Ρόζα Εσκενάζυ – Χόρεψε μου τσιφτετέλι
Róza Eskenázy – Chórepse mou tsiftetéli (Dance my Tsifteteli)
Róza Eskenázy, a Greek Jew, was born in Constantinople c. 1895 and died in Athens in 1980. She was a legendary singer of tsiftetéli, rebetiko and smyrnneiko.Boubouka Papas was a famous Greek belly dancer during the 1950’s to the 1970’s.
The old black and white filmits frames jerking slightly, a bit grainyset in a smoky tavernaRóza singingBoubouka dancingin the middle of the small floorher costume revealing bare legsbelly, shoulders and armsher liquid movementsholding everyone in rapt attentionher hips undulating slowly, smoothlyforward and back, forward and backslow hip circlesher eyes hidden beneath long black lashesher hands lifting her lustrous dark hairoff her shouldersall the parts of her lithe bodymoving exquisitely to the slow tsiftetéliskillful motions giving expressionto the sad, spellbinding musica virtuoso performance of pure seductionperfection unmatched before or since
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Image: By Brendan from Vancouver , Canada (Boudoir Beledi Bellydance Troupe) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons