Regular Southern girl' finds self-expression in foreign-born art form VANESSA WILLIS : Everything about Yasmine seems exotic, from her eye makeup to the way she describes how she feels when she performs. So how did a self-described "regular Southern girl" who grew up in ballet slippers and tap shoes end up traveling the world to dance in hip scarves and jingles?
It started with a Christmas gift nine years ago -- a gift certificate for a beginner's bellydance class at the Jewish Community Center. She connected to the dance form immediately during the first lesson. "I loved the movement and the music, and the self-expression it allowed," she says. "The individuality of it, being able to make it your own, spoke to me."
She continued taking lessons, and soon started traveling to attend workshops across the country. Word spread about her talent locally, and she started getting invitations to perform at restaurants including Sofram Turkish Cuisine at the Tower Place shopping center and Kebab Grill on East Boulevard. "I never would've thought I'd do this, but now I can't imagine doing anything else," she says.
Bellydance has exploded in popularity in the last decade. Pop star Shakira became known for her shimmying as she rose to fame. Instructional DVDs promoted through television infomercials tout the health benefits of the dance form, and classes offer instruction in it throughout the Charlotte region. Yasmine eventually formed Magic Hips Dancers, a troupe that performs with her at the restaurants and special events including weddings and family parties. They've also performed at the Carolina Renaissance Festival for seven years as the Jewels of the Caravan, along with her student troupe, The Beledi Beat Dancers.
In 2003, she was invited to guest star in the Bellydance Superstars performance in Charlotte. A couple of weeks later, the company called back to invite her to join them on the next tour. She spent nine weeks in 2004 performing with them in 58 American cities and Canada. They also spent six weeks in Barcelona. She is featured in the "Belly-Dance-O-Rama 3" instructional video produced by The International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance, based in California.
In 2005, she opened Mid-East Dance, fulfilling a life-long dream of owning her own dance studio. Her current students are as young as 9 years old and as old as... "Well, she won't tell me how old she is!" she says, laughing. Yasmine, who goes by her stage name for safety reasons, says she wishes more people knew the history of bellydance.
Contrary to popular belief, it was not created for the entertainment of men, but rather as a way for women to bond as a community and celebrate milestones or fertility. In ancient times, men weren't allowed to watch performances. "It's not hoochy coochie," Yasmine says, laughing. "This is an ancient dance form and an art. Bellydance tells a story. The older I get, the more I have to dance about."
She says the students wear the same clothing they'd use for a yoga class and add layers such as hip scarves to play with while they dance. "Most of us are more clothed than you'd be at a typical aerobics class," Yasmine says. "We don't hand you a bra and belt set in the first class." She initially fell in love with how exotic the movement felt, and then began learning about the rich cultural history behind bellydance. There are many forms of it, with each version having emerged from individual cultures the same way separate language dialects form.
She especially enjoys performing at weddings and family parties because it brings her closer to the Middle Eastern and Asian cultures that bellydance came from. "It's been wonderful how open these people are to me when I dance at events," she says. "Everyone's been accepting. I love that people push tables out of the way and dance with me." Most of her students at the studio are women in their late 20s to their mid 40s. "It's a really positive atmosphere and it's OK no matter what your background is or what size you are," she says.
She says she's watched many students become freed from negative body issues and emerge with better self-confidence. "Some of the students pick a dance name so they can leave `Judy' at the door and step out as this new identity that frees them to dance," she says. "So they're no longer `Suzy's mom' or `John's wife.' They can focus on doing something for themselves." VOICES
Are these boom times or what? The mining community in Toronto soaked in a rare bit of showbiz glamour in the lead up to the Prospectors and Developers of Canada convention in Toronto. The Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI) charity rolled into town on March 1 to hold a banquet and raise money for Third World mining communities. Guests and performers included former U. S. president Bill Clinton, Elton John, Robin Williams, John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Shakira, Wyclef Jean, Norah Jones, Burton Cummings and Eugene Levy.
While we applaud good works and hope this one becomes a success, it's been eight months since the CGSGI was launched and it's still not clear what the charity is actually doing to alleviate poverty, or even what the specific plans are. Clinton's larger umbrella charity, the William J. Clinton Foundation, has come under fire south of the border for its lack of transparency for refusing to reveal its list of donors, which include the Saudi royal family and foreign governments. The foundation has raised more than US$500 million so far, including US$131 million from mining financier and former movie mogul Frank Giustra.
Political donations to Bill's wife Hillary, who is running for U. S. president, are capped at US$2,300 per person per election and limited to U. S. citizens, while donations to the Clinton Foundation can be anonymous, unlimited, and made by anyone. Thus a concern is that major political influence with Hillary can be had by donating to the Clinton Foundation, especially with Bill insisting he would continue to raise money for his foundation if Hillary becomes president, and would then only reveal the donors on a "go-forward" basis. Hillary is also refusing to release her income tax statements unless she wins the Democratic Party's nomination as presidential candidate.
Media access was constrained at the CGSGI event, probably in response to recent, highly critical articles and editorials in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Bloomberg that looked at how Giustra flew Bill to Kazakhstan in September 2005 to meet with its strongman president, soon after which Giustra's company UrAsia Energy (since merged into Uranium One) was awarded lucrative state-owned uranium assets there. Giustra followed up months later with a US$31-million donation to the Clinton Foundation, a sum that was only acknowleged in December 2007. Giustra and Clinton say these things are unconnected. --The preceding appeared as an editorial in The Northern Miner
By Christi Hall : Jessica Simpson's father Joe may be concentrating on her "Double D's" but Jessica seemingly wants to make sure her current beau and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo knows that she has the entire package and she is not afraid to use it. According to a report from Us Weekly magazine the former pop singer turned wannabe country singer also can show off the moves of a stripper.
The magazine reports on the couple's weekend and notes that on Saturday night the duo hit up Hollywood hotspot Villa with a few pals, including Simpson's former assistant Cacee Cobb and her boyfriend, Scrubs’ star Donald Faison and had what sounds like a pretty wild time.
"Jessica was super social and energetic," an onlooker there told Us Weekly according to a report on the website. If there were any camera phones it shouldn't be long until we see this one on YouTube. It doesn't give the details of how skimpy Jessica was dressed but the chatty source noted that between “singing and dancing with everyone,” Simpson gave Romo a lap dance to Shakira and Wyclef Jean’s “Hips Don’t Lie.”
Good for her. Jess was also laughing and dancing to Diana Ross’ ‘I’m Coming Out,’ and then a disco medley, where she did the disco finger dance move,” the onlooker said. “Everyone at the table was dancing goofy and laughing throughout the night.”
Mexico City - A Shakira fan forked out more than $3 000 to buy a bra once worn by the Colombian singer, while another paid $14 000 for front-row seats and the privilege of meeting the hip-shaking star.
The two bids were among the highest on 40 items Shakira donated to an Internet auction that has raised $76 000 for her Bare Feet Foundation, which is building a school for poor children in northern Colombia.
"We had bidders from 10 countries," Eric Gazin, president of the firm Auction Cause which hosted the sale, told reporters on Tuesday.
Another popular item was a shiny lavender skirt with turquoise and coral beading that Shakira wore while singing Hips Don't Lie, during her Oral Fixation tour. The skirt fetched more than $1 000.
Still up for grabs until Sunday are an electric Fender guitar and an acoustic Taylor guitar, both bearing Shakira's autograph. - Sapa-AP
A fan has paid $3,000 (£1,500) to own one of Shakira's bras in an auction for the pop star's children's charity. The singer, who noted that her "breasts are small and humble" in her hit single Whenever, Wherever, is clearing out her wardrobe for the Bare Feet Foundation.
More than $60,000 (£30,700) has been raised so far, with one fan paying $14,100 (£7,200) to meet Shakira. The charity is currently building a school for poor children in the singer's home country, Colombia.
The jewelled bra, which Shakira wore on her Oral Fixation world tour in 2007, was designed by Roberto Cavalli. Other items in the auction included a purple wig and Gibson guitar used in the video for Las De La Intuicion, which sold for $3,301 (£1,700).
Another popular item was a shiny lavender skirt with turquoise and coral beading that Shakira wore while singing Hips Don't Lie on tour, which fetched more than $1,076 (£550). However, a Garden of Eden-style figleaf costume worn on the cover of her Oral Fixation 2 album failed to attract a starting bid of $10,000 (£5,000).
Still up for grabs until Sunday are an electric Fender guitar and an acoustic Taylor guitar, both bearing Shakira's autograph.
This weekend, Shakira auctioned off for charity more than 40 costumes from her 2007 Oral Fixation tour. The variously wild and wonderful outfits were bartered for on eBay's Giving Work Web site.
Among the hip-swiveling items: a lavender skirt with coral beads, a low-cut red frock with billowing sleeves and a blue tank top emblazoned with the slogan "For Those Who Love to Rock."
Proceeds will go to her Bare Feet Foundation, which is dedicated to building a school in the singer's native Colombia.
He fears for Scar
Scarlett Johansson has made it to the A-list, but her sometime director, Woody Allen, is cautioning her about the high life. He tells the New York Post's Page Six that she "is so beautiful and so sexy and so gifted ... she can do anything, but she has to make the right choices of films, and she's got to not go the Page Six party route.
"I don't want to read about her in the paper with this boyfriend or that boyfriend, or in rehab or taking pills. ... She has to take her acting seriously ... the way someone like Meryl Streep did it."
Says she
"When I look back on this last year, it's like, what was I thinking?" Lindsay Lohan
Birthdays
Tina Louise (Gilligan's Island), 74 ... Sergio Mendes, 67 ... Sheryl Crow, 46 ... Brandy (Moesha), 29 ... Kelly Rowland (Destiny's Child), 27CONTRIBUTORS: Ananova.com, news services
Regular Southern girl' finds self-expression in foreign-born art form
