The belly dance show Apocalipsis was a great success! Leyla Salam interpretation of the end of time through belly dance was very innovative and interesting. They captured the audience from the opening to the last dance. Aryadh, Malak Farrah, Dana, and Afet of the Desert took the leading roles as the four horsemen. They represented sickness, violence, war, and hope, a reflection of the times we are living.

Something very shocking was the sketch of violence. Roseta Bordane and Randy Dominquez interpretation of violence against women was spine chilling. And everyone felt her pain.

There was a belly dance school that came all the way from San Jose, Costa Rica, to be part of this event. The group Noura gave the tribal belly dance touch of the night. And they were representing darkness. They incorporated sword dancing and Isis wings to their dances.

Also, the school Alondra danced in Apocalipsis as souls in hell. The dancers were so flawless and they looked to be reaching out from the fire.

The Leyla Salam troupe was amazing interpreting the different emotions need it to give Apocalipsis the mysticism it had. For some of the girls, it was their first time in belly dance and dancing in front of an audience.

Next year, a new belly dance show will be put on scene with a complete different concept from Apocalipsis. I think the name says it all: Aqua! Auditions will be in March 2010.

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child she cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth”
Proyección Leyla Salam presents “Apocalipsis”, a show full of mysticism which will take you to the beginning of the final times on earth.

This show will count with the participation of Leyla Salam’s dance team, Arabic Dance Studio Alondra and from Costa Rica the group Noura. With more than 15 dancers and actors on scene you will be taking a sneak peek into evil.

What will our future holds for us? Is the Apocalipsis our end?

Date: October 17, 2009
Place: Ascanio Arosemena Theater (diagonal to the Administration Building next to Balboa’s fire station)
Time: 7:00 pm
COST: $10.00 Pre-sale – $12.00 day of the event
For more information: www.leylasalam.com

We encourage all couples/dancers to get ready and train hard for this outstanding event. They will have the opportunity to show their talents. The winner couple will represent Panama in Puerto Rico. They will need to have a valid US visa. If not, Salsa Congress will provide them with a recommendation letter in order to help with the visa process. However, organizers shall not be held responsible if visa is rejected.

Event will be carried out in 3 different places of Panama City. Royal Casino, Discoteca Dubay and Café Dali. Inscriptions currently are open. Don´t miss the chance to represent Panama at an international level.

The lion’s dancers, who came from China to Panama, had an average age of 17 years old.  With a great display of agility and skills they dance around moving the lion’s head at the same time they executed the dance movements and Kung Fu steps at the rhythm of the drum.  The most skillful part of the dance was when the lions danced on top of posts.  Dancing on posts is a lion dance characteristic of the Chinese where the Chinese dancer put on display they great ability and hard work.

Recently, Atlapa Convention Center was the venue for the celebration of the Chinese New Year, with the participation of folkloric dance teams, Chinese dancers, ballet, karaoke, and a delegation from China who performed the Legion Dance and the Dragon Dance.  This group came from the city of Zhanjian, province of Guangdong, and they were part of the dance team performing on the opening of the Olympic Games Beijing 2008.

Las night was the annual dance show for Rasheda Arabic Dance Studio in La Huaca Theater.  It was a very good show with the girls from beginning belly dance to the advance group.  Of course, I was there dancing!

“La Danza Encendida” means “Dance on Fire” and it was the tale of how, like the Phoenix, we can reborn from the ashes after things go wrong and keep going on with our life with even more strength.  La Danza Encendida was created with a mix and fusion of rhythms with belly dance that left the public excited.  In the opening number there were candelabras and candle dances and shadow and even Aerial Dance! It was an exhilarating night for me and I’m sure it was also for all the girls participating.

We got veil dance, candle dance, Saidi, ballet dancers, African dancers, fire dancers, tribal style belly dance, Egyptian style belly dance, and even a Chinese Lion! This was truly an exotic night to remember.

But, it was a very special night for me.  It was the first time I belly dance in my own country, Panama, and it was also the first time my family saw me dancing.  I cannot have enough words to express what I felt last night.

Thanks to everyone who helped get the show going.

The American Style bolero is a low Latin ballad, very popular in the United States. Is a unique dance style that is considered a cousin of the Rumba and both dances share many figures. The bolero is usually played in 4/4 time with a slower tempo than that of the Rumba. While Rumba music is very rhythmical, the lyrical Bolero sounds more like a Latin Ballad. It was introduced in the United States some time in the 1930’s and is distinguished by its slow, sweeping, and with romantic motions.

Bolero is one of the five rhythm competition dances in American style ballroom dance competition. The basic step of bolero is a long, sweeping step to the side on the slow beat, followed by a step forward or backward. Because bolero is one of the most beautiful, graceful and romantic dances ever created, it is danced slowly with a romantic music, it gives dancers the opportunity to cling close to their partner and sway or make sensual movements. When dancing bolero, you must have a amount of body control due to the balance required to dance at this slow tempo. Learning the Bolero can be easy and fun.

A few weeks ago, I went with my chicks group to a strip club.  We got to talk to some of the strippers and we learn a lot about “the business”.  And I learn something very important, than not many people takes in consideration, Strippers are smarter than what you think.  They do a version of what many girls do on Friday night when they go to a bar and get drunk and dance nasty to the guys, but strippers do it with one end: make money.  Many of them come from foreign countries searching for a better life.  As Melissa told me, it is not something they want to do forever, but for a few years to help them spring their life into a better one.

As for looking hot and sexy they required to take good care of their bodies.  Who want to pay to see a girl with cellulite and fat jiggling from their arms?  Strippers workout for long hours on the pole,  giving them a lot of strength and an excellent aerobic exercise, to be able to dance sexy in front of a bunch of strangers.  As for the clothes, well, they are like any other dancers who know how important the whole presentation package is.  Erotic dancers need the right clothes to take off and the shoes to complement their outfit.  And you have seen those heels; they are not a piece of cake!

When the dancers are away from home, they worry all the time about their love one.  No everyone knows what they do for a living.  The family may think they are away studying or even working in some conventional job.  Many of the girls have kids that they need to live behind to be able to give them a better future.  Would you be able to do anything like this to feed your child?
It takes a lot of guts to walk in a room full of people watching you take your clothes, looking confident and beautiful while wearing sexy lingerie. Definitely not a glamorous lives as you may think.

The search of new exotic cultures, customs, and landscape, in Middle Eastern and African’s countries, resulted in given Raks Sharki the name we use today: Belly Dance.  Raks Sharki or Dance Orientale is characterizing by the movement of hips, turns, and the isolation and control of head, thorax, arms, and hips.  Also, we have Raks Baladi (Folks Dance) which is a more elemental dance where there are hips movements but not much traveling steps.

Until then, Belly Dance had been performed in small places and as private affairs.  However, this change when in Cairo was open in 1926 the first party club, where performances by sensual dancers where in the repertoire.  Casino Badia or Madame Badia’s Cabaret was the center for what we know today as Belly Dance.  Badia Masabni was not only the owner of casino Badia, but she was also the creator of mixing elements from other dance forms like ballet with Dance Orientale, looking to attract an European audience. 

One tradition where this dance was known as a popular dance was elevated by Badia to a more professional level.  She also expanded the repertoire of the belly dancers and the use of the arms with more fluids movements like the snake arms; and the use of the space to dance.  The dancers became more sensual and cheerful.

As Badia Masabni gave Belly Dance today´s sensuality and eroticism, Hollywood was helping to give a bigger impact of Dance Orientale in the world with the introduction of the two pieces costume, which identify today’s belly dancers, and the use of veils in the dance.

The secret of Belly Dance is that never goes out of vogue and everyday has more fans.  Men and women equally work towards the practice of this dance and to maintain its place in the world of dance.  We never end the quest for the exotic, the sensual, and the forbidden.

Emigrants in the new world carry this tradition of the maypole in to the United States.  And just like basketball and baseball, pole dancing was created in United States.  During the early day the Great Depression, traveling fairs become very popular entertainment. 

They had small tents with a stage, where dancers were feature as the main attraction.  While performing erotic dances, the dancers would shake and grind their bodies sensually while using the poles, which were holding up the tent, for support.

Pole dancing was first performed by a dancer named Princess Pat.  She worked for One Eye Tommy Fallon and Mom Fallon.   And the first recorded pole dance show was by Belle Jangles, who worked in an Oregon club called Mugwump was in 1968.

Pole dances become increasable popular en Canada during the 1980’s.  >From Vancouver comes what we see today in strip clubs and gentleman’s club.  And spread all over the world and as far as China. 

Today, pole dancing is not only for strip clubs and gentleman’s club, women embrace their sensual selves and enjoy taking classes to learn to perform a pole dance and other erotic dances.  However, most women don’t run home to dance for their man. 

Pole dancing is an escape from daily life where women take time for them and enjoy their sexuality.  This way of thinking outside the box creates friendship between women of all kind of social economical status.  Pole dancing is here to stay, not as a ritual, but as a new expression of dance.