serpentine dancing’ or ‘the forbidden dance’) is a romantically archetypal or folkloric form of bellydance that takes Middle Eastern, African, ethnic, and gypsy inspirations, and blends them into an ever evolving style of dance. This improvisational type of dance celebrates femininity and womanhood by strengthening ones idea of the “ideal body,” improving awareness of self and providing the freedom of self-expression, while promoting camaraderie and community through the use of tribes. Tribal style belly dance is most often practiced in groups (tribes) but is still commonly performed in pairs or solo.

Dancer Merilee Nugent defines belly dancing as,

Welcome to my blog…

The perspiration from the fast introduction of her dance set gleams on her skin as the drums still and the oud player wails his sonorous, sensual improvisation. With seeming ease, the dancer has dropped to her knees, her trailing to the floor behind her as she lowers her body in a graceful arch.

Writhing gracefully, she turns and extends a jeweled foot, her raised hip spiraling in a serpentine twist. She suddenly twists about, coiling and churning in a blur of color and coins. Her hands gather her mass of black hair as she rises back to her knees, sweeping up from the waist in a final climax of lithe ecstasy. “The snake is ready to strike.”

-The Complete Belly Dancer, by Julie Russo Mishkin and Marta Schill