Aziza Sa'id's FAQ - Dancers in Music Videos

Q: Where can I find dancers, dancing, and costumes in music videos?

A: Aziza Sa'id: Here's a starting list...

Movie Title	Dancer	Description
Blancmange - "Living on the Ceiling"		They're either Canadian or English. The song is Living on the Ceiling. It's filmed mostly in Egypt with scenes of the singer wandering around pyramids on a camel, walking through a souk, and quite a bit of him in a studio with a troupe of women dancing. In one scene they wear pink odern looking dance dresses with little caps, totally encrusted with pearls. In another, they wear something that looks a lot like a version of the pictures of the women in the Chicago World's Fair dance exhibit. It's opaque fabric with sorta poofy sleeves and covers the midriff then goes into a skirt or pants. There's a gold vest and a gold belt made of strips of fabric hanging from another strip. In the latter costume, they dance with a cane. There's not a great deal of actual dance, mostly moving around for "color", but there's enough to make me think they know what they're doing when not in a rock video. I know this is fairly obscure, but does anyone know who they are? About Blancmange: They formed in 1979 in the UK during the burgeoning of the new romantic/new wave/electronica of the late 70's/early 80's. Again, because I'm a Depeche Mode fan, I am familiar with this band, although I don't think I've heard a note of their music...lol! -- ladysyc69
Britney Spears - "I'm a Slave 4 U"	Britney Spears	MTV Video Music Awards (2001) - Britney Spears in a jungle like performance of her song "I'm a Slave 4 U" does snake arms,undulations and shimmies.She also performs with a snake. The same movements can be seen in her video version, minius the snake. -- Michael
Bush	Veena and Neena Bidasha
Christina Aguilera - "Genie In A Bottle"	Christina Aguilera	While the music is vaguely Med sounding, the moves Ms. Aguilera makes on her video are definitely Med influenced! - Paul B
Depeche Mode	Veena and Neena Bidasha	I think it was for a video for a song called "Halo", but I'm not for sure. I don't recall them being in any other video. -- ladysyc69
Eric B. and Rakim		"On MTV's AMP - they showed an Eric B. and Rakim video with a lengthy clip of a belly dancer. And it was a real dancer, not some video bimbo. From the quality of film and style of costume I'm guessing that it was a video clip from the 70's or early 80's... perhaps even a film clip from "over there." Only thing I would complain about is the camera angle... yucky midriff region close-up." --Jennifer I wonder if the video was the remix of "Paid In Full" in 1988. They sampled Ofra Haza's "Im Nin Alu", so I'm wondering in they wanted to add a ME flavor to the video. -- ladysyc69
Guns N Roses		Rumor has it they featured a belly dancer on stage at some point while touring. I've no idea if true or not...
KC and the Sunshine Band		"...lo and behold... and old KC & Sunshine band with at least one (blond lady, looks familiar...from that video by Phaedra??) real dancer, several very chic-quasi-dancer types looking gorgous, dark and lucious...turbans, lame and all....lasted the whole song....was one of my favourites by KC ... Of course the title just escaped me....." --Feyrouz!
Michael Jackson	Veena and Neena Bidasha
Paula Abdul "My Love Is For Real"	Paula Abdul	Not only only do we hear the wonderful Ofra Haza, but Ms. Abdul clearly shows she has a future with bellydance, if she so chooses. - Paul B
Prince "7" "The One"	Mayte Garcia	Re: Mayte Garcia and Prince: They met when she went to a concert in Germany with her mother at the age of 16 to see if he would be interested in helping her with her dance career. She gave him a video of her belly dancing and he like what he saw and kept in touch with her over the years. At the age of 18 she joined his group The NPG... and when she was 23 they married... they now have their marriage annuled. -- Rane Two videos that I recall her being in..."7", and "The One", where she does the most FABULOUS turkish drop (Our wonderful hostess can vouch for that!!), and the camera angle when she does it...perfect! She made it look easy (laughs). -- ladysyc69
Ricky Martin	Veena and Neena Bidasha
Rolling Stones, The	Veena and Neena Bidasha
Shakira "Ojos Asi"	Shakira	I first saw her perform this number on the Latin Grammys last year, and was knocked out. I was quite disappointed she wasn't asked to perform it on this year's show. Yes, the song is almost 3 years old, but, she won a Grammy for a performance that is almost 2 years old, so what's the difference? If her perf on the Latin Grammys electrified a Med Dance conoisseur like yours truly, it wouldve been an enormous hit with Mr and Mrs Front Porch across America. Anyway, her performance on her "MTV Unplugged" was similar, both featuring extended Med Dance sequences. Not just bumping and grinding, but moves that appear to be genuine. Ive never seen the entire "Unplugged"--just parts of the "Ojos" segment. Hopefully, when her English language cd hits stores this August, she will be big enough that MTV will rerun her show. - Paul B
Sheryl Crow		"I went to a Sheryl Crow concert last night, during some songs images were projected onto screens behind the band. Some images were of a ME-style dancer in a red beaded bra & belt with a red skirt, twirling a translucent gold veil. There were also images of the dancer doing stomach flutters and of her hands in a characteristic pose. Nice to see images of a dancer in a tasteful (IMHO) costume, doing skilled moves, presented to the general public." ---Joya
Spice Girls - "Holler"	Spice Girls	Anyway, when someone on the List said their movements on their "Holler" video look definitely Med influenced, I decided to check it out. And they were right. - Paul B
Spin Doctors, The "Cleopatra's Cat"		"Cleopatra's Cat" featured what looked like a pretty authentic cabaret ME dancer, though briefly.
Tom Petty	Veena and Neena Bidasha
U2 "Mysterious Ways"	Morleigh Steinberg, Yasmina	"Their video features a professional bellydancer as well as video footage somewhere in the Middle East/Turkey including the interior of what looks like a nightclub with a singer and (possibly another?) dancer." During U2's Zoo Tour they hired ME dancers to tour with them and dance live on-stage during "Mysterious Ways". Latest sources indicate 3 different dancers were used at some point during their multi-year tour, including Morleigh Steinberg who danced during the outdoor leg of the tour, and I believe she's the dancer you occasionally see in compilations/videos of live concert footage. I believe she also had the longest run as tour-belly dancer. "I am a good friend of U2 and I know the dancer that was in the video. ( if I am correct) Her name is Yasmina, she is French Algerian, she lived in Dublin, Ireland, when I knew her, and I think she did part of the tour..." -Hossam Ramzy
U2 - "Numb"	Morleigh Steinberg	Their video features a professional bellydancer as well as video footage somewhere in the Middle East/Turkey including the interior of what looks like a nightclub with a singer and (possibly another?) dancer. "Numb" features ME dancer Morleigh Steinberg, view from behind, at one point briefly.
Unknown - "Luv 2 Luv Ya."		I recently, while surfing between movie channels, caught a music video on BET, (Black Entertainment Network,) with "dancers" on it. I'm not sure they were ME dancers because, like a lot of music videos, the camera didn't stay on any of them long enough for them to dance! But the ladies in question were wearing ME costumes.