“What Makes You A Star is Horsepower” ~Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn was right on the money when she said, “What makes you a star is horsepower.” She should know. Her career lasted 60 years and earned her twelve Academy Award nominations and four Oscars for Best Actress. I’d say that Katharine Hepburn had horsepower. It’s too late to ask her just what she meant [...]
Don’t Call it Belly Dance
There seems to be a lot of merging of adult entertainment styles with belly dance these days. Burlesque and pole dancing are popular variations. I don’t have any problem with that, but don’t call it belly dance. This isn’t an argument about whether or not each dance is a legitimate art form. This isn’t a [...]
How to Tell a Fake Online Review From a Real One
There has been a lot of attention this week on phoney online reviews. An associate of mine in a different field was just burned by one. I have been duped lots of times into buying books online that had all these glowing reviews only to find out that none of what was said was true [...]
Bullying in Belly Dance
Earlier this year Jezebel.com posted an article posted an article entitled Margaret Cho Rightfully Loses her Shit. The article recaps that a facebook poster said that Cho lost a fan because the fan couldn’t condone Cho’s language. Cho explained that she didn’t like losing fans, but if you grow up being told that you are [...]
Are We Losing Our Essence to the Mainstream?
This article was published in 2004 When I first started belly dancing nine years ago, there weren’t many places to find costumes. Workshops were a rare and special treat. Videos were available but high priced. Shows were virtually non-existent and the audience was almost solely populated by other dancers. Most people I knew had never [...]
Be the Change You Want to See in the World
Gandhi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” If you live in a utopian belly dance communities where sharing and sisterhood is common, this will be easy for you because you have support and people working with you to create the same ideal world. If you don’t, I think [...]
East Coast Classic Belly Dance Competition Judging Criteria
I started the East Coast Belly Dance Classic in 2002 because I was hoping that it would be a way to recognize and encourage the pursuit of excellence. Part of helping me reach that objective was the creation of weighted judging criteria. Contestants were scored for their proficiency in four areas: technique, artistry, costuming, and [...]
How to Critique Your Own Performance
Before I became a good belly dance teacher, I didn’t have good students. I was an alright teacher with alright students. They didn’t become good until I began giving them good feedback and teaching them how to do this for themselves. There are many things that raise one dancer above another, but I believe this [...]
How To Make Your Own Luck
Belly dance has had many highs and lows. Whether it’s due to the economy or just a natural cycling, we are on a down turn again. In times like these, we could all use a little luck to sustain us until the next boom. Do you feel lucky? If so, great! Use that to your [...]
Why Do You Dance?
Why do you dance? There are all sorts of answers to that question, but knowing the underlying reason can help you to shape your dance experiencing (teaching, learning, performing, choreographing, directing troupes, etc) so that it is one that fulfills you and gives the maximum to others. Motivational guru, Anthony Robbins, says that there are [...]
