BLANCA & JENIVIVA DANCE WITH DJINN :: neon

JeBon on St. Mark's place is a cute Asian restaurant and an unlikely place for an ongoing bellydance extravaganza, and yet it is the site of a successful weekly bellydance party with traditional and cutting-edge dance music performed by Djinn, one of only 4 bands playing for bellydancers in Manhattan. Yesterday, bellydancers and friends converged at JeBon to see Blanca, Jeniviva and their students perform with Djinn. Each of them delivered two traditional numbers: Blanca did a classic bellydance song and a very elegant drum solo; Jeniviva did a semai and a karsilama, both with outstanding zil playing. A costume change occurred and their second set had a Gothic flavor: Blanca's costume and mask were adorned with long black feathers, and Jeniviva was her usual Gothic Goddess self, all in black and red. Unfortunately my boyfriend's camera died right before the Gothic set, so our photo report below shows only the traditional bellydance looks.

Here is Blanca working her drum solo magic. The band: Carmine, Pete List, Brad.

Blanca and "The Blancitas": The party at JeBon is usually preceeded by a mini bellydance class. Below: Blanca and her class perform the choreography she taught yesterday. The band: Carmine, Pete List, Brad, Dale Langdon.

Blanca and Djinn

Neon & Sarah Skinner: Sarah stopped by on her way to her gig at the Cupping Room with Avram Pengas' band.

Jeniviva at JeBon.

Jeniviva, Neon, Dale Langdon

Jeniviva, Sarah Skinner, Blanca

Blanca, Carmine

Friends and students of Blanca and Elsa Leandros

Comments

[Blanca]

It was a great night! Thank you Neon and Scott for the pictures and thank you all for making it happen...

[Dunia]

This night was my very first night at JeBon (my friend and dancer Ellen brought me), and it was an absolute revelation to me. I felt as if I were "waking up" to my bodymind" as I participated in Blanca's personal dance class with her students. I was overwhelmed with the artistry and radiant beauty of Blanca's and Jeniviva's dancing. I never imagined Middle Eastern dance to be as creative as it is passionate.
I was completely overjoyed to actually dance to LIVE MUSIC with Carmine and Djinn--they are a hypnotic, inspiring group, and truly set the mood for all dancers and listeners! Finally, the audience was warm and supportive of all dancers...I cannot stop thinking about this night...thank you all !

[Neon]

Dunia, thank you for your comment! As I was watching the show, I was amazed again and again at how distinct and unique the artists' dance and expression styles were.
Some of this uniqueness comes from the gift of movement encoded in their bodies, and some is the result of experience, uncompromising creative vision and years of meticulous style development. The more educated one's eye becomes in assessing and absorbing the quality and the nuances of dance, the more you realize that skill is man-made (although mandatory), while creativity is the force of nature - powerful but hard to maintain at the same level of intensity and freshness. You see a lot of skill without uniqueness or true creativity on a professional dance level, and you see strikingly creative things done at the student level. When exquisite skill and the unfaltering flame of creativity come together, magic happens.