has tanc verseny (belly dance festival)

Last night we attended the first ever Cegléd Belly Dance Festival. My class was to perform, without me thank god, and we went in support. We weren't expecting a whole lot as it's best to keep expectations to a minimum in Hungary. Zoli had already begun to bitch upon arrival because the event was scheduled to last 3 hours. I thought, "what the hell! 3 hours spent watching hips and boobies shaking is better than most other plans for a Saturday night."


They started with the kid's group. When they introduced them, I couldn't believe that I didn't know there was a 4-6 yr. old class. Julia is definitely enrolling, when she returns. How cute are these little girls! They stood up there and danced and shook their booties, it was adorable.
Next came the awards ceremony, each dancer or troupe that had won their respective category danced their winning number and boy, were there some interesting outfits. I, personally, enjoy the bohemian quality of belly dancing. The fluid skirts and dangling beadwork is very sensual. The best outfit of the evening was also one of the best dancers. She had this Egyptian theme to her clothing, just enough belly fat and wide hips as to entice everyone in the crowd.
But then came this outfit! What to say except, Oh,my! I honestly don't know if she was good or not, I couldn't get past this outfit and her hair. She danced to gypsy music and all I could think was, "What does this outfit have to do with anything gypsy or bohemia??" Teal blue SPANDEX leggings, a curled and feathered MULLET, my, oh my indeedy!
Three hours later, we were still there. My in-laws are in their 70's and 10:30pm is late. The crowd had lost most of its energy until the announced the final belly dancer. Now, most of us assume that belly dancing is practiced by only women, but that isn't entirely true. A few men also study the "oriental dance" and the last performance was one such male. Everyone sat up straight, not sure what to make of this male belly dancer. Unfortunately, for the 100 female dancers at this event, this lone male was far superior a dancer. Whereas most of the women were self-conscious and wore frozen smiles of terror, this performance artist was just that. He made seductive eyes, smiled appreciately then seductively and generally just had fun with the moves. I suspect, however, that this is mainly attributable to his reputation as the ONLY male belly dancer in all Hungary and therefore gives a good show.
All in all, the show was a lot of fun and reminded me why I love this art. Here are more random photos of the night.one of my sister in law, and another nice outfit: