What Am I Doing?

[shanmonster]

I'm a dancer. But what kind of dancer am I? When I do my own thing, incorporating elements of Middle Eastern, modern, jazz-lyrical, modern dance, martial arts, tumbling, yoga, and flamenco, I always refer to it as experimental dance. That's not my usual variety of dance, though. I'm mostly hired out as a "belly dancer." Now, I really dislike that term. I think "belly dancer" is very misleading, partially in that I use a whole hell lot more of my body than my abs when I dance, and also because the term is fraught with stereotypes. A belly dancer is seen by the vast majority of lay people as a Hollywood hoochie-coochie dancer, mesmerizing her (and it's always a her) audience with lascivious looks, sensual wriggling, and a big ol' plastic gem in her navel.

Now, I do my damnedest not to fulfill those stereotypes when I dance. When I dance at multicultural events, I choose music from Lebanon, Turkey, Algeria, or Egypt. I usually perform raqs sharqi (Egyptian, with more than a hint of Turkish). I generally wear costuming representative of dancers from those regions. On occasion, I wear American Tribal Style tassel belts. Whenever anyone asks about these belts, I'm always sure to tell them it's representative of a North American style of Middle Eastern dance.

But doesn't that seem odd? To say North American Middle Eastern dance, I mean? It's either one or the other, isn't it? So what exactly am I doing when I wear these costumes yet use a Middle Eastern vocabulary of movement?

So what the hell am I doing up there on stage, anyhow? Is it still raqs sharqi even if I'm wearing North American costuming? I'd love to call what I do just plain ol' dance, but that's just not specific enough. How can I do a decent job educating the populace when I don't know how to describe what I'm doing?

Comments

[badcat42077.livejournal.com]

To say North American Middle Eastern dance
Maybe North American interpretation/adaptation of Middle Eastern style?

If I'm talking to someone who doesn't know the M.E. style, I just say belly/M.E. dance. If they know, it comes out as something like "Egyptian/tribal fusion with a U.S. twist." ;)

Hoochie-coochie dancing?

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

A belly dancer is seen by the vast majority of lay people as a Hollywood hoochie-coochie dancer, mesmerizing her (and it's always a her) audience with lascivious looks, sensual wriggling, and a big ol' plastic gem in her navel.

Sorry, the human form caries sexual connotations with it. There's just no way around it. I doubt what you do would work well in a burqua -- that's just not what it is about. If you're going to display the grace of the human form in motion you cannot escape the fact that much of that beauty is of a sexual nature. The problem with the audience is not that people notice the sexiness of dance, but that they fail to notice that it is anything more than titillation.

There is no accounting for ignorance and low taste. Face it: the more refined your art, the smaller the set of those who appreciate its nuances will be.

I think most people understand this. When I was married, my wife flirted around with the kind of dancing you do. She really did want to learn, but finding people to teach it was hard. She started out with a few videos. Despite the fact that she was married to me, and we were sleeping with one another, she never didn't get up the confidence to perform anything in front of me. Most reasonably attractive women, even some who wouldn't ordinarily be thought of as attractive, can be "sexy" if they put their minds to it and have a modicum of confidence. Women who haven't learned how to dance though, and have not practiced and worked at the art, will not be able to convey that "sexiness" in graceful dance.

Your efforts to educate the philistines among your audience is admirable, but the "worst" of them are probably not worth your time. They won't get it.

Re: Hoochie-coochie dancing?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Of course there is a sexual element to the dance. Hell, there's a sexual element to pretty much any physical endeavour, whether it's ballet or ditch-digging (I love watching a hunky guy working hard!).

I think what muddies the waters a bit is that costuming for Middle Eastern dance tends to emphasize the human form. The exception to this would be khaleegy dance, which is a lot closer to dancing in a burqa than you may suspect. It's a voluminous dress, and the hand movements while holding the dress implies the movement going on beneath. For instance, a shimmy is indicated by the hands moving the dress back and forth rapidly at hip level.

There will always be someone who will hoot "Take it all off", no matter what the venue. Usually, other members of the audience do a good job in dispensing withering looks in that person's direction.

What I'm struggling against is educating people who really ought to know better. I've spoken with quite a few dancers (modern, hiphop, ballet, etc.) who have falsely assumed that belly dance is nothing more than shaking your butt around. The best way to educate someone is to have them take a couple of classes, I find. That's when they realize that yes, there's a lot more to it than that. But I obviously can't do that for everyone who expresses an uneducated opinion.

Re: Hoochie-coochie dancing?

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, the first half of his statement was pretty much exctly what Lev was getting at between 10pm and 2am on Friday night. As I've repeatedly told him, you wouldn't have misunderstood him (or visa versa) if the transaction had been done in a different form.

Elaboration on the latter: Lev is a 'visual' thinker, who uses words like pictures, while you are an 'auditory' thinker, one who has an easier time with words on paper (for example). I'm more in the former category, but also somewhat in the latter, which makes me poorer at either sort of work, but better at 'mediating' or 'translating' between folks in different bins. I can sit between you and Lev and help you two to make sense of one another (sometimes), and I've had a similar effect between Lev and Oleg on occasion (Oleg is also "auditory").

North American Middle Eastern

[metasilk.livejournal.com]

"North American Middle Eastern" -- in this particular couple of years, just having these together seems like a good thing to me.

Re: North American Middle Eastern

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Politically, sure. But I really don't think it adequately describes the dance. Hell, I could be square dancing in bedlah, or doing the debkeh to the Beegees. Now those are images!

Re: North American Middle Eastern

[metasilk.livejournal.com]

Square dancing in bedlah!

*ROTFL!*

(of course, I now know that the next contra dance I go to I will bring at least the fringed scarf if not also a coin scarf.... er...)

[swirlingchaos.livejournal.com]

To say North American Middle Eastern dance, I mean? It's either one or the other, isn't it? So what exactly am I doing when I wear these costumes yet use a Middle Eastern vocabulary of movement?


Just say you're doing a 'cover' of a Middle Eastern dance. In today's music generation of Shania Twin's and Road Apples people ought to get where you're coming from. :)

They also seem to get the word 'Tribute' too, so a more elegant way would be to say its 'a tribute to various styles of Middle Eastern Dance, emphasizing XXXXX with a YYYYY flavour.' That should be fairly accurate, not too drawn out, and educational enough that people can look up the pure forms if they want to. And it can be tailored to each number too, in case the flavour changes from dance to dance.

Just a thought.