keskiviikkona, tammikuuta 12, 2011

Folk & Belly dance - Istanbul

I haven't been to a belly dance show since the 1980's. Somehow it just seems too touristic when I have seen the "real thing" as a kid with my parents in the 1960's Istanbul nightclubs. But now we went to Hodja Pasha Culture Center to see the nights Folk and Belly Dance show and we were all happy we did.

The Hodja Pasha Center is in an old hamam and the show is in the round hot-room. The band is in the other end, the audience on the rest of the wall and the dancers in the center. There was only three or four rows of audience so probably everyone could see the show quite well. I was sitting on the far end of the second row so I could photograph freely with nobody in front of me.

Flash was of course not allowed so I set the ISO to high (ISO 25600) and hoped for the best. The results are quite amazing in view of how dark it was. Depending on the light the sensor could catch the colors or when the lights were really dim the photo would be practically monochrome. Using on-camera flash would have resulted in less interesting photos.

Most of the program was danced by the same group of 5 women and 5 men who were quite ok in the various folk dances and some belly dance - but not really brilliant. The girl in the first photo was clearly too slim to be a belly dancer.

The second photo shows the only modern version of oriental dance.

The band was in the dark so photos were practically monochrome.

Some of the male dancers.

We were given a glimpse of real oriental dance by this dancer who was by far better than the group of women who were doing most of the show. Luckily she was pretty much in the end so everyone was surely able to enjoy them as well before seeing the real thing.


This was probably the best shot. Have a look my Smugmug for a few more.

Istanbul Day 3
Istanbul Day 2
Istanbul Day 1

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