Performance to Sev Acher by Artie Barsamian and His Orchestra

I am so happy today to present a beautiful Armenian song that has been used for belly dance. My friend Linda gave me a stack of vintage belly dance albums over the summer, all of them by Armenian musicians, and that’s how I found this lovely recording of Sev Acher (Black Eyes) by Artie Barsamian and his Orchestra.

I’ve been able to find out that Artie Barsamian was from Massachusetts. He was a very accomplished clarinet and saxophone player, and he performed both Armenian music and jazz. He recorded 13 78s and then another 14 albums over his long career, and he also loved to play live shows. In the YouTube clips below, which feature performance footage interspersed with interviews, he tells a very funny story about how his dad wanted him to learn to play Armenian music, but Artie wasn’t that interested in it. He would play a few Armenian songs with his father, who was a violinist from South Boston, in order to get permission to take the car out! But of course, he later loved playing it.

Here is my performance to Sev Acher for the Winter Cairo Shimmy festival this past weekend. Due to the festival’s time limits I had to cut short the beautiful clarinet solo at the beginning, but I hope to perform to this magical song again when in-person performances resume. Enjoy, and please subscribe to my Monthly Newsletter while you are here. I share class information, my dance research, music and cultural notes and more!

San Francisco Bay Area Belly Dancer Alisa Greer performs to Sev Acher by Artie Barsamian and his Orchestra for Winter Cairo Shimmy 2020.

The is the musical life story of Artie Barsamian with interviews live performances.

Mona Said

Hi Dancers,

I am in the mood to escape reality today, and what could be better for that than a young Mona Said in a fluffy bubblegum pink costume dancing in front of the Sphinx.

Pure joy.

A friend sent that to me over the summer and I have watched it many times :)

More about Mona Said here.

If you like this, please subscribe to my Monthly Newsletter for more. I never share your email address.

Nov - Dec class information is up on my Classes Page. I hope you can join me for a class.

Have a great week xo

Belly Dance to Benefit Armenia Fund

Quick update today, I’ve added two Introductory Belly Dance Class Fundraisers to benefit Armenia Fund. These will be fun Introductory classes that anyone can do. My aim is to combine positive self-care with fundraising to help humanitarian relief efforts. Please help me spread the word. Contact me to register, thank you!

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Costuming Ideas for our At Home Hafla!

Hello Dancers,

Since we are getting ready for our at-home class haflas on Nov 16th (Beginners) and Nov 18th (Intermediate/Advanced), I wanted to give newer dancers some costuming inspiration.

We do not have to spend money to dress it up a little from regular classwear. We all have things in our closet that will work just fine. I don’t know about you, but I have probably been wearing the same 2% of my clothes since the quarantine began - who even knows what’s in the closet at this point?! Now is as good a time as any to take a look and see what forgotten treasures might be in there.

Belly Dance Costuming Examples

Below are a couple video clips with costuming ideas that we can pull from our closets. I chose video so you could see how the clothes and movement go together. This first clip is the Egyptian dancer Dina. She’s known for really outrageous costumes but here she is in a simple black dress. If you want to emulate this look, it doesn't have to be this short. of course.

The next clip is Fifi Abdo, and here she is wearing a loose galabeya with a hip scarf. You could use any loose fitting caftan type dress to emulate this performance look.

Here is another clip of Dina where she has a dress/biker short combination on.

You can also use two pieces. The following example is me! I really love this style so you can poke around my YouTube channel for more examples of this look- and please subscribe while you are there :).

Any tops and skirts in these shapes will work. I bet if you look through your closet you will find you have something that will look great!

Other bellydance costuming ideas:

  • Any fancy dress with a hip scarf

  • A hip scarf can be any piece of fabric that ties around your hips!

  • You can sew or glue rhinestones or sequins onto any top you have to add some sparkle

  • Any sparkly costume jewelry you have at home, like rhinestone necklaces or dangly earrings, will look great

  • Makeup adds a lot and can put you in a great mood to perform! You can search for “Arabic eye” or “smokey eye” makeup on YouTube and you will see lots of fun ideas. You don’t need to buy any makeup, just use what you have to create the look. If you do want to buy something new, drugstore makeup works very well, you do not need designer makeup

  • Don’t feel like doing eye makeup? Red lipstick is a quick way to add glamour and feel dressed up

  • Nail polish is also a quick and fun way to feel more glamourous for performing- I love red or something bright! I always do my own nails, you do not need a professional manicure

These are all just ideas if you want to dress up a bit for our last night of class, there is no pressure on anyone to do anything if you don’t want to or are too busy. But costuming can be just as expressive of your personality as dancing, and it can also put you in the right frame of mind for performing, so I encourage everyone to think about it a bit.

Please add something below in the comments if you have more ideas or any questions!

In the coming months I may transition to blogging less frequently so I can concentrate on my Newsletter and other writing projects. Please subscribe to my Newsletter if you’d like to stay up-to-date!

Take care, everyone.