When Bellydance meets other worlds... Discover "Orienton" and "Oriental Modern'Jazz"

Thanks to Alicia TISSENDIER, Raggaeton dancer and teacher, but also to Chloé SCHWARTZ, dancer and teacher of Bellydance and modern'jazz, for telling us about "Orienton" and "Oriental Modern'jazz", 2 exceptional fusions with Oriental Dance.

What's the "Orienton"?

It is a fusion between Bellydance and Reggaeton. Through this modern fusion, we keep the pelvis movements, already used in both dances, as well as the importance of rhythm and the relationship to musicality while mixing the Caribbean and Eastern energies which are very complementary. For this fusion, it is a question of using reggaeton titles with oriental inspirations or current oriental/North African music using reggaeton rhythms. When it comes to the reggaeton and bellydance costume, it's up to everyone's creativity! You need an outfit adapted to the urban style of reggaeton and Bellydance's feminine and whimsical style. However, sports shoes are recommended! 
The main idea is not to create a new dance but to discover these 2 dances from a new angle with diversity and open-mindedness as the common thread.

How is this mix between oriental dance and reggaeton interesting from a choreographic point of view and pleasant for the students attending the workshop?

Mixing creates renewal. It shakes up habits, codes and creativity. It is a very dynamic, festive and pleasant style to dance to.
I like Bellydance's grace, elegance, and power. Managing to combine it with the strength, femininity and attitude of reggaeton allows you to bring details to each of these disciplines, create new combinations, feel the rhythms and emotions differently and get out of your comfort zone.
For students, it makes them discover new feelings but also work on their musical ear because you have to be able to hear and understand both worlds. And switching from one energy, type of support, rhythm to another, is a very rewarding exercise. By combining both dances, we find the oriental dance's sensuality and isolations as well as reggaeton's earthy and powerful side.
The students love this fusion for several reasons, first because we use contemporary music that speaks as much to a large audience as to students who appreciate each one of the dances. It creates an explosive atmosphere! In addition, students exert themselves and unwind during the workshop.
The first time this fusion was offered, it started from a spontaneous initiative, reggaeton and oriental dance's students who were not all familiar with the other style were brought together. They were all seduced, had fun and asked for more at the end of this course! During this learning process, no one is on familiar ground so everyone is "in the same boat" regardless of the dance practiced originally. In the end, each student comes out stronger.

Alicia, what is your background as a dancer? How was your passion for reggaeton and your desire to teach it born?

I started dancing at the age of 14, first taking hip hop lessons and then dancehall a few years later. I also practiced salsa.
Then I had the opportunity to join 2 hip hop/dancehall companies from Toulouse, which was great training.
I came across reggaeton when I was in high school. We're talking about a time... when we exchanged tapes and CDs to discover new sounds! And I knew someone who was going to Ecuador and bringing us the new hits that had just been released there. The parallel with the dancehall music I listened and danced to in my dance lessons was an eye-opener.
When I started teaching the reggaeton style 15 years ago, the fashion phenomenon had not arrived in France yet. At best, people vaguely knew Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" song. So it took many years to develop my reggaeton dance lessons in Toulouse, and train students who then became dancers in my own dance group "Buena Vibra".
Today, I am happy to see the enthusiasm around this musical style.

Discover Alicia TISSENDIER in a video:

What's the "Oriental Modern'Jazz" fusion?

It is a mix of techniques, styles and worlds: The meeting of 2 dances feeding each other with technical characteristics' exchange but also aesthetic and symbolic fundamentals!  
Let's put aside the idea of a movement juxtaposition belonging to a dance, followed by another movement belonging to a second dance and rather think of the fusion with the notion of crossing a movement linked to jazz by tinting it with oriental coloring, and an oriental movement feeling it with jazz flavor.
The oriental Modern'Jazz fusion I offer to see on stage and explore in training is a mutual enrichment in the service of expressiveness's story.
This union is strengthened, inspired and blossoms by listening to artists, musicians and singers on the border between East and West (such as Natacha Atlas, Fairuz or the trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf) but also all those offering music filled with influences.
To perform this fusion on stage, a dance costume favoring movement without discomfort and allowing moments on the floor, moves, large extensions is better so you'll be able to feel, evolve and show the movement as clearly as possible: a modern'jazz and oriental dance outfit in which you feel good and free.

How is this mix between oriental dance and modern jazz original and interesting for the students and dance teacher?

Just like my multidisciplinary career and personality, with the "Oriental Modern'Jazz" fusion, I can create a choreography based on my artistic experience.  
It offers a range of boundless creativity, letting go and emancipating itself from the expectation of the world and technique, stylistics and vocabulary linked to it.
With its syncretism, this wide baggage gives me a privileged form of body expression as close as possible to what I wish to bring up and deliver; close to what made me who I am.
Welcoming student dancers during workshops is ongoing pleasure thanks to their testimonies of motivation and openness to discovery. These get them out of their comfort zone, dancing habits and push them to a global learning of dance movement without borders and with authenticity.

Chloé, what's your experience as a dancer? How was your passion for Bellydance and modern’jazz, and your desire to teach both dances born?

Dance entered my life in a playful and amateur way without projection at 5 years old.  Through experiences and rich encounters, it gradually took more importance in my life and modern'jazz dance as well as oriental dance were 2 disciplines to which I turned to before evolving in a conservatory where my practice extended also to classical and contemporary dance.
A few years later, following my induction by audition at the International School of Jazz in Paris, my schedule was divided between intensive and multidisciplinary training in the morning (with also lessons to improve in Bellydance), and the preparation for the State Diploma of Jazz dance teacher in the afternoon, which I passed later.
These years of training and participation in some dance competitions (1st prize in "Bellydancer of the world" fusion - 1st prize on the French scene and medal winner in Jazz dance at the international competition of Aix-en Provence...) were the cement of my testing.
From then on, my desire to teach and be a dancer on stage became a reality.
I am now a modern jazz dance teacher at the conservatory where I added in the option "character dance" the teaching of modern oriental dance. I also take part in various dance workshops at festivals and higher establishments.
I dance in professional Jazz companies in France and abroad as well as as a soloist in Bellydance and fusion. A fascinating job !

Discover Chloé SCHWARTZ in a video: