Night of the Dancing Dead: Official Video Released

Hi Everyone!

Here’s that video I promised you not too long ago. The choreography is called “Night of the Dancing Dead”. Dancers from Halima Dans en Entertainment, Middle-Eastern Danceschool in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

For Halloween 2012, 3 dancers from Halima Dance and Entertainment were dug up from their graves to dance once again.

Video capture + editing by Bas van den Boom
Gaffer: Loet van Eijndhoven
1st assistent: Mart van den Elsen
@ John Geven Studios (http://www.johngevenstudios.nl/)
Dancers from: Middle Eastern Dance School “Halima Dans en Entertainment” (http://www.halima.nl/)
Music: The Battle for Baghdad – Baghdad Heavy Metal
Dancers: Annemieke, Yvette and Kim

Enjoy!

Zombie Halloween Belly Dance “Night of the Dancing Dead”

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Night of the Dancing Dead Photoshoot

Hi everyone,

In one of my earlier posts I described how our bellydance Halloween gig had been and last Tuesday the girls of our zombie group were invited to a professional (!) photo studio for a shoot.

Here are the results. Enjoy!

 

How to Belly Dance for your Husband – Sonny Lester and his Orchestra.

Hi Everyone,

My boyfriend found this pure gold record on Flickr today that I just couldn’t keep to myself; I have to share this!

Sonny Lester and His Orchestra – “How To Bellydance For Your Husband”

I found only these 2 songs on YouTube, number 4 and 5:

• Sonny Lester and His Orchestra How To Bellydance For Your Husband – 4. Boom Boom
• Sonny Lester and His Orchestra How To Bellydance For Your Husband 5 Calcutta Rag

Spotify has the entire album here. Isn’t it just precious?

On a sidenote; not only did the band “Sonny Lester and his Orchestra” know how to bellydance for your husband in the 60′s, they also knew how to perform stripteases for your husband during the 50′s. With the jazzy approach to music from the New York music producer Lester I find it quite an exotic listening to.. Even more so maybe than the average modern belly dance track list.

Maybe in short my opinion could be worded as: Oh-la-la..

 

 

Review – Hallo-Belly-Ween – The Halloween Belly Dance Party of the Year!

Hi everyone,

A while ago I posted how I had gone through auditions and that I made it through twice for 2 separate Halloween dances. The occasion would be the Halloween Belly Dance show that was organized on the 27th of October, 2012.

It was quite an eventful build-up; many Sundays were spent at the dance school where we’d practice our scariest moves. We practiced during the weekdays and in the evenings too, sewed our costumes, prepared our make-up and memorized the music and steps over and over again. Booklets and posters were made, flyers were distributed, guest-lists created, the venue decorated and fingers were cut off to create lovely, sugary bites for the guests.

We do anything to make our guests feel welcome. 

Together with 13 dancers, a couple of teachers, 5 volunteer actors and the plentiful of other volunteers, it could get quite hectic at times! But we made it. And it resulted in an absolutely fantastic show the Saturday before the 31st on October, last week.

Here are a couple of pictures to give you an impression of what went on..

We sacrificed a virgin to resurrect the High Priestess to help us bring back Isis

and with that sacrifice, we opened the gates of Hell. Demons danced with veil fans.

Then Lady Justice made a sacrifice for the Greater Good.

The poor virgin who was sacrificed earlier woke up again, only to find out she no longer had a heart. She wasn’t a happy camper..

The place looked absolutely haunted at times!

We had some random zombies roaming about. They seemed pretty pissed off!

There were dolls that haunted us with their porcelain beauty. Who knew dolls could be this creepy?

This psycho went nuts and had to be locked up and sedated again. Yes, that’s a straight-jacket. Turns out that straight-jackets are marvelous props.

We even made a pact with the Devil herself. Her two daughters weren’t very impressed though and made sure the Devil couldn’t do too much harm.

We took the stake from the heart of the Vampire Queen, so she’d rise once again!

All this so we could perform the ritual that would arise Isis, the Mother Goddess, to favour us with another year of fortune and luck

Isis answered our prayers…

…and blessed us with a whirling golden mist.

But of course dancing was just a part of the party. Safiya’s Bazaar was there with gorgeous jewelry, clothing, masks and other belly dance tidbits, and there was the possibility to have your future laid out for you with tarot, or your hands (or feet, or other bodyparts) painted with henna.

There were some wise ladies who could predict your future…

…and people could have their own henna patterns painted

More pictures can be found by clicking this link. Video is unfortunately not yet available due to a high level of touch-up needed. The light was very low and this turned out to be a bit of an issue for the camera. But I will post up a link to YouTube as soon as possible.

Now we’re planning to make it even better, bigger and scarier next year and instead of organizing a party, we’re even considering putting on a genuine theater show! Personally, I’m very much looking forward to that. Can’t wait to be on stage, can’t wait to get zombified again.

So. All in all; good and exciting times ahead for Halima’s Dance and Entertainment.

Until we meet again…

 

Making my own dreadlocks!

We’re deeply involved in the proces of creating our costumes for the Halloween Bellydance Show at the moment, and for it we had the idea to add some dreadlocks to our hair. So about a week ago I started scanning the interweb a bit for dreadlocks. I found some on sites like Etsy.com but unfortunately these were all fairly pricey! So I had a look into making them myself. I figured; if other people can make them, so can I, right?

I ordered a set of wool from www.dreadspullen.nl (this one to be exact) and started reading up on tutorials. Thankfully the same site had a very good, helpful tutorial and I found a couple more via google. Turned out it wasn’t that hard at all, it just took some time!

This is what it looked like to make them:

Opening the package with wool

I made strings of 80 cm so I can fold them over double and hinge them to an elastic band

A bowl of hot water and some drops of dishwashing detergent.

One finished dreadlock

Dreadlocks hanging to dry

Tied the dreadlocks around a knot and covered up my own hair with this beautiful new headscarf I bought. Not too bad, if I may say so myself!

Now it’s waiting for them to dry so I can try them for the first time… Exciting!

 

A word of caution; traveling to the Middle-East and belly dance.

Hi guys,

If you ever had the idea of enjoying a trip to the middle-east and especially to Egypt apparently for belly dance classes or when you’re just a woman wanting to enjoy other cultures by yourself or with friends, please take heed of the following post. Wear a weddingband, even when you aren’t married and learn to say that you’re married in the native language. It might just make a difference when you run into a situation as described in that post.

I’m posting this post because of raising issues between cultures. Maybe you’ve read about the cultural clashes in your country. Maybe you’ve seen this documentary (Femme de la Rue, about Sexism in Brussels, by Sophie Peeters) and you’re wondering that if M-E men behave like that in nations where it’s not custom, how they’ll behave when they -are- in their home nation? Maybe you’ve already experienced this sort of violent behaviour, maybe it exists where you live. I’m lucky to not have been in this situation, but I know what sexual violence can do to a person when it’s not due to cultural classes. And though I think it needs to stop it’s highly unlikely it will any time soon.. so we best prepare and just be cautious.

Anyways. Have a read. And be careful.

http://charlottedesorgher.blogspot.nl/2012/08/a-darkness-at-heart-of-bellydance.html

 

It was a dark and stormy night…

There’s something really pretty about storms. I like seeing the angry lightning and I love hearing the roaring thunder. I love the way it builds up, especially in summer. When the days have been hot and humid and when the evening becomes too dark, too soon. I love how the air turns grey and the atmosphere turns yellow and how eventually with the first strikes of careful thunder the raining begins. Softer at first, but more confident with every drop splashing in the grass or on the stones.

There’s something really pretty about storms, how the weather just rages and shakes off the heat of the day. Like nature has had quite enough of the sun perpetrating its merciless rays into the earth. Nature sheds and sheds, until it can’t shed no more. Until it’s time for a new beginning after the storm.

There’s something really pretty about storms and I know I’m not the only one who thinks so. Ever heard of one of writers’ biggest mistakes of using “It was a dark and stormy night” as their pieces entrée? Here’s another one of those lovely Need-to-Know-but-not-that-Useful-Facts. Happy Weekend!

“It was a dark and stormy night” is an infamous phrase written by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton at the beginning of his 1830 novel “Paul Clifford”. The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest uses the phrase as a signifier ofpurple prose. The original opening sentence of Paul Clifford is an example:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

It is also the start of the 1902 novel The Monkey’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs. Its opening sentence is:

It was a dark and stormy night. The wind howled and twigs and leaves scuffled and rattled past the house. Mr and Mrs White sat in the parlour of their cosy home, in front of a blazing fire. Mr White played chess with his only son, Herbert. His wife sat in a rocking chair knitting and watching as they played.

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest was formed to “celebrate” the worst extremes in this style. The contest, sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University, recognizes the worst examples of “dark and stormy night” writing.