Tonight, I attended my first belly dance theater production since moving back to sunny South Florida. Belly Motions put on its 2010 Summer Showcase at the Wertheim Performing Arts Center at Florida International University's south campus. Located in Coral Gables, Florida, Belly Motions, co-founded by Portia, is one of the largest academies for belly dance in the States. This evening's show featured nearly 100 dancers, student and professional, in 17 numbers. I was amazed that 17 performances fit into just under two hours!I first learned about Portia and Belly Motions upon my move. I was searching for a studio where I could continue my belly dance education and Belly Motions surfaced. Regrettably, the studio is at too great a driving distance for me but I was definitely interested in checking out the show so I marked my calendar.
Everything was visually stimulating. I am a sucker for belly dance fashion and the costumes were gorgeous! There was just enough shine and shimmer to reach the eyes of the audience members seated in the nose bleed section on the upper level. The lighting suited each performance and a wide variety of props were used. The biggest attention-grabber, for me, were the adorable tiny dancers. They put the biggest smile on my face! When moms put their daughters in dance at a young age they typically start them off as ballerinas or tappers. Even I started out that way! So it was wonderfully refreshing to see baby belly dancers. They are tomorrow's stars!
Portia opened the show with a fabulous wings/veil number. Additional choreographies included Raks al Assaya, fan veil fusion, veil/sword fusion, classical Oriental, wings, a performance by Andrus, male belly dancer, and cleverly-choreographed drum solos. I have only ever seen Belly Motions dancers Portia, Xiomara and Roshana (love her) on YouTube so I was excited to be able to see them perform live. My only wish is that I could have seen the professionals dance longer but that being said, the show was well put together, began and ended on time and was danced effortlessly and beautifully!
Additional photos from the show may be viewed here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Nawar.Belly.Dancer/BellyMotions2010SummerShowcase
This is awesome! Beautiful photos!!
ReplyDeleteNawar, I know I already said it, but it warrants being said again, this was a great blog. The pictures were beautiful as evidenced by all of the compliments on FB. Thank you again for sharing!
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