Dubai's top belly dancer opens up about UAE success, anorexia, and depression

Gulf News

Photo credit: Global Event Management  It’s half-past two on a Tuesday afternoon when the doorbell rings in Graciela Pischner’s apartment in Dubai. The timing is perfect as the highly sought after supermodel and belly dancer has just completed an exclusive interview with Gulf News. She excuses herself and runs to the door to greet her bundle of joy, Salomao, who has just walked in with her husband Joao.  Read the full story: https://gulfnews.com/uae/people/watch-top-dubai-belly-dancer-gets-candid-about-her-uae-success-story-bouts-of-anorexia-and-depression-earlier-1.96227872  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  #UAEnews #bellydancer #dance

Transcript

00:00I started belly dancing in 2003, 20 years ago, and I came to Dubai 15 years ago.

00:15When I just arrived in Dubai, I had the chance to be exclusive for Atlantis Hotel.

00:22So since the opening, I was working for them for three years.

00:32I was doing modeling in Brazil, and I wanted to be a fashion model.

00:39And in my city, in Sao Paulo, you have to be very skinny, especially I wanted to go,

00:45my dream was to work in Milan or New York, but you have to be very skinny.

00:49So I tried to be more skinny and more in a level that I had anorexia.

00:53I was 10 kilos less than now, and the agency still telling me that I have to lose 3 kilos.

00:59So that time I was very depressed, very down, and I decided to do something for fun, just

01:05to relax, and I chose belly dancing.

01:07The moment I started, I felt something like, I felt happy, I felt like, when I was like,

01:14because when you have anorexia, you always see yourself not beautiful, and I was in the

01:18cover of many magazines, but I was not feeling myself beautiful or attractive.

01:24And with the belly dancing, I start to feel again that, you know, when I move, and my

01:30teacher was amazing, it was a Lebanese lady, older, and she was not in a model look at

01:38all, but she was very confident and very happy with herself, and this was my inspiration

01:43to keep going.

01:44I get very emotional, because it was like the medicine of my depression, and until now,

01:52for me, belly dancing is like, it's a blessing.

01:57My teacher was telling me, you are a model, if you start to do professionally, you'll

02:03be like, you'll be very special, because your profile is completely different than

02:09a lot of belly dancers, so you'll be very unique if you decide to do this.

02:14But I was not convinced.

02:15I was like, no, no, it's not a job, I'm doing it for fun, and I went to a psychologist

02:21that time, and I said, I want to find something that I do and I love, and she said, you should

02:27be a dancer, and I was laughing, I was like, no, no, a dancer, because my father, his dream

02:33was me to work in a bank, you know, to be like a businesswoman, not a dancer, I think.

02:41He never thought about this for me.

02:44But everything I do related to dance works very well.

02:49Everything I do in my life that's related to dance, the doors open like this, so that's

02:53why I realized that it's for me, it was in my journey.

03:01Since the corona time that I couldn't perform, so I decided to come back to teach, and I

03:08started to teach celebrities.

03:10My students, I have students with 20 million followers, 5 million followers, 7 million,

03:17and I have very high-profile students, they are very private.

03:21I'm very happy to teach now, especially because I want to move more to this way.

03:26I start to teach online as well, I'm launching very soon my online classes, so I can teach

03:33also ladies, they don't live in Dubai.

03:35So usually I wake up 6.30 in the morning, I prepare my son to go to the school, and

03:40then I start teaching my classes.

03:42I also take classes, yoga, in the afternoon I always try to focus on my company, to see

03:49what's going on, which events we have, if we need choreography, like I want to make

03:54sure that everything is really well, and in the evening I perform.

03:58I perform in one restaurant four times per week, and I perform also in a lounge, in GIFC,

04:05that is only on Saturdays.

04:07I also do a lot of private events, like corporate events, weddings, hand-apart, sometimes birthday.

04:17When I dance, I want people to be like in a dream, you know, I want this, that's what

04:30I look for.

04:31We are there to make the environment magical, bring happiness.

04:47One thing that I want to make very clear, that belly dancers, a proper professional

04:52belly dancer, is not there to seduce anyone, or to be teasing around.

04:57This is not a professional belly dancer.

04:59If you see someone doing this, it means she's not professional, she's not doing what she

05:04needs to do.

05:05We come to show an art, a culture, bring happiness, change the environment, like change the ambience

05:12for something happy, beauty.

05:14We should give the beauty of life, the art, the music, the movement, the technique, the

05:20things that people see and say, I wish I knew how to do it, but I cannot do it.

05:26This is a professional dancer, technique.

05:28You see, you know, she trained so much to be able to do this.

05:32This is very professional.

05:43I can see that belly dancing is something that you need to develop also yourself a lot

05:51to become like a professional belly dancer.

05:53It's like not all the other dancers, of course, you need to be very professional, but I feel

05:58like a belly dancer, there is something that also works a lot, your self-confidence, your

06:07emotions, it's more, it's something like very deep, it's a very deep dancing, it's not something

06:13like you learn your choreography and you can do it.

06:17Belly dancing is like, you need to develop a lot of things on you to become a belly dancer.

06:24You need to understand the whole culture.

06:27Inside belly dancer, we have Haliji, that's the golf dance.

06:31Inside belly dancer, we have the Egyptian style, the Lebanese style, the Iraq style,

06:36and everything is completely different.

06:39The rhythms represent different things.

06:42So to be able to be a professional belly dancer, if you don't understand the culture, you cannot

06:47work in an Arabic country, because it's very tricky, you know, like the way you dance Haliji

06:54is completely different than the way you dance the Egyptian style.

07:11One door that opened for me that I loved so much was my work in Cannes.

07:18I loved to work in the south of France.

07:20It was like a real blessing to have this connection there.

07:24I perform every evening with another group of artists from all around the world.

07:31It's amazing.

07:33I stay the summer there, I meet very interesting people.

07:36The perspective of people is very nice.

07:39Also, one show I did for Louis Vuitton, I think was one of the best shows.

07:44The show I felt more, I mean, I felt very, very happy to do this.

07:49What makes me very happy also, I performed for president of some countries.

07:53This was really nice for me to perform.

07:57The Qatar World Cup also I performed.

07:59I didn't perform in the main event, but I was there for a few events.

08:03It was really, really nice.

08:05And one show that I, for me also, I'll never forget, I did in Los Angeles, in Beverly Hills.

08:13I performed for Etihad.

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