Danse du Jour

[shanmonster]

Although Unmata are known as a belly dance troupe, a lot of what they do isn't belly dance. "Pony Play" certainly doesn't qualify, in my books, although there are a few moments where you can see their belly dance background shining through. I'm not sure what you'd call this performance (fetish fusion?), but it has some of the belly dance community in a right and total tizzy.

Comments

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Um. Does it pick up after the first four minutes? Frankly, I didn't see anything interesting enough to work up into a tizzy about. At least not by minute 3:52.

I've been impressed and/or entertained by most of what I've seen of Unmata. This was a bit disappointing, and not because of any presumed shock factor.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

There are two or three sets within the piece which differ. I think this is an interesting experiment, but I think it goes on too long. Visually, I don't find it overly interesting, but it does look like it would have been a lot of fun to do.

There are two main reasons the dance community seems to be tizzified by Unmata. One is because what they are doing is not belly dance, but they still market themselves as belly dancers. The second is because, omigod, they're doing something fetishy, they're stereotyping dancers as slaaaaaves, and that cheapens the dance!

The former reason I can understand. The latter I find completely irrelevant.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the first reason. I feel the same way about a lot of what is marketed as "goth bellydance." But nobody seems to be up in arms about that. I guess the addition of s-e-x makes it more offensive. Or something.

Having been a fetish girl for *mumble*mumble* years myself, I guess I'm sorta immune to those aspects. Nothing shocking there for me.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I've only recently heard a definition of gothic belly dance that made sense to me. If Egyptian belly dance (for example), is about taking the belly dance movement vocabulary and presenting it so that the movements look natural and effortless, gothic belly dance is about taking that movement vocabulary and presenting it to emphasize the unnaturalness of the movements.

I'm pretty much immune to the fetish aspect, too. It's hard to be shocked by a bunch of pony girls when you'd seen extreme CBT up and close!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

gothic belly dance is about taking that movement vocabulary and presenting it to emphasize the unnaturalness of the movements.

Interesting! I like that.

My complaint with a lot of gothic bellydance is that it uses extremely little bellydance vocabulary. So you get angsty interpretive dance in bellydance costumes. Not bellydance.

[meddevi.livejournal.com]

two points: one, I'm not so sure I buy the "unnaturalness" factor..there's a few tribal fusion GBD dancers who do more glitchy/robotic stuff that look that way, but the aesthetic and the drama doesn't have to be that way to capture the Gothic essence---if anything along those lines, I would say "otherworldly beauty"--then again, I'm an old school goth---I'm into the romance and nostalgia. My own dance experience is BD, so that's where my movement vocabulary originates and flows into the Gothic accent. I've had people say, "well you didn't shimmy in that piece, that's not BD", which to me is a load of shit--you do what the music calls for. At this point in the development of GBD, there's definitely the good, the bad, and the ugly, and everyone seems to have their own opinion of which is which...then again, there's just as much bad regular BD :)

my second point is that regarding your earlier community post/workshop experience...I hear you loud and clear. I had to deal with that woman over business matters, and every single thing friends had warned me about, she tried to pull. And she didn't like the fact that I knew what she was up to. Some people fall for that "oh baby, oh honey, oh sweetie" bullshit, I don't. She's as fake and full of it as they come.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Just for the record--and I'm not saying this to suck up--you aren't one of the gothic bellydancers with whom I have a gripe.

there's just as much bad regular BD

And how.

[meddevi.livejournal.com]

well, that's good to know ;)

I wanted to send you an email about your experience, but I didn't see a way to do that...even though I'm not going to be living in this area much longer (home of the kool-aid drinkers), I have to watch what I say in unlocked posts.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Feel free to email me: chernobylred at livejournal dot com--especially if there's any chance you'll be moving closer to the midwest. I regret that I missed your workshop last year.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

If the "unnaturalness" factor doesn't define it, I still remain baffled as to the definition, then. Definitions need to be concrete for me to make any sense out of them.

Maybe this is why I still have no idea what "spiritual" means, unless it's used as an adjective dealing specifically with ghosties.

[meddevi.livejournal.com]

When I think of "unnatural" --I think of twisted poppets, contortionism, freak show. If you dramatically slow down movements or put hard accents on traditional moves to catch an industrial beat, I don't think it's unnatural..it's the mood of the music. It's that mood, drama, aesthetic...I know you can spot a real goth a block away...think about what allows you to do that. Yeah, I know it's a pain in the ass, but at this point, besides that third factor of attitude and presence in tune with the music and the costuming...I'm not sure what could be more concrete to describe it.

[aberrantmist.livejournal.com]

Interesting...

Gets me curious a bit. Does the bellydance community at large then have an issue with, say, "bellydancers" (using the term loosely for some of them) at Renn Faires or similar venues?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Not really. Much of North American belly dance gained its popularity at Renn faires. For instance, Bal Anat, one of the most influential dance troupes in North American belly dance history, started off playing the Renn Faire circuit.

Similarly, the SCA has been a breeding ground for belly dancers for years and years.

[aberrantmist.livejournal.com]

Makes sense - a good way to promote a form of dance.

I guess I've seen what people call bellydance at those kinds of events and wondered if there were issues similar to the fetish fusion above. Good term, btw! *lol*

Personally, I found the video less "shocking" and more "cute" *chuckles*

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't find it even the teensiest bit shocking. Personally, I think it would be fine at an all-ages event. There's nothing obscene or questionable about this performance. It's just a bunch of ladies playing let's-pretend.

But some of the comments I've been seeing imply a woeful amount of ignorance. Plenty of people think this dance is all about subjugation and enforced slavery.

I suspect these people have forgotten about their let's-pretend days.

[meddevi.livejournal.com]

Knowing the festish-scene, I have a hard time getting away from that concept and seeing it as "let's pretend we're ponies!" I would buy that more if it was perky and pastel-like, like MLP :)

[aberrantmist.livejournal.com]

MLP... *lol*

I think you just broke my brain.

[meddevi.livejournal.com]

ROFL :) It would be interesting, that's for sure...they could wear thongs and have happy little symbols painted on their cheeks.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

There have simply got to be some MLP pony players out there. I have faith in this!

[halftruths.livejournal.com]

Hm. i was sort of looking forward to enjoying a bit of fetish art, and ended up being completely bored with what they were presenting. Truthfully, I don't have any issue with Unmata nor see why belly dancers should get into a flap over it, just as I don't have any issue with ballet companies doing stuff that looks like...uh...stuff...and still calling it ballet.

But that doesn't change the fact that this particular performance just didn't float my boat. Didn't even come close to dampening the keel, actually. The 'play' aspect in the title never came through (the dancers came across as completley lacking any sort of energy), nor was what they did evocative of anything horselike beyond the tails and bridles. What I'm sure was supposed to look like equine stepping appeared to be more an amateurish mimicking of precision marching. It wasn't shocking, it wasn't inappropriate, it was just dull.

But it isn't anything to get into a tizzy about!!

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

They've certainly been tighter as a group, but I found the performance interesting on a conceptual level. Maybe they'll develop something tighter and more interesting from it.

[silverfae.livejournal.com]

*Didn't even come close to dampening the keel*

That's great! On a couple of levels.

yah, nuttin' there that made me go.. Ooh, cool. I just didn't see pony fetish in there either. Bah.
I think there are far too many dancers who have their twats perpetually ready for knicker-twist. *it's not about sex* *quit degrading the dance*

*eye-roll* it was an after-hours party from Tribal Throwdown, it's *exactly* the place to do something different and see how it's perceived. At least they didn't trot out in bared-nipple clips and the tails were attached to their rumps..not um.. other tail attachments.

[halftruths.livejournal.com]

I agree completely! Different stuff has to be tried out, otherwise the dance/dancers stagnate. Kudos to them for at least giving it a shot, even if I didn't care for it, and hell knows that anything is game at after hours parties. That's the perfect time to show off some experiments!

[silverfae.livejournal.com]

hee, yah, I'm all for trying out new things, too.

I guess we just have to remind ourselves that one person's "shocking" is another's milquetoast. Somehow it's not surprising to me that Shan's friends aren't of the milquetoast variety.

[monkehtree.livejournal.com]

God did I ever not like that.

Snore.

[firelie.livejournal.com]

It was like a sleazy three-some between cabaret, bellydancing and marching, and you don't know which one is the daddy.