Dance News and Announcements

Sarina now has a new website solely devoted to belly dance in Eugene and the surrounding locations. For the most recent updates on classes, performances, blog posts and belly dance news, please visit Belly Dance Eugene at:

https://bellydanceeugene.com/

Belly Dance and Bellylicious Classes

Drop-ins are welcome, but please email Sarina first to make sure a class has enough room or hasn't been cancelled.

Two new workshops are coming up at Willamalane: Tribal Veils and Fan Dance.

Sarina performs her alternative tribal fusion belly dance style at many venues in Eugene and sometimes Portland, Oregon. Local events she frequently is involved in are:

Whether you go to see a belly dance performance in Eugene, Oregon or a performance in New York City or somewhere in the Middle East, there are certain sounds and cues you will commonly see. When belly dancers interact with each other during a performance, they use non-verbal cues to encourage each other, signal they are about to transition to a different move and get each other’s attention. To someone who has practiced Middle Eastern dance and belly dance, this is nothing new. But for a novice or outsider, it looks like this is a secret language. Below are some of the signals used by dancers.

How is it possible that a tribal belly dancer in Eugene, Oregon can join in a performance with a dancer up in Portland and down in San Fransisco and dance so well together that it looks choreographed? There are secrets in the belly dance community that someone from outside the belly dance world might not know. Some of those secrets aren’t really that secret once involved in the world of belly dance and the biggest method of secret commuincation between performers include the non-verbal language of belly dance

Why do people confuse these dances and what do they have in common? If you are a belly dancer and someone calls you a Hoochie Coochie dancer, is it an insult? See a list of explanations and descriptions of each dance below. Some of the answers might surprise you!

As a tribal fusion belly dance teacher in Eugene and Springfield, I am often asked how to prepare for a dance class. Whether you've never taken a belly dance dance class before or it's been awhile, students often ask what they should wear and what they should bring to class. Below is a list of common items you might want to bring with you to a class:

Aren’t all belly dance art forms performed in America a “fusion” of styles and regions? Yes and no. Read on to understand the complexity of the ancient art of belly dance in modern times.

Many belly dance moves have roots in the Middle East and Africa, but breakdance and hip hop do as well. Many moves look very similar. What one culture calls twerking, another calls the Suhaila technique. The biggest difference is the posture which gives the muscle isolation technique used in both a completely different look.

People often use the terms Middle Eastern dance, folk dance and belly dance interchangebly but there actually are differences between them. Learn a quick and easy to understand explanation here.
 

Belly dance is thought to have originated in the Middle East, though contemporary belly dance uses music, costuming and moves from many folkloric traditions. There are several ideas about belly dance’s origins and functions. Whether familiar with belly dance because you saw it at a show in Eugene and are about curious what it is, or you are a seasoned dancer wanting to know more, this post briefly describes the origins of the dance.
 

Fusion Friendly Events is a collective of experimental, avant-garde performers who fuse belly dance with other styles such as flamenco, breakdance, modern dance, jazz, burlesque, theatrical and poi. They currently host 4 events a year, usually at Cozmic Pizza in Eugene, Oregon.

Belly dance is as diverse an art form in Eugene as it is in the rest of the world. There are cabaret styles, tribal styles and fusion belly dance. Fusion belly dance is characterized as Middle Eastern Dance combined with another forms of dance, such as salsa, bhangra, hip hop or burlesque. Although there are cabaret dancers who combine two styles such as Egyptian and Indian bhangra styling, and it would be accurate to call this form of dance fusion, often fusion refers to tribal fusion.

When the belly dance style “tribal fusion” is said . . .