Batman
| Episode |
Season 2. Hizzoner the Penguin (17th
Episode) |
| First Aired |
November 2, 1966 |
| Dancers |
Little Egypt |
| Shira's Feedback |
Wild, playful, fun to watch. |
|
In this episode of Batman, the Penguin runs for mayor. His
campaign rally showcases the band Paul Revere and the Raiders,
and Little Egypt does a high-energy belly dance performance with
lots of spinning and torso undulations. It's about a minute in
length.
I Dream of Jeannie
| To Purchase from Amazon |
  |
| Episode |
Season 1. The Lady in the Bottle
(1st Episode) |
| First Aired |
September 18, 1965 |
| Dancers |
Barbara Eden and Others |
| Shira's Feedback |
Silly and playful, but short |
|
 |
Jeannie transforms Tony's living room into a harem scene.
She and some lovely ladies that she blinks in for the occasion
dance a bit for Tony. Jeannie herself does some good head slides
and hip-twist shimmies. The other women have chicken-wing arms
as they attempt to do hip lifts and other moves, then they run
in a circle around Tony. It's silly and fun to watch, but very
short - only about a minute in length.
Max Headroom
| To Purchase |
I got my set from www.rewindtv.biz |
| Episode |
Season 1. Body Banks (3rd Episode) |
| First Aired |
April 14, 1987 |
| Dancers |
Suhaila Salimpour |
| Shira's Feedback |
Entertaining, but hard to see the
dancing |
|
A young Suhaila Salimpour dances in a seedy bar on a stage
next to an enormous pig. The mood lighting and makeup make her
appear rather unsavory, but her dancing is beautiful and fluid.
The dance scene is short, and it's often hard to see her because
she is mostly in the background while the show's main characters
talk. Altogether, there is about 1 1/2 minutes of dancing, but
only about 30 seconds of that is easy to see.
Sex and the City
| To Purchase from Amazon |
|
| Episode |
Season 2. The Awful Truth (2nd Episode) |
| First Aired |
June 13, 1999 |
| Dancers |
Raven and Shantal Riley |
| Shira's Feedback |
Insulting to belly dancers. |
|
 |
Although belly dancers are present and appear to be "real"
belly dancers, there isn't much on-camera dancing - there's a
bit of arm-waving and the occasional veil floats past the camera.
The script makes two references to the belly dancers doing lap
dances (even though real belly dancers certainly don't, and there
is no lap dancing done by the dancers in this episode), and Mr.
Big makes an annoying remark about having no money for cab fare
because he stuffed all his 20's into the belly dancer's crotch.
Yech.
Sex and the City
| To Purchase from Amazon |
|
| Episode |
Season 3. Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl (4th
Episode) |
| First Aired |
June 25, 2000 |
| Dancers |
Jenna Rosenberg |
| Shira's Feedback |
Huh? |
|
 |
This is the episode where Carrie and Miranda, in an effort
to be more feminine, sign up for a "Goddess Workout"
class. This is also the episode of Sex and the City that Dolphina
refers to in her marketing materials when she talks about how
one of her belly dance students at Crunch wrote her class into
an episode. Well, there isn't much belly dancing to it. Mostly,
people in the class are aimlessly waving a pair of scarves around
in the air. The closest thing to belly dancing is when the instructor
tells everyone to "Pop your hips!" Though I rather
enjoy it when the two heroines decide they're out of there. All
in all, kind of boring and I don't see what it has to do with
belly dance. But if you don't like all the New Age-y chakra talk
on Dolphina's DVD's, you might enjoy the way this episode makes
fun of her.
The Simpsons
| To Purchase from Amazon |
|
| Episode |
Season 1. Homer's Night Out (10th
Episode) |
| First Aired |
March 25, 1990 |
| Dancer |
Princess Kashmir (Animated Character) |
| Shira's Feedback |
Insulting to belly dancers. |
|
 |
Homer goes to a bachelor party, which features a belly dancer
as entertainment. Her skimpy costume is basically a bikini with
a chiffon scarf tucked into the hip at each side. Later in the
episode, when Homer goes looking for her, the places he visits
in his search include girlie clubs - the sorts of places that
have Vegas-style showgirls in bikinis and feathers.
Star Trek: The Original Series - The Menagerie, Part 2
| To Purchase from Amazon |
On DVD:
On VHS tape:
|
| Episode |
Season 1, Episode 12 |
| First Aired |
November 24, 1966 |
| Dancers |
Susan Oliver |
| Shira's Feedback |
A reasonably positive portrayal,
actually. Very short. |
|
 |
|
There's only about 45 seconds of actual dancing in this episode,
but it's quite intense. A character named Vina, with extraterrestrial
assistance, crafts an illusion of herself as a sexy Orion Slave
Girl. In the Star Trek mythos, Orion Slave Girls are the most
desirable females in the galaxy. The dancer is a seductress,
a vamp, a creature to be desired.
Star Trek: The Original Series - Wolf in the Fold
| To Purchase from Amazon |
On DVD:
On VHS tape:
|
| Episode |
Season 2, Episode 14 (Episode 36
overall) |
| First Aired |
December 22, 1967 |
| Dancers |
Tanya Lemani |
| Shira's Feedback |
A positive portrayal of our dance
form with excellent dancing. |
|
 |
This episode opens with a belly dance scene. A dancer named
Kara (Tanya Lemani) performs in a nightclub sort of setting as
the officers from the Enterprise watch with great interest. The
behavior of the audience is somewhat stereotypical - they're
a group of men salivating over a beautiful woman, and Captain
Kirk has arranged for the dancer to come to the table after her
performance to meet Scotty. But I like it in spite of this because
the dancing is worth watching.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
| To Purchase from Amazon |
Not available on home video. Look
on Comedy Central for reruns of the version hosted by Drew Carey,
and you may be lucky enough to find it. |
| Episode |
Season 5, Episode 25 of the version
hosted by Drew Carey |
| First Aired |
July 25, 2003 |
| Dancers |
Veena & Neena Bidashi |
| Shira's Feedback |
Not much dancing, but I enjoyed lots
of laughs! I feel good about how they represented belly dancers! |
|
Whose Line is an improvised comedy show, so the appearance
of the twins focuses on being a catalyst for comedy, not
on dancing. For that reason, if you're looking for a dance performance,
you'll probably be disappointed. Identical twin dancers Veena
and Neena appear in three sketches as guests. In the first sketch,
"Duet", Wayne Brady and Chip Esten sing an improvised
song as the twins dance around them with snakes. It's almost
4 minutes in length. In the second sketch, "Living Scenery",
Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie use the twins as living props,
such as a milkshake machine, a craps table, and a vibrating bed
in the hotel room. This one is about 5 minutes in length. In
the third sketch, the twins provide a belly dancing lesson to
the regular cast as they read the credits.
|
