Review – Woven through the Orient
Woven Through the Orient is a one hour show of nine different belly dancing styles and performances by a group of six women from Belly Dance Arabesque. The different styles cover the evolution of dance from 1880s Egyptian style through to present day. The performers ranged from nervous novices to highly professional artists who clearly had great experience and control. It was a delight to see different styles of dance and well matched accompanying music.
The earlier performances were nervous and understated. After the first few numbers the dancers were clearly starting to enjoy themselves, which made them much easier to watch. The graceful movements of Leila showed wonderful natural talent. Likewise, Sarafina performed an entire dance with a plate on her head, which could be a real bonus around the house, and although it isn’t part of traditional belly dancing it certainly did demonstrate great skill.
Final performances also had the capacity audience clapping along and generated vibrant energy. The possible unusual exception being the futuristic dance by Rania, who demonstrated extraordinary muscle control to annoying arrhythmic music. A “duelling banjos” dance added levity at the end which was appreciated, even if it was a little forced and clumsily done.
Excellent costumes combined with the skill of the performers to create a memorable performance that had moments of intensely captivating gyrations which were too few and far between.
