Gina Smith paper
Canadian Belly-Dance Culture: The Liberty of Artistic Creation with Origins in the Ancient Orient.
The belly-dance genres of North America are social constructs derived from the dance traditions of the Middle East and North Africa. These westernized forms are primarily categorized as emanating from the Egyptian Raqs Sharqi, however, the diversity of North American belly-dance genres demonstrates influences inclusive of other folk dances with Bedouin, Iranian, Moroccan and Turkish roots. The origins of North American belly-dance can be traced back to the oriental exoticism fanfare of the late 19th century. The popularity of exoticism among Western countries created a demand for the importation of arts associated with the Orient. In contemporary times, this trend continues with an emphasis on the duplication and the modification of foreign dance traditions. These folk dance traditions have undergone westernization - incorporating the individualistic flare of each unique performer, teacher and student. As with any art form, belly-dance is open to artistic creations and genre fusions. The result is a dance culture that embraces both foreign and local contributions while establishing a niche for a variety of exotic dance styles. This paper focuses mainly on the genres of belly-dance evident in the modern Canadian context, but as well, it addresses the lineage of belly-dance in North America; as the past has enabled the present dance forms.
The Past
Middle Eastern folk dance first arrived in North America with a series of performances at American world fairs: the 1876 United States Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia and the 1893 World Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. The 19th century‘s “Scramble for Africa” (Griffiths, 1986, pg. 214) by European colonizers, mainly the English, French, Dutch and Spanish, penetrated societies with unfamiliar social culture. In Egypt’s case, the English occupied Egyptian territory as early as 1882. European artists began to capture images (often exaggerated) from Africa, the Middle East and the Orient by means of literary works and visual arts. This has been termed by the famous scholar Edward Said as the European fascination with “Orientalism”. (Dirks, 2004, p.39) Ethnic dancers and musicians became special features at world fairs such as the Paris Exhibition Universelle and shortly thereafter, the American world fairs.
Of particular importance was the type of belly-dance introduced during the Chicago Exhibition in 1893. Sol Bloom “the leading planner and organizer of the Midway Plaisance entertainment” (Roth, 2000, pg.4) developed a feature show that combined his own catchy rhythmic tunes with females performing the “danse de ventre” (dance of the belly). In Sol Bloom’s autobiographical account, he states “that the danse de ventre, while sensuous and exciting, was a masterpiece of rhythm and beauty. Almost immediately, though, the dance was imitated in amusement parks around the country, and became associated with debasement and vulgarity as a crude suggestive dance and known as the “hoochy-koochy”.” (Roth, 2000, pg. 5) Sol’s original idea to include exotic dance forms from the Orient stemmed from his 1889 visit to the Paris International Exhibition. At the Paris Exhibition, he witnessed such displays as the Algerian Village demonstrating “dancers, acrobats, glass-eaters and scorpion-swallowers.” (Roth, 2000, pg.3). Sol Bloom became convinced that American’s would become infatuated with the talents of Orient performers. He was right.
Following “danse de ventres” introduction to American culture in the late 19th century, a rise of belly-dance in Cabarets and Hollywood productions sparked further enchantment with the dance. By the middle of the 20th century, belly-dance had become a widespread phenomenon with a presence in most highly populated American and Canadian metropolitan centers. The influx of Middle Eastern culture was explained by Anne Rasmussen “according to Arab-American musicians, patrons, audiences, the first Middle Eastern nightclub, “Club Zahra,” opened in Boston in 1952. The Lebanese-American couple who assumed ownership of the club organized a Middle Eastern floor show with continuous musical entertainment provided by a “house band” that included musicians of Lebanese, Turkish, Armenian, and Greek heritage.” (Rasmussen, 1992, pg.66). The great popularity of Club Zahra later inspired the owners to open “”Club Morocco, named after Morocco, a co-owner and professional dancer and singer from Lebanon. Morocco sang Arabic, Turkish, and Greek songs and danced “Oriental style”.”(Rasmussen, 1992, pg.66) Middle Eastern song and dance became a common fixture in restaurants and nightclubs.
The 1960s and the 1970s sought to transform the social connotations associated with “danse de ventres”. Second-wave feminism embraced belly-dance as a form of female empowerment and spirituality. Sellers-Young explains “women in the 1960s were also influenced by the “flower children’s” renunciation of a puritanical approach to the body. They believed in freeing the body’s natural expressiveness.” (Sellers-Young, 1992, pg.143) A common phrase, still used today, encouraged women to venture into the world of belly-dance training by suggesting they “explore the inner goddess”. Dance has been closely linked with female deities throughout history. Even in the earliest records of history, the binary relationship of the goddess and her empowerment through dance has been tarnished by the assignment of harlot like behaviors. In ancient Mesopotamia - the northern region of Arabian peninsula (Iran) - the exemplary goddess Ishtar represented these sexual overtones found within dance culture. Uri Gabbay explains “dance plays an especially important role in the cult of Ishtar.” Gabbay further emphasized that “Ishtar was above all associated with sexuality, her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Erech was called the town of sacred courtesans, and she herself was the courtesans of gods.” (Gabbay, 2003, pg.58) Second-wave feminism endeavored to dispel these prejudices associated with belly-dance. Housewives and career women from both urban and rural locations welcomed belly-dance classes into their local community centers. The shame that was often associated Sol Bloom’s “hoochy-koochy” “danse de ventres” was no longer imposed upon performers of belly-dance.
The Present
The most recognizable form of belly-dance today is the cabaret dance. Mainly, North American cabaret style belly-dance form mimics the technical movements of the Egyptian dance Raqs Sharqi. In Canada, Raqs Shaqi training is offered in most cities and towns. In Edmonton alone, there is a minimum of a dozen professional training companies in cabaret style belly-dance.
The teachers generally teach under a company name that is the same as their stage name; this is the case with the well known Edmonton based dancer Aurora whose dance company is also called Aurora. Aurora‘s dance biography outlines her professional experience, she was “a member of Toronto's Arabesque Dance Company from 2002-2004, Aurora performed in company tours and performances such as Dance Ontario Dance, In Search of the Almeh, Descent of Ishtar, and numerous corporate and gala events.” and solidifies her authority as a teacher, “Aurora has studied extensively with Arabesque's founder and artistic director Yasmina Ramzy and other Arabesque Academy instructors” and she has “completed both the Teacher's Course and Professional course provided at Arabesque.” (www.danceaurora.com) As well, many of these professional cabaret belly-dancers strive to become traditionally taught abroad by ethnic Egyptian dancers. Anemone, an Edmonton dancer and the owner of Isis Dance Company, verifies that “she has traveled to Egypt and Turkey to study Middle Eastern dance and culture.” (http://www.isisdance.com/AneBio.htm) Both Anemone and Aurora have focused on diversifying their Middle Eastern dance techniques in order to express their individuality as dancers and their professionalism as teachers.
Cabaret dance is often performed to both the traditional instrumental music of the Middle East and North Africa and to the synthesized music of Middle Eastern and North African pop culture. The type of music a performer utilizes in her dance is dependant on the venue of her performance and the social role she aims to project to her audience. Dressed in a “bedlah” (Kinney, 1990) costume, a cabaret dancer may dance to synthesized music in a restaurant performance or she may use traditional Arab folk music in her repertoire while dancing at a festival. The traditional drum solos of the cabaret dancer are produced by the Middle Eastern and North African goblet drum, the doumbek. Drum solos are generally used to display a cabaret dancer’s hip shimmy movement; the hip shimmy is accentuated by sharp rib cage slides, head slides, hip slides, shoulder shimmies and framed with hand and arm technique. Most cabaret techniques require the dancer to consistently keep her pelvis tuck tightly under her abdominals; this is referred to as the “tuck”. The “tuck” helps to facilitate sharp accurate movements that resonate from the dancer’s reliance upon her “core” (abdominal) muscles. Softer movements such as the Maya, a horizontal figure-eight produced from within the hip region, are techniques often demonstrated in the more melodic proponents of Arab folk music, as played with instruments such as the ud, lute and lyre. These subdued movements are occasionally accompanied by veil handwork. As well, cabaret dancers must learn how to play the finger cymbals or zills with a required level of skill. Finger cymbals are most prominent when a dancer is dancing with an accompanying band or to the synthesized nightclub music. Other common dance styles of the cabaret dancer are inclusive of the sword dance, candle dance and wing dance. Moreover, different venues allow for different freedoms during the performances of any of the cabaret dance styles. Improvisation is used in restaurants, nightclubs, rites of passage celebrations and festivals where the music programming is flexible and spontaneous. In contrast, stage performances require choreographed routines to afixed music repertoire. Thus, cabaret has become the traditional belly-dance form in Canada, but even so, the cabaret style is a broad category; this enables dancers to represent their individual taste in their chosen dance specialties.
Another popular form of belly-dance in Canada is the tribal genre. Fresh to the belly-dance scene, tribal dance is credited with originating from the American west coast dance troupe “Fat Chance Belly Dance” and is therefore, often labeled American Tribal Style. (http://www.fatchancebellydance.org/about/) Tribal differentiates from the cabaret style in both it’s insider and outsider social roles within Canada. Participants or professional dancers partake in tribal dance as a form of sisterhood celebration and the dance is generally performed by a small group of evenly numbered women. Dance techniques consist of flowing earthy movements descending from a loosely held abdominal and hip region of the body. The tribal costume is an easy identifier among belly-dance genres; the tribal costume incorporates large flowing skirts or billowing harem pants, embroidered and elaborately decorated hip belts and bra tops with layers of colorful skirt wraps and shoulder covers. Many women use head scarves and add dreads or braiding to their stage hairstyles. Furthermore, the colors and decoration of the costuming resemble “mother nature” themes with the utilization of shells and bold autumn colors. The costuming of the tribal dancer is distinct from the traditional cabaret costume of a tightly fitted two-piece sequined dress. Despites it’s American origins, tribal dance is inspired by the folk dances of Middle Eastern and North African culture. Two of the folk dances that tribal dance resembles are evident in the Moroccan Shikhat and the Bedouin tribes. The Moroccan Shikhat “enacts the carnivalesque body of plenty, moving her hips rhythmically and displaying a minute control of the musculature of the “lower body strata”” while “waving her loose hair back and forth before her face, her feet beating the floor”. (Kapchan, 1994, pg.86) The North American tribal dancer incorporates many of Shikhat’s movements in her repertoire such as the foot stomp and the rotational swinging of the hair. The forerunner of the tribal dance scene in Edmonton is the Raq-a-Belly dance troupe who claim their dance style will “take you from the smoky perfume of Egyptian cabaret performances, along Marco Polo’s spice route, to the fusion of the exotic tribal Indian dance with side trips to the Bedouin camps of North African tribal dance.” (http://www.raqabellydance.com/pages/home.aspx) Furthermore, one of the Raq-a-Belly troupe members Denise A Leclair has recently founded the Edmonton company “Bedouin Beats” to instruct students on the variety of genres and fusion within the artistic framework of belly-dance technique.
The contemporary belly-dance scene within Canada is spawning numerous genre fusions and collaborative styles. Two of these new dance types are the fusions of hip-hop with belly-dance and the gothic belly-dance. Hip-hop movements in unison with belly-dance techniques creates a uniquely modern style; this form utilizes but is not limited to the R&B and hip-hop songs produced in North America. The movements include bouncy foot work and acrobatic-like floor work. The influence of cabaret technique aids to the overall effect of a sharp lively performance. However, it is important to note that the artistic goal of an individual dancer may change this generally upbeat dance fusion to mesh with the smooth laidback side of hip hop culture and mirror this image with their dance technique. The final production, therefore, becomes a representation of the artistic originality of the performing and choreographing dancer(s).
Gothic belly-dance is steadily increasing in popularity among the belly-dance community. This gothic persona is most commonly depicted by the dark, gloomy undertones of medieval sorcery and witchery. The gothic movement in North American culture has enjoyed a strong presence in the musical community and fashion scene and more recently, in dance. A definition by known innovators of this genre fusion claim “Gothic Belly Dance, or "Raks Gothique" merges the styling of the Gothic or "Goth" subculture from the last 20 years with the beautiful expression of Middle Eastern Dance in both cabaret and tribal formats.” and includes that “Gothic fashion embraces Victorian, 1920's/Art Nouveau, Renaissance, Punk, Cyber, and Ethnic-Primitive influences, creating a distinct and dramatic look that is both modern and antique.” (http://www.gothicbellydance.com/gothicbellydance/defined/about.html) A characteristic dance trait of the gothic belly-dance is the snake like arm movement that creates an eerie feel to the choreography. The costuming of the dancers tend to be reminiscent of a thematic underworld with netted, torn and fringed clothing pieces in black and dark red hues. The same authorities on the gothic belly-dance definition conclude that “when it comes to Gothic Belly Dance, the artists who choose this means as their form of expression bring to life the music through their costuming, expression, and choreography.” (http://www.gothicbellydance.com/gothicbellydance/defined/about.html)
In Canada, the premier belly-dance event is the International Belly Dance Conference of Canada. The conference is located in Toronto, Ontario during the early spring season for four days.(http://www.bellydanceconference.com/) The project of Yasmina Razmy, a world renowned belly-dancer, the conference strives to train students and professional dancers in the variety of modern and traditional dance techniques associated with belly-dance through workshops. As well, this event displays showcase performances of the traditional Raqs Sharqi form, the American Tribal Style and includes the established and upcoming fusions in the belly-dance community. Not only is the conference an excellent source of information and study, but it typifies the contemporary social role of belly-dance within Canada. That is, a dance culture that embraces the artistic interpretations and creations of individual performers by using an endless supply of traditional Middle Eastern and North African folk dances and modern North American dance genres. Belly-dance is no longer restrained by the prejudices associated with it’s North American burlesque past. It’s development over the course of the last century washes away the shameful connotations of the Occident’s enchantment with eroticism of the stereotyped Orient song and dance. Today, Edmonton belly-dance culture enjoys both the professional aspect of performance and employment alongside the amateur aspects of training.
Biography
http://www.zaghareet.ca/index.html http://www.bellydanceconference.com/ http://www.isisdance.com/ http://www.shira.net/advice.htm http://www.fatchancebellydance.org/ http://www.khafif.com/rhy/ http://www.gothicbellydance.com/gothicbellydance/ http://www.raqabellydance.com/pages/home.aspx
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