I'll bite!

I personally don't think that it's possible to put 10 bellydancers in a room and get them all to unanimously agree what is "pure" vs. what is "fusion." You can slice and dissect moves, arm positions, etc. until you're blue in the face, but I have YET (after about 8 years or so) been able to find one explanation as to the origin, what is considered...uh.... "authentic"....hate that term. It sparks unnecessary controversy as it assumes what is NOT authentic is FAKE.... it gives me a headache!

Bottom line "fusion" is a blending of other elements into what is "generic" belly dancing. Be it ballet, flamenco, charleston, rock, goth, lyrical, whatever. It's a matter of individual and personal tastes and preferences. Some will like it (I do!) and some won't. What matters most is what do YOU like doing? Plus, I admire any performer who is willing to step outside of the box and be experimental and try something new. THAT'S exciting!!

I am by no means a purist and a long way from a perfectionist in bellydance as well. I don't have issues with fusion and do a bit of it in the troupe I'm in. We've been known to throw in a bit of Ethiopian shoulder there, a little hip hop bounce there. My issue, and I think a few others would agree with me, is not with fusion itself, but when people haven't learn enough of any or one of the dances they are melding together to pull off a a solid piece. Or labeling it a bellydance piece when 90% or more of the choreography isn't anything even hinting of bellydance. They'll start out with a some veil work or a little shimmy, then it's all jazz, ballet or some sort of interpretation until the last few seconds of the piece. Leaves you wondering, "did they call if bellydance so that they've have access to a stage and audience for their work at a BD event?" All I ask is that you 1) tell me what you are fusioning, 2) respect the dances enough to learn about them and how to do them properly, and 3) if it's performed as a bellydance event as a representation of BD, that we actually see some evidence of BD in the performance. All that said, I'd be the first to admit that what is so-called legit and isn't is VERY subjective. And that the level of self-righeous chest beating over this issue is becoming deafening lately. I've noticed that with the increased popularity of Tribal and it's various spin offs, there has been some edgy discourse about what's real BD and what isn't (and fusion is certainly implied in all that back and forth.) I think it's healthy to ask the question "is this right?" every now and then. Isn't that why we continue to take workshops, go to new teachers and learn more about this beautiful dance that we do? At some point you do have to go with your gut and move forward. But asking the question doesn't necessarily mean that you are preventing the dance from evolving. Hopefully asking the question helps makes the dance better.

Tammy

Hi Kryssa! I've done a lot of fusion over the years I've been dancing, but I've also made a strong effort to learn as much as possible about the original dance form from the Middle East.

I feel that beginning classes should stick as close as possible to the original dance form, using Middle Eastern music in the classroom, and students should be encouraged to stay with the original belly dance vocabulary for their first performances.

However, once a student has a strong foundation in belly dance, knowing the original dance form, then I think it's fine to play around with fusion in performances. You need to know what belly dance is before you can use it effectively in a fusion.

Most of the fusion acts that make me wince fit into one of these categories:

* Contains almost nothing resembling belly dance, and yet they want to perform it in a belly dance show. (I have nothing against show organizers choosing to include some non-belly dance acts for variety, but when I go to a show that claims to be "belly dance" and see only one or two acts in a 2-hour show that are recognizable as actually containing belly dance, well, I feel like I've been a victim of false advertising.)

* Taught to beginning students under the title of "belly dancing", so that the beginners really don't know which part of what they're learning is belly dance versus which part is "something else".

* Mixing belly dance with burlesque or the more sexed-up flavors of hiphop. Belly dance has enough difficulty as it is with the public confusing it with a "dance of seduction". Even today, belly dancers across the U.S. are still often denied the opportunity to perform in city festivals, county fairs, and other situations that are considered family-oriented. Certain fusions reinforce the old negative stereotypes and contribute to the perception problems.

Thank you for this thread. This is such a huge subject! I must get out my soap box,…

There is no such thing as "pure" belly dance.
(Just as there is no such thing as a pure language,... Why do you think science uses Latin? Because it's dead and doesn't change.)

All belly dance - unless it is folkloric and then not usually called belly dance - is a mix of influences. Nomadic peoples travel and influence non-nomadic people and vice versa. "Pure" forms of dance are done by academics. All living dance traditions grow with time. Most tend to change a little more slowly than Oriental dance has and maybe a little more quietly.
"Traditional" is another matter. The funny thing is, after a while, if the non-traditional keeps being done, it gets accepted and then slowly becomes tradition. (The Egyptian dance of the 60’s is not the Egyptian dance of Randa Gamal. The foundation is the same,…)

That said,... There is good, high quality Oriental dance of all styles and poorly executed dance. Often the poorly executed dance is coupled with an ignorance of what is being copied.

I agree that when a dancer fuses different styles – be it Ballet or Turkish Rom, with Oriental, it is important to have a solid foundation in Oriental dance and at least, a decent working knowledge of the style fused.
And give it a proper name. Calling Saiidi dance, “Ghawazee” is not doing Ghawazee dance. Calling it “Tribal-Fusion”, when the dancer has 3 hours of training in ATS over a year of Cabaret style, is not going to give you “Tribal” with which to fuse. It’s Oriental-Fusion or Cabaret-Fusion.

I don’t have a favorite – Cabaret or Tribal or Fusion or,.. But I have little patience with low quality dancing being billed otherwise (a student show is one thing,..) Nor do I have much patience with arrogance – other than my own. LOL

So do Folkloric or Cabaret or ATS or Fusion,… just do it well, with respect for the cultures, for yourself and with feeling.
One more note: Ballet has taken Oriental movements. The Arabesk, for instance. They took a lot from Persian dance,… And be careful in your choice of name. EX: Bohemian may have a meaning in English but it is a real place with real, living people.

[A little back ground, I started dancing in the 70's after watching Jamila's troupe at the Ren Faire. I was 10 years old and very lucky to be surrounded by so many great musicians and dancers. (Not that all my early teachers were that great.)]

I've learned to just recognize that what sucks sucks, while what rocks rocks.

I've learned that 95% of everything, no matter what it is, sucks. The number can swing, and in the case of bellydance fusion with popular western culture, it swings toward 99.9%. I blame lace gloves, madonna, boring suburban culture infused with a television telling people they need to be "exotic" and to accomplish this they have to dress up and pretend to be a princess.

I feel a rant brewing. Read my mind.

Dance well, and I notice nothing else (until later when it's all like, "jesus baby what was that one chick with the popodle-balls on her head thinking..!? Doesn't she have a friend to tell her what not to wear? I couldn't enjoy the dancing because she looked like someone's mom's idea of what a faux-goth might look like in fantasy-persia..." because I'm mean.

You may find this funny but I actually couldn't stomach that ballet version of Tarantella. I think I let it run for about a minute before I had to turn it off. It wasn't poorly done dance, the dancers were all in time, the costuming was really cute... ideologically I had a problem with the concept of the piece. Why? Because it lacked so much of the Tarantella that it seemed overtly fake. It looked like they stole some elements of costuming, gave the dancers a couple of tambourines and used what I like to call "footie dancing" (fake folkloric footwork done in the base style dance form) to construct their Tarantella Ballet Fusion. It was nice dancing, cute, but in the end a little insulting.

Does this translate over to Orientale Fusions? I've pretty much sorted out (in my mind) what type of fusion pieces will interest me. I prefer a good 50/50 split if it's two dance forms being melded or even thirds if there are three forms being melded. It needs to be melded by an expiereinced, preferably professional level dancer. I don't mind if the dancer(s) have day jobs just so long as they have the experience and dedication to pull it off. I really have a problem with costume snitching without following it up with something more substantial.

I'm not a purist, but I do like responsible advertising and a thoroughly well constructed show. I don't get too discouraged by poor performances because most of the poor performances I see are done at free shows, haflas and recitals where one is more apt to see students and less experienced dancers. I'll get upset when I pay to see something good and it doesn't deliver. If you want to see professional, well put together Orientale shows or Orientale Fusion shows then you're going to have to take the wallet out. However when I see a Fusion piece that is poorly blended like this Tarantella/Ballet piece... that makes me a bit irate. Because even if the dancers are innexperienced... the choreographer should know better.

~*Spoon*~