Friday Evening Photos
Rakkasah East Festival East- October 2010
Photos by Carl Sermon
Commentary by MaShuqa
posted October 13, 2011
Rakkasah East Festival 2010, the 11th year of this annual festival in Somerset, New Jersey celebrates a blossoming friendship community of East and West coast dancers and musicians. The festival is the East coast version of the 30 year old Rakkasah West Festival tradition in California. This art form of dance is in constantly flux and now includes many different influences in costuming and performance.
It was fascinating to observe the new trends in performance, costumes, and dance styling at this year’s festival: Rainbow colors, Fan veils, Feather fans, Silk veils, Isis Wings, and contemporary costuming designs. A predominant costuming style for dance troupes was similar costume designs with each dancer wearing different colors to personalize their costuming providing a rainbow effect when troupes performed. Flowers and feathers adorned costumes and headpieces. Silk veils dyed to match costumes, or in brilliant contrasting colors were popular and created height and flow in performance. Some troupes performed excellent choreography wearing dancewear usually worn in class – the basic wrap top, dance pants and hip wrap.
Friday Night
Desert Embers of New Jersey
Dharma of Misouri
Fahtiem of California
MaShuqa dances with Pangia during Open Floor
Leila Haddad of Paris
Mystic Wiles of New Jersey
Nadia Layla
Najma of New York
Nightshade of New Jersey
Phoenis of New Jersey
Raks Sheva of New York
Raks Sheva of New York
Raks Sheva of New York
Troupe Shahibat of Misouri |
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- 5-30-11 Photos from Rakkasah West 2011, Sunday A- L
Adira, Anisa, Ashley Lopez, Orchids, Damascus, Danielle, Desert Dream, Diana, Dondi, Dancers of the Desert, El Asaab, Evangaline, Fahtiem, Fatima, Ghawazee, Alexandria, Jamilla, Joweh, Karavansary, Lisa - 2-10-11 Other Categories: Kids, Troupes, etc. Photos from the Belly Dancer of the Universe Competition
Melanie, Kat, Punkin, Shanti, Wiiz, Ahgaar Karyma, ALyeeza and Julian, Babylon Mood,… - 1-30-11 Fun TImes at the Third Annual North Bay Belly Dance Bazaar, A Northern California Community Event
Deborah Bennett and TerriAnne Gutierrez co-produced the third North Bay Bellydance Bazaar (NBBB) which was held on September 18 & 19, 2010 at the Sebastopol Community Center in Sonoma County, California. - 1-25-11 The Fusion Category, Photos from the 20th Annual Belly Dancer of the Universe Competition
Amani Jabril, Apsara, Dilek, Eliza, Gina, Jane, Kellie, Khuzama, Lucia, Maria, Mireya, Rachel, Tiaja, Tracy, Valentine, Zondra - 1-15-11 The Universal and Egyptian Category Finalists, Photos from the 20th Annual BDUC 2010
Kendra, Maria, Rachel, Samara, Dilek, Grinnelly, Katya, Masha - 8-13-11 Your Stage Name, Choosing the Right One
Beware of letting others name you! Years ago, dancers were often surprised before going on stage to dance as they were announced by musicians or club owners by a name unknown to them that they hadn’t selected. - 12-26-04 Scott Wilson’s CD "Efendi"
Scott’s quest is to make Mid-East music more accessible to American audiences… - 9-25-07 My Teacher, Fahtiem
As performers, we tend to often dance improvisation with moves that are ‘safe’ and comfortable. It is often difficult to step out of the box. - 10-12-11 Bellydancers "Gotta have a Gimmick!", Excessive Use of Props
I get the impression from watching such performances that a prop wasn’t incorporated in the show because it helped the dancer express an emotion in the song, but the property was intended to be the focus of the performance. - 10-6-11 Dreaming in Massachusetts, Photos from MassRaqs 2011
The celebration of those traditions, along with the fervor of Boston’s intellectual culture, the talent of our local community of dancers and musicians, and a desire to connect that beautiful history to the global present and future of our dance drives the work we do in our event. - 10-5-11 MaShuqa interviews Ali Hamidzadeh of Turquoise International,
Ali tells us about how he came to produce his first cymbals. He is interviewed by MaShuqa. He also talks about Dahlena, Bobby Farah, his education, inferior copies of his zils, how to know that you have genuine Turquoise cymbals. Testimonials from Jillina, Princess Farhana, and Marta Schill. - 10-3-11 Assiut / Assuit, Fascinating FAQs
However, mosquito netting was invented by the Egyptians and dates back thousands of years. - 9-28-11 Aubre Hill, New Fussion Energy in Taiwan
As time has passed, the local community has found itself on a changing path. The heavily choreographed (written notation) dance trend remains the staple of the main stream while increasingly, local dancers (and instructors as well) have begun to realize that there is something else in addition to set notations of dance movements to learn. - 9-27-11 Competition Strategies, A Judge’s Suggestions
Choosing a costume that fits and flatters your choreography is equally important. If you want to highlight your amazing hip work, be sure to choose a costume with lots of fringe and tassels on the hips so the judges cannot fail to see that hip work.
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