Belly Dance Super Stars - Babelesque Review
By Marie Hardy
On 20th October (2008) me and some of the other girls from "Arabian Delights" went to watch “Babelesque” by the Belly Dance Super Stars at The Grand Opera House in York.
The first thing that was announced was that there was to be no use of cameras or phones for taking photos/videos…..Noooo!!! I was gutted, but having said that I wouldn’t have been able to stop looking at them long enough to get the camera out anyway - haha! All of the belly-dancers looked absolutely beautiful with stunning outfits and they were unbelievably talented with such attention to detail…. they must eat, drink and sleep belly-dancing!!!
After the intro Sonia and Issam performed “Art of the Drum Solo” - which was one of my favourite dances!! To start with Issam tried to get the audience to copy his beat of the drum with claps of hands (this proved just how tricky his job actually is - to me it seemed like he was just happy to be there, watching all the ladies dancing - I was sooo wrong, he is just as talented, if not more, than the dancers) then Sonia came on stage dancing to his every beat, starting off slow and controlled with hip drops, belly pops, chest pops etc, to going ridiculously fast and shimmying like I have never seen shimmying before!! I was gob-smacked!!
Next were the tribal girls, they looked absolutely amazing (and so did their costumes!) They had an immense amount of control with every move, combined with sexy jerky moves at just the right places. The music they used was a slow urban street beat (sub-dub) that just complimented their moves in every way. At one point in the show one of the tribal girls danced with Sonia in a duet (my other favourite dance) and they were doing the same choreo but in their own style (original and tribal) - they managed to look totally different but at the same time looking identical (if that makes any sense at all?) - proving that they could both look fantastic in their own individual style!!
Other dances in the show included: a veil dance - where some of the dancers were wearing whirly gig dance skirts (I had not seen these before and was really impressed); a stick dance, which was very inspiring; a dance that was a touch “burlesque” with fantastic use of big blue feathers; a dance which reminded me of Hawaiian hula girls (probably because of the grass skirts - haha) also with a very impressive choreo and there was also a dancer that performed a “ballet” belly-dance - which was unbelievable to watch…. I didn’t realise what she was doing to start with but she had come onto the stage shimmying on her pointes!! Ouch! She did this for quite a while too!! Double Ouch!! The music to this dance was classical and the dancer had incorporated both ballet and belly dance moves into it.
In addition to the show there was also a Souk selling everything from DVDs to jewellery and I just couldn’t resist buying one of their T-shirts, which has on the front “Belly Dancers Have More Fun” - which is sooooo true!!!
By Marie Hardy
On 20th October (2008) me and some of the other girls from "Arabian Delights" went to watch “Babelesque” by the Belly Dance Super Stars at The Grand Opera House in York.
The first thing that was announced was that there was to be no use of cameras or phones for taking photos/videos…..Noooo!!! I was gutted, but having said that I wouldn’t have been able to stop looking at them long enough to get the camera out anyway - haha! All of the belly-dancers looked absolutely beautiful with stunning outfits and they were unbelievably talented with such attention to detail…. they must eat, drink and sleep belly-dancing!!!
After the intro Sonia and Issam performed “Art of the Drum Solo” - which was one of my favourite dances!! To start with Issam tried to get the audience to copy his beat of the drum with claps of hands (this proved just how tricky his job actually is - to me it seemed like he was just happy to be there, watching all the ladies dancing - I was sooo wrong, he is just as talented, if not more, than the dancers) then Sonia came on stage dancing to his every beat, starting off slow and controlled with hip drops, belly pops, chest pops etc, to going ridiculously fast and shimmying like I have never seen shimmying before!! I was gob-smacked!!
Next were the tribal girls, they looked absolutely amazing (and so did their costumes!) They had an immense amount of control with every move, combined with sexy jerky moves at just the right places. The music they used was a slow urban street beat (sub-dub) that just complimented their moves in every way. At one point in the show one of the tribal girls danced with Sonia in a duet (my other favourite dance) and they were doing the same choreo but in their own style (original and tribal) - they managed to look totally different but at the same time looking identical (if that makes any sense at all?) - proving that they could both look fantastic in their own individual style!!
Other dances in the show included: a veil dance - where some of the dancers were wearing whirly gig dance skirts (I had not seen these before and was really impressed); a stick dance, which was very inspiring; a dance that was a touch “burlesque” with fantastic use of big blue feathers; a dance which reminded me of Hawaiian hula girls (probably because of the grass skirts - haha) also with a very impressive choreo and there was also a dancer that performed a “ballet” belly-dance - which was unbelievable to watch…. I didn’t realise what she was doing to start with but she had come onto the stage shimmying on her pointes!! Ouch! She did this for quite a while too!! Double Ouch!! The music to this dance was classical and the dancer had incorporated both ballet and belly dance moves into it.
In addition to the show there was also a Souk selling everything from DVDs to jewellery and I just couldn’t resist buying one of their T-shirts, which has on the front “Belly Dancers Have More Fun” - which is sooooo true!!!
