This page contains all those bits that don't easily fit anywhere else. If they grow enough they may have their own pages eventually.

Enjoy your browsing here.

These links will take you out of the Arabian Nights Belly Dancing site, so remember to bookmark us before you go.

Fav sites

These are links to our favourite sites - they contain a wealth of information about belly dancing and for belly dancers - Check them out!

The Art of Middle Eastern Dance by Shira: a wonderful site packed full of information - should be your first stop on the belly dancing web. - http://www.shira.net/index.html

Flaming Sands Academy Of Middle Eastern Dance: Performances and classes in Maryborough and Hearvey Bay, QLD - http://www.flamingsands.com/

La Rossa Tribal Bellydance: Tribal Bellydance in Rockhampton Central Queensland and details of Abadeeya performers - http://netza77.tripod.com/index.html

Oriental Dance with Amana : Performances, classes in Paris and other information - http://fgruyer.club.fr/index.html

Dancing Darkly - Raks Gothique in a bit more detail

Dancing Darkly with Gothic Belly Dance (Raks Gothique) is an exciting fusion between belly dance and the gothic dance and lifestyle. Both of these artistic forms share the expression of an ultimate fantasy and feminine ideal, high drama, accompanied by a range of moods, as well as elaborate forms of make-up and costuming. Middle Eastern dance rhythms have long been used in gothic music for their evocative qualities, exoticism, and beauty.

Gothic Belly Dance isn't really a new phenomenon, it's simply a merger of two entities that go well together. Goths love shiny things, elaborate costuming, passionate music, and being dramatic. Belly dancers love shiny things, elaborate costuming, passionate music, and being dramatic. Sooner or later, the two camps had to meet, and the Gothic Belly Dancer emerged. And not just in one spot, but throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

As with any belly dance fusion style, it is important to first learn traditional belly dance techniques, which of course takes time and practice. Only then can the two styles properly merge.

In performing and promoting Raks Gothique, Arabian Nights Belly Dancing recognises that many Middle Eastern dancers believe that belly dance should remain "pure" while on the other hand there are dancers doing purely experimental dance...with a continuum existing in between. Raks Gothique is not about shocking but making people think and see the dance form in new ways.

Raks Gothique is separate from Tribal. Tribal is performed as a group interacting as a harmoniously flowing unit. Gothic Belly Dance is about the individual and expressing gothic moods such as a dark elegance, mystery...with perhaps a sense of danger. When a Raks Gothiques dancer performs she tries to tell a story rather than thinking about individual moves. It can be very dramatic. Gothic Belly Dance can be more classic one day and more Tribal the next. It is a fusion incorporating dance moves from India, Flamenco, Tribal, as well as moves seen at gothic dance clubs around the world.

The Gothic Belly Dance costume reflects the gothic aesthetic. The predominant colours are black (the base colour of most costumes), red, scarlet, blue, wine, purple, silver, and other metallics. Actually any colour can be used mixed in with a little black, of course. No bright, cheery pink or yellow costumes here. Other costume elements may include fishnet, lace, antique jewellery, PVC, leather, satin, medieval or Victorian designs, and metal accents such as chain maille or spikes. Gothic fashion embraces Victorian, 1920's/Art Nouveau, Renaissance, Punk, Cyber, and Ethnic-Primitive influences, creating a distinct and dramatic look that is both modern and antique. The fashion truly reflects the music and the attitude.

So, when it comes to Gothic Belly Dance, the artists who choose this means as their form of expression bring to life the music through their costuming, expression, and choreography.

Raks Chakra - Healing Dance

The use of dance as a healing form and therapeutic tool is founded in the idea that body and mind are completely integrated. While the relationship between the mind and body is constantly being explored, theorised and discussed, the whole area certainly highlights the ingenuity of the creation and masterpiece in the human being.

America Tribal Style Belly Dance
"The dance makes me feel connected and grounded," Paulette adds. "Connected to myself, physically, emotionally, mentally, and even psychically. It makes me be in the moment, being truly present and aware. This is part of my spirituality. By knowing how to be fully conscious, I can allow myself to let the dance take me into another realm of consciousness-- or god-hood if you will. Focusing on certain repetitive movements, the dance can take you into trance, another realm of consciousness, a sort of moving meditation, where you can visit and release, as in healing trance."

Tribal Synergy - http://www.blacksheepbellydance.com/writings/files/synergy2.html

Wu Tao – The Dancing Way
Wu Tao balances the Qi energy in the body and brings together dance, music and meditation, to give you an enjoyable experience that has enormous health benefits.

Wu Tao – The Dancing Way - http://www.wutaodance.com/

The Wave, and the Roth 5Rhythms
A dancing meditation developed by Gabrielle Roth. “Put your psyche in motion and it will heal itself” The 5 Rhythms are practical and highly effective tools for releasing what is hurt in you, and growing into your creative potential. A movement practice designed to free you up on every level. Each rhythm is a whole world in itself, an aspect of a human being, a quality of energy that brings particular teachings when you study it, move within it. Put together in sequence, the rhythms form a wave of energy that takes you deeply through your self, out to your edges, and drops you right in your centre, leaving you both vibrant and grounded.

Gabrielle Roth - http://www.gabrielleroth.com/
Music for the 5 Rhythms - http://www.ravenrecording.com/
The 5 Rhythms - http://www.5rhythmsuk.com/5rhythms.html
Gabrielle Roth's 5 Rhythms - http://www.adambarley.com/

Dervish/Sufi Dancing
The Mevlevi order is a Sufi order (sometimes called the whirling dervishes) that is known throughout the world. The steps themselves are few and simple, but like a top, unless you are perfectly centered, you cannot disappear into an infinitesimally thin axis so that everything you take yourself to be is whirling around you, and you are that existence which has no physical residence. This is the way of the Dervish. This is what Dervishes call "True Love."
Sufi Whirling Dervishes http://www.whirlingdervish.org/index.htm

The Sufi Page - http://bellydanceny.com/sufi.html
Dance Meditation - http://www.dancemeditation.org/

Gurdjieff's Movements
George Gurdjieff , the man credited with bringing the Enneagram to the West, learned from the esoteric Sarmouni sect in Afghanistan, their mystical Sufi dancing, psychic powers and the Enneagram. The Fourth Way was to the West by G. I. Gurdjieff, and organized into a form suitable for the Western mind by P. D. Ouspensky. Gurdjieff's Movements can be a help for self-observation and enhancing one's level of awareness. Practising Movements can lead to a better understanding of body, mind and emotions.

Gurdjieff's Movements - http://www.gurdjieff-movements.net/movements.htm
Gurdjieff's Dances and Movements - http://www.gurdjieff.org.uk/gs7.htm

Hellerwork
Hellerwork is a powerful system of somatic education and structural bodywork, based on the inseparability of body, mind, and spirit. Following Ida Rolf's lineage of Structural Integration bodywork, Joseph Heller incorporated movement education/awareness and body-centered human development processes creating Hellerwork.

Hellerwork Structural Integration - http://www.hellerwork.com/

5 Rings Workout
“How you move through space reflects how you move through life”

Walking your talk - http://www.cultivatingexcellence.com/walkingyourtalk.html

Dance Therapy
The theory underlying dance therapy is that body movement reflects the inner state of the human, and that by moving the body within a guided therapeutic setting, a healing process begins. Emerging inner conflicts and issues from the unconscious to the consciousness of the person are addressed on all levels - physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Seeking the full integration of mind and body, and bringing harmony between all the aforementioned levels of the human being is what dance therapy is all about.

What is Dance Therapy? - http://www.studyoverseas.com/performingarts/eds/dance.htm
American Dance Therapy Association - http://www.adta.org/
Australian Dance Therapy Association - http://www.dtaa.org/
International Dance Therapy Institute of Australia - http://www.idtia.org.au/

Kundalini/Chakra Dance
Kundalini Dance is a healing art and creative movement form designed for people of all ages and fitness levels to activate their inner healer and initiate positive life changes through the medium of ecstatic dance. Sensual, dynamic and often trance-inducing, participants journey through the 7 chakras.

Kundalini Dance - http://www.kundalini-dance.com/
Ekstasis - http://www.ekstasisdance.com/
Out of this World - http://www.wytchyways.com/serene_antara.pdf