News

Wednesday February 20, 2008

Night of belly dancing angels

By ESTHER CHANDRAN

ANGELS are portrayed as a sight to behold and it was truly charming to watch a group of “angels” dance at the Night of Pariyan (Night of Angels) held at the Spice Garden Restau-rant in Subang Jaya recently.

The “angels” from Havana Estudio's belly dance class under the tutelage of belly dance teacher Nanccy Bakhshy gave a performance before guests including family members and friends, presenting various dances learnt in class.

Accomplished dancer: Nanccy performing to the song ‘Havas’ using a pair of golden wings.
For students of the beginner and advanced levels, it was exciting as they donned tantalising belly dance costumes to perform before an audience.

The dance platform unveiled for the first time in Malaysia Persian dance that stresses on delicate hand movements along with nimble dance steps.

Nanccy then led her students in gliding gracefully and in unison to the beat of Moeen, a Persian song.

In this performance, Nanccy merged familiar belly dance moves with Persian dance to give the overall performance an enhanced appeal.

Popular chart toppers by famous hip shaking artist Shakira was also in the line-up of events as students danced to Ojos Asi and Hips Don’t Lie.

Nanccy said belly dance was about bringing out the agility in a woman, as a woman used various parts of her body to express herself in dance.

“We also use props such as scarves, canes, swords and a variety of others things to make the dance more exciting,'' she said.

Students from the advanced class also took to stage, showing steps they had mastered during their classes with Nanccy.

Colourful: The dancers performing for the crowd at Spice Garden Restaurant.
The Drum Duet was an interesting routine where students performed to the fast beat of the drums.

The special guest that night was Ali Bakhshy, Nanccy's brother from Iran who demonstrated various tempos used in the Middle East.

While Ali delivered the drum rhythms in belly dance, baba karam, bandary and khaliji, his niece Mandana Bakhshy moved according to the beat.

It was definitely a night of colour and gaiety as all eyes followed Nanccy's every movement to Iranian singer Shohreh's song titled Havas. She performed with a pair of golden wings.

Nanccy moved smoothly, never fumbling with her wings, going around in circles with a smile on her face, almost ready to take flight but never doing so.

The finale of the night was when all students got together to perform to the sounds of the flute and drums in Nawal.

Nawal is a song that all of Nanccy's students learnt as beginners.

For the happy belly dancers, as soon as their dance routine was over, it was time to enjoy a feast of lovely North Indian delights.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story