Arts & Entertainment
Belly Dancing Diva Takes La Jolla
Sabrina, who teaches and performs in La Jolla, entrances audiences with the dom and tek of her hips, and creates opportunities for other dancers.
When Sabrina Belly Dancer came to San Diego, "she came in like a storm," according to San Diego belly dancer Heidi Cohen-Wolff, who has performed with Sabrina for more than 4 years.
Sabrina, who has 20 years of dancing under her belt, has headlined at Los Angeles and San Diego nightclubs, and is a regular at a local restaurant and dance studio.
Earlier this summer she performed at LeStats West in Normal Heights with a cadre of belly dancers and musical accompaniment by San Diego-based Middle Earth Ensemble.
To start the show, a violin and clarinet set a sultry melody that sang in candor as the dancer's hips shimmied onstage. A low pluck of a bass guitar joined in, and the air began to pop on cue with every gyration of the dancer's torso.
Rhythmic violin strokes commanded the dancer's hips, tassels sparkling with excited fringe.
Sabrina dances with a careful smile. Behind the smile she holds a baccalaureate in dance, a Juris Doctor degree, a foundation in ballet and modern dance, and a passion for belly dancing for its combination of the music and the movement.
"Most western dance is generated from the limbs, and so I found it fascinating to dance from the inside out," said Sabrina.
"The energy comes from the torso to the limbs, instead of vice versa," she said.
Sabrina said that she is taking her audience on a journey of "constantly changing levels of engagement, from quiet and sensual melody and movement, to fast-paced.
What Sabrina describes as an art form consists of many genres of belly dance hailing from Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern countries such as Turkey, Greece, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.
"There's a whole lot more to it than moving your hips," she said.
To express a "tek," a tonal upbeat in music, the hips lift upwards, and to express the "dum," a heavy downbeat in the music, the torso may drop.
Hands are supposed to be fluid and expressive, while refraining from distracting from the torso. Otherwise "it can be visually overwhelming for a viewer," said Sabrina.
That said, all belly styles are based on musical interpretation, whether it be Sabrina's Egyptian-inspired moves, folkloric or gothic.
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Cohen-Wolff said that Sabrina's “enthusiasm is very contagious. You can't help but tap some of that."
Cohan-Wolff knows Sabrina for always contributing to the belly community by giving other dancers' opportunities, and leading the way with her "very strong tradition, and folkloric styles, combined with fusion."
"She really dances from her heart," said Cohen-Wolff.
Sabrina's belly cadre represents a melting pot of belly styles, according to Cohen-Wolff.
After touring the world, Sabrina brings belly styles from places such as Hong Kong and Vietnam back to her dance company, Nouveau Cabaret Entertainment. She teaches classes in-studio at 908 Pearl St., Wednesdays at 5 p.m. and performs at restaurant Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:30 and 9 p.m.
