Bellyfest 2010

First-off, yey for us! We won something. We're now one of the ten bloggers who will get PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association) season passes.

As part of our prize, we were invited to their first show, the Bellyfest 2010.

In another blog, I've written about stage reviews (I think I've written about one play here). Anyhoo, the Bellyfest 2010 was a whole day event so I'll speak briefly about the event and then move on to reviewing the performance.

The Event
The event was sponsored by Slenda. There were booths that sold Middle-eastern accessories, Turkish food, and glitter tattoos. There were also workshops on belly dancing, capoeira, and wushu. It was a feast for the senses. I think the event could have used more space and more seating, though. Also, the martial arts seemed out of place.

The Show
*cracks knuckles*
The performers were people from belly dancing workshops, professional belly dancers, a capoeira group, and a group of young wushu practitioners. It was divided into two parts.

The first part was a story (that seemed like a an amateurish retelling of a Paolo Coelho novel, with all due respect) that had a guy travelling all over the world, meeting these different dancers to find the perfect gift for his beloved, only to realize his beloved was the most perfect thing of all.

Apart from the capoeira and the wushu (which was awesome, by the way), the other dances were clearly belly dances disguised as Flamenco, a Chinese fan dance, and an Egyptian dance. Like, a belly dancer puts on a red skirt and says, "Hey, I'm from Spain."

I think it would have been better if they stuck to introducing each dance straightforwardly, like in the second part.

The second part of the show featured professional and hobbyist dancers from India, Australia and the Philippines. There were a group of teen belly dancers from Batangas who were good. But they looked so serious.

The highlights of this part of the show and the day were 1) A group of 6 to 7-year olds belly dancing; 2) Priya Murugusan's number, who earlier did a Bollywood teach; 3) international belly dancer Belynda Azhaar who shimmied on a drum; and 4) Sundee Vinas, from Batangas, who belly danced while balancing a sword on her head.

All in all, I give the show a 7/10. Here's a video of Sundee Vinas dancing. Enjoy.

*video from limnelson1