If you're planning to attend my lecture/video presentation at the Int'l Bellydance Conference of Canada, you may want to read as much as time permits of the links below. They are relevant to the movie scenes I'll be showing and the discussion around them.
If you can't be in Canada, but still have an interest in the topic, you'll find these links enlightening.
Scroll w-a-y down to the bottom to Sabriye's article titled "Working in the Middle East": www.therealsuhaila.com/newsle...ex.html
"The Belly And Its Taboo Dance in Egypt": media.www.browndailyherald.com/me...tml
"Making It Unpalatable": weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/816/sc21.htm
"An Hour for God and an Hour for the Heart": www.muspe.unibo.it/period/m...rin_0.htm
And then of course, there's the entire book "A Trade Like Any Other" by Karin van Nieuwkerk. (The link above, "An Hour for God", is a sequel to that book.)
If you can't be in Canada, but still have an interest in the topic, you'll find these links enlightening.
Scroll w-a-y down to the bottom to Sabriye's article titled "Working in the Middle East": www.therealsuhaila.com/newsle...ex.html
"The Belly And Its Taboo Dance in Egypt": media.www.browndailyherald.com/me...tml
"Making It Unpalatable": weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/816/sc21.htm
"An Hour for God and an Hour for the Heart": www.muspe.unibo.it/period/m...rin_0.htm
And then of course, there's the entire book "A Trade Like Any Other" by Karin van Nieuwkerk. (The link above, "An Hour for God", is a sequel to that book.)
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Iowa
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Re: Suggested reading: "Shameful dance"
Mon, April 21, 2008 - 8:03 AMWonderful links - thanks for sharing these.
I was thinking about this whole whore/dancer connection this weekend. And although it's regrettable, I have come to a conclusion that dancers cannot spend brain cycles worrying about something so inevitable and unchangeable as how a culture perceives you (American or Arabian). (unchangeable, that is, by a single person. certainly cultures can change on their own.) It is useful to know how the culture perceives you, but then you just have to accept it and make peace with it.
I was at a workshop this weekend where a famous instructor told us that, in Egypt, touching your hair means you're a professional at something other than dance. It would appear that in Egypt, dancing alone means you're a prostitute. So why worry? Wearing the scarlet letter can be freeing in a way, as in the Janis Joplin line about freedom meaning you have nothing left to lose. Maintaining a good reputation is like owning a lot of expensive things - a headache to worry about. -
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Re: Suggested reading: "Shameful dance"
Mon, April 21, 2008 - 9:20 AMNepenthe, I agree, we can't let worries about audience perception take the joy out of dancing for us.
I think it's useful to understand certain cultural perspectives because such knowledge explains a lot about some of the behavior we might observe such as Middle Eastern club owners and band members sometimes treating us like dirt. It lets us know that we don't need to worry about whether we did something to deserve it, it helps us understand that it's not personal.
Understanding this also helps explain why it's a bad idea to go around Egypt telling every cab driver or shopkeeper that we're dancers. When I go to Egypt, I tell people I meet that I work in the computer industry (which is true). I don't mention anything about my dancing. If it's obvious that I'm interested in dance due to attending one of the festivals or something, I just say I like Middle Eastern music, I like watching the dance, and I like dancing with my female friends. All of which is true. -
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Re: Suggested reading: "Shameful dance"
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 2:15 PMPrecisely, Shira. I never say I'm a dancer when traveling in the Middle East. Moreover, I don't tell ME friends in America until we develop a close relationship.
I was raised in the ME community so this is an old familiar story to me, it saddens me none the less. I've paid a high personal price and fought my battles in order to dance. It's a constant uphill battle for those of us with ties in ME. But I would never give up dance as many of my friends have.
Thank you, Shira for fighting the good fight and making others culturally aware. Best of luck with your presentation.
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