Search - John Bilezikjian :: Dance Orientale

Great audience-friendly classics for belly dancers.

Nadira Jamal of the Improvisation T | Massachusetts | 03/11/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a classic. It's so popular that it's often called "The Blue Door" (since that's what's on its cover). The content is mostly Arabic songs that were popular with American dancers 30 years ago. Track 2, Nahna Wil Amar Jiran, is one of my favorite veil pieces. There is also a song in English "Dance, Samra, Dance", which is one of two songs praising a dancer. (And don't we love dancing to that?)The songs are nice and short, which is great for putting together routines. Most are under 3 minutes, and there are three of them under two minutes.The presentation is very "Amerab" (American interpretation of Arabic material), so if you prefer the large orchestra sound of classical arabic music, you might not like this. However, it's very audience-friendly.A note about the release date: this was Bilezikjian's first album, which was recorded in 1975; the 2003 date listed on Amazon is date the CD version came out.I'm not giving this album 5 stars, since I prefer his later work, such as "The Magic of John Bilezikjian". Still, I highly recommend this one...."