Scenes From Turkey: Oriental Dance, Part 3

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Page 2

Sep 1, 2000

This dancer was probably my least favorite of the dancers I saw over the course of the two weeks I was in Turkey because her posture was poor, her personality came across as being utterly bored with what she was doing, her costume was not very interesting to look at, and she annoyed me with her constant attempts to get the audience to clap in time to her music. Click here for a closer look at her costume from a couple of other angles as well as additional observations regarding her performance.

A couple of nights later, after moving on to another city, we arrived at our hotel to discover that their bar featured an Oriental dance performer. Of course, we needed to watch!

After the disappointing costume worn by the dancer in Cappadocia, it was refreshing to see the dancer at the Colossea Hotel near Pamukkale wearing this pretty beaded bra/belt set with a circle skirt. Click here for a closer look at her costume and those towering platform shoes!

The next show we went to was at the Kervansaray Hotel in Kusadasi, and it was much more rewarding than the ones at Yasar Baba and the Colossea Hotel to watch. It featured three dance acts.

Here is the first dancer we saw in Kusadasi.

Her costume was in the rather classic belly dancing style of beaded bra & belt with a coordinating skirt. The slits in the skirt were positioned such that we had much more of a view of her well-toned rump than we might have wanted. Click here for a closer look at this dancer, her costume, and her backbends.

The second act at Kusadasi was quite... interesting. VERY interesting. I'm not quite sure what it was, but it definitely wasn't belly dancing! Still, I found it highly entertaining. I alternated between laughing and saying, "Oh my!" The dancers were downright frisky--now THAT's a word you usually don't associate with belly dancing!

This act was so, er, unique that I snapped a lot of pictures. I had trouble choosing just a few to share with you, so I ended up deciding to post 13 of them. I know that sounds like a lot, but once you look at the amazing costumes and the shots that captured their prancing in mid-prance, you'll understand why I posted so many!