Belly Dance: New Trend, Old Tradition; Overcoming the Stereotypes

Even though typing the words "stripper, striptease, burlesque, or lap-dance" in a search engine, would certainly take you to a number of web pages related with "belly dance", authentic Belly Dance is not necessarily the dance of seduction of the Western stereotype. It has been misrepresented by cabaret dancers who copied some of its movement, and incorrectly portrayed to the public by the media. Sadly, it is indignant the way in which such an earthly, natural, enjoyable and completely ethical dance that honors women, is often downgraded to a sexy dance performed by women whose act has more to do with their bodies than their dance technique.

According to the literal translation of the Arabic term for the dance form (raks sharki), the proper term for this dance, which is not a jiggle show but a highly disciplined art, is Oriental Dance. In fact, the first American teachers used to dislike the word "belly dance" because of its wrong sexual connotation and focus on the women torsos and not their dancing technique. In her article Roots the well-known and respected teacher Morocco (Carolina Vargas Dinicu), who has more than thirty years studying, performing and teaching Belly Dance, states: “To use the disgusting misnomer ‘belly dance’ is not only incorrect, it is an insult equivalent to calling Flamenco ‘cockroach killing’”[1]. Nowadays, the term Belly Dance has been accepted by many teachers and reclaimed by new dancers because the body part where the movements are focused is, indeed, the belly. It would seem, this has more to do with fertility than with a seductive goal.

Many dance scholars support a theory that places Belly Dance as the oldest dance in the history of humanity, stating that it originated as a fertility ritual thousands of years ago. As evidence for their theory, they cite 17,000 years-old rock engravings found in southern Italy, Greece and Egypt, as well as famous fertility goddesses/ women statutes such as the Venus of Willendorf. Furthermore, some dance researchers, such as dancer, writer and editor Daniella Gioseffi in her book Earth Dancing, claim that Belly Dancing was originally a ritual form for the Mother Earth Goddess in primal matriarchal or polytheistic societies where the dance honored femininity and was passed down from mothers to daughters.

Another important theory about the origin of Belly Dance is the one based on its childbirth therapeutic and training capability. Several dancers including the famed dance ethnologist La Meri, who traveled extensively through out the Middle East for research and training purposes in the ‘20s and ‘30s, claim to have witnessed rituals in which a women in labor is surrounded by other women who perform Belly Dancing in a sort of hypnotizing inducing ritual for moral support.

Belly Dancing arrived to American as an imported cabaret spectacle referred to as Danse du ventre, which originated in the Middle East during the colonization of Africa by European countries. Referring to this degradation process, the Armenian dancer Armen Ohanian states in her book The Dancer of Shamahka:

“Thus in Cairo one evening I saw, with sick incredulous eyes, one of our most sacred dances degraded into a bestiality horrible and revolting. It is our poem of the mystery and pain of motherhood, which all true Asiatic men watch with reverence and humility, in the far corners of Asia where the destructive breath of the Occident has not yet penetrated. In this olden Asia, which has kept the dance in its primitive purity, it represent maternity, the mysterious conception of life, the suffering and the joy with which a new soul is brought in the world. Could any man born of woman contemplate this most holy subject, expressed in an art so pure and so ritualistic as our eastern dance, with less than profound reverence? Such is our Asiatic veneration of motherhood, that there are countries and tribes whose most sacred oath is sworn upon the stomach, because it is from this sacred cup that humanity has issued. But the spirit of the Occident had touched this holy dance, and it became the horrible ‘danse du ventre’ … I heard the lean Europeans chuckling, I saw lascivious smiles upon even the lips of Asiatics, and I fled”

In some Muslim societies, women gather to perform regional forms of Belly Dance, in informal and familial settings – getting together in a separate location from the men, to dance by themselves, have fun and interact. Nevertheless, in many regions of the Middle East the rise of Political Islam has led to more puritanical attitudes in general, creating a backlash against Belly Dance. Dancers who appear in public, dancing in front of men who are not family to them, contradict orthodox Islamic values. As a result, the widely held notion that professional dancers are prostitutes is being reinforced through the Arab countries, from Afghanistan to Morocco. By law, in Egypt, the country that names itself as the place where Belly Dance was born, these dancers cannot dance in television, and police monitors life performances to ensure that the dancer's skirt starts below the knee and that the navel is covered, even if only with transparent material.

These attitudes might sound opposite to Western values of freedom and free will, but they most be looked at considering the context of Muslim religious and cultural values. Therefore, it seems more contradictory that even in the Western world dancing Belly Dance can often also be a cause to suffer the weight of many prejudices. Nevertheless, it is often through to behavior in which some those who call themselves Belly Dancer engage in, that stereotypes are perpetuated. Once again, the dancer Morocco states this indignation in wonderful words in her article Roots:

“When I first came into Oriental dance (…), I was drawn by the beauty of its music and movements and gave no thought to the possibility that it might be misinterpreted by ignorant or misinformed viewers. Innocent that I was, I assumed that the grace of a skilled dancer was sufficient to prove the beauty and legitimacy of this ancient art form. How wrong I was! I’ve lost count of the times that an erroneous and degrading value judgment of my morality and worthiness was made, based on (…) previous performances of those who, in every profession, cater to the lowest common denominator”.[2]

Nevertheless, Belly Dance has much to offer to us as a cultural, especially to our young women. First of all, individuals who practice Belly Dance reap countless physiological and psychological benefits, such as improving self-image and confidence. Furthermore, Western culture is filled with one of two opposite attitudes toward the female body: either moms telling their daughters "don't look men in the eye and don't swing your hip when you walk", or pop starts yelling out loud "if you look sickly thin and show your boobs, you'll succeed". None of these extreme ideas benefit young women. Belly Dance lets us get in contact with our body and accept it as it is. Belly Dance makes any thin or fat woman enjoy feminine dancing. This acceptance of ourselves in front of the mirror image as much as in front of other people, is aided by the “only girls” atmosphere cultivated in many Belly Dance studios. Second, Belly Dance is not a competitive dance form, and it often develops friendly relationships amongst its practitioners, and a deep feeling of sisterhood among the members of a group of dancers, including teachers and students.

Dance should be respected as a universal language that allows us to better understand the cultures different to our own. To appreciate Belly Dance, we must start with an non-judgmental frame of mind, going beyond superficial matters, such as the amount or type of clothes worn by the dancers; and make an effort, instead, to acknowledge and be aware of the cultural nuances and ramifications attached to this particularly ethnic dance form.

Bibliography

Vargas Dinicu, Carolina (Morocco), Roots, Habibi, Vol.5 No.12

_________________________________, Belly Dancing and Childbirth, Sexology Magazine, 1964.

_________________________________, Giving to Light- Dancing the baby into the world, Habibi, Winter 1996, Vol. 15, No. 1

Shay, Anthony. “Bazi-ha-ye Namayeshi: Iranian Women’s Theatrical Plays.” Dance Research Journal. 27/2 Fall 1995, p: 209-244.

Seller-Young, Barbara; Shay. Belly Dance: Orientalism—Exoticism—Self-Exoticism Anthongy Dance Research Journal (0149-7677), vol: 35, 2003. p:13 – 25

Seller-Young, Barbara. Raks El Sharki: Transculturation of a Folk Form, Journal of Popular Culture, Fall 1996, p: 141 – 153

Gioseffi, Daniela. Earth Dancing, Mother Nature’s Oldest Rite, Harrisburg, Pa. : Stackpole Books, c1980

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[1] Vargas Dinicu, Carolina (Morocco), Roots, Habibi Vol.5 No.12

[2] Vargas Dinicu, Carolina (Morocco), Roots, Habibi Vol.5 No.12