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The Priestess of Power
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Yasmina Ramzy,
head of
Arabesque Academy and Dance Company, told me
that she believes the future of women’s mysticism lies in
bellydancing. From my own experiences with this dance, I was ready to
believe her. Bellydancing not only refreshes every single muscle in the
body but also a curiosity for
this dance's history and exploration of feminine nature and power.
Women in Toronto have various reasons for taking bellydancing.
According to
Yasmina, in her article,
Bellydancing
and Women’s Self-esteem, “During twenty years of teaching Bellydancing
to as many as 120 women a week, I have come to realize that the reasons
students take up the dance are varied and that there is no “typical
type” of woman. They come from all walks of life. These women persist
because Bellydancing enhances self-esteem…. all women love to
Bellydance. It is an expression of a woman enjoying her femininity,
sensuality and the power that the female body has as an embodiment of
reproduction.”I began my bellydance training at Arabesque Dance Academy in January
2004. After my first two weeks of bellydance lessons, I made the
following observation:
"My hips have entered the Creation as a piece of the mechanics of Life.
Like the pistons in a car, my hips are a conductor and a converter of
energy. If I only had the means to plug myself into my computer
and household appliances, I’m convinced that my hydro bill would
dramatically decrease."
"If a woman were to spellbind anybody there truly wouldn’t be a better
recipient than herself and then her lover. But I am convinced that to
limit herself and the bellydance to that function would be a terrible
waste of potentials and a lack of perception. The master bellydancer
compacts into her hips the power of the shaman and priestess."
Technically, this dance stimulates and stretches the internal organs
with its demands in flexibility and muscle isolations. The dance has a
unique focus, in its curving patterns, which compliments the female
form. It teaches the body to understand how it is aligned, being able to
carry one movement from your fingertips to your toes. The dance is
also mentally challenging. Movements are often layered simultaneously,
made more intricate by adding higher levels of release and agility.
Leona Wood, in her article,
Dance du Ventre: a Fresh Appraisal Part I & II,
suggests that the desire to spiritualize or mysticize this dance is a
result of trying to offset its striptease stereotype. It also poses as a
lure to the ‘exotic’ for Western women.
Since the 60’s,
Leona’s research has helped create academic
acceptance for Oriental dance. She has presented the lecture series,
"The Near East: Islamic Tradition and the Modern World" and “The
Performing Arts in a Moslem Context" at University of California in Los
Angeles.
“The claim that the dance is intended less as entertainment than as a
ritual symbolizing motherhood has a special appeal for feminists; it is
therefore not difficult to understand the motivation for such eager
acceptance.”
“Much of the nonsense that is circulated about oriental dancing is
rooted in a profound ignorance of the cultures in which it is the social
and theatre dance, the classical and the folk dance.”
Aisha Ali confirmed that bellydance “is
a social dance when done by folks and an entertainment dance when
performed by professionals.”
Aisha
is an internationally recognized
authority on the dances of Egypt and North Africa and director of the
folkloric ensemble, the the
Aisha Ali Dance Company for over twenty years.
Hannan, a Toronto-based
professional bellydancer, has a more liberal view. “Bellydance isn't one
thing. There is bellydance as a dance done on stage by professional
performers. There is bellydance as a social dance done by Middle
Easterners. There are people who use bellydance as a spiritual tool or
practice. I think they are all separate things. I think that bellydance
is empowering for us because it allows us to pursue and honour a
feminine aesthetic.”
Hannan
began her training in Portland, Oregon and
has since become an instructor and award-winning, international
performer of Middle Eastern Belly Dance.
“It‘s a language. I can embody every personality that a woman can be --
including the hag, the drag queen, the bitch,” chuckled
Maya Al Samry,
a professional bellydancer in Toronto.
When performing, her chief pleasure is connecting with the other women
in the audience and encouraging them to explore this language.
I asked
Yasmina Ramzy
if she believed her students had an obligation to study
the history of the dance. She smiled and said that there are no
‘shoulds or shouldn’ts’ when learning to dance. However, women who
perform bellydancing should learn its heritage.
“This is more than your average dance. It’s not just physical movement. You are taking on thousands of years of history and emotions and
celebrating women.”
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A Little History on East Meets West
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Through research on the Internet, there is one repeated historical
moment in Chicago with the ‘World Fair’ that coined the term
'Bellydancing' in 1893 – beyond that everything else tends to vary. The
late 1800’s planted this dance in North America and Europe with a fad in
Eastern ‘exoticism’.
The dance can be traced as far back as Ancient Egypt & Mesopotamia but,
due to its nomadic tendencies, traveled and rooted itself throughout
Asia, the Middle-East and North Africa.
According to
Leona Wood, “By the time they reached France in the early
fifteenth century, they were known by a variety of names, but at least
one group called themselves “Egyptians” (hence Gypsy) … In Egypt, Spain,
Hungary, Russia and wherever else they are found, Gypsies have
assimilated the local styles of music and dance and made them their
own.”
Radhiya Taj
lists some of the groups that developed from this movement: The Shikatt
(meaning wise women) from Morocco, the Khaleeji dance from Saudi Arabia,
the Ghawazee from Egypt and the Ouled Nail from Algeria are a few
examples. “Many countries around the world have their own style of dance
and have been instrumental in sharing their influences in the art of
Middle Eastern Dance.” Radhiya Taj is a St. Louis-based dancer.
Leona
describes this dance’s historical transformation into its
most decadent version: “by a series of actresses, courtesans and
dancers: Cleo de Merode, Sarah Bernhardt, Maud Allan, and others, who
indulged themselves in an oriental charade that set the stage for a
notorious and persistent stereotype.”
An example of one of these courtesans/dancers is Margaretha Geertruida
Zelle. Born in the Netherlands, she posed as a Javanese princess named
Mata Hari, “the eye of dawn.” Mata Hari made her official debut on March
13th, 1905 by performing the ‘bellydance’ at the Museum of Oriental Art
in Paris before a six-limbed statue of the Hindu god, Siva.
With no training in Oriental Dance save what she had observed during her
marriage to a military soldier in Java, she writhed and stripped,
near-naked, herself and the bellydance into the showgirl act. She is
even quoted as having said, “The temple in which I dance can be vague or
faithfully reproduced, as here today. For I am the temple. All true
temple dances are religious in nature and all explain, in gestures and
poses, the rules of the sacred texts.” I found this story in (of all
places) the
Crime Library website, written by
Denise Noe.
Like any bellydancer who dances solely for the pleasure of men or for
sex, according to
Maya Al Samry, the biggest offence is that they completely miss
the point. They offend by their ignorance; they disfigure a dance that
is meant to be so much more. Yet, they are part of this dance. By
history and fate.
“The exotic influence from the western world is more interesting and
desired by new generations of Middle Easterners,” said
Aisha Ali. “They are
flattered by the amount of interest that western women have shown in Raks Sharqi and like any art, when there is a lot of competition and
patronage, it thrives – even if temporarily it is being developed by
outside cultures.”
“The creators of the bellydance we know today (the ones emulated by
professional entertainers) were strongly influenced by Hollywood and
Russian ballerinas,”
Hannan
agreed.
Yet because of the West,
Maya
explained, any bellydancer who had been
dancing before the 80’s had to fight hard to be recognized as
a professional dancer. She, herself, almost accidentally signed up for a
performance in New Orleans that expected the striptease version. But had
bellydancing never captured western attention, it would never have
traveled so far or developed such a strong following from women around
the world -- dancers determined to have the bellydance recognized as an
art form. Examples of this are some of the dancers listed in this article.
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The Sex Symbol
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When first approaching bellydancing, as a Torontonian, it never occurred
to me that people might think this dance was indecent. Exotic -- yes.
Erotic -- like any dance – only as much as you want it to be (so then,
who’s being erotic – the dance or you?) I didn’t understand why so many
dancers, during my research, were so vehement that bellydancing was a
serious art form or why they felt so strongly against the name:
‘bellydance.’
But I also didn’t know what it felt like to defend the dance or myself
from indecency. The name ‘bellydance’ definitely has a different effect
on the general Toronto public than the name: “Raks Sharqi’ or ‘Oriental
Dance.’
Let’s look again at Mata Hari. She exploited a culture she barely
knew for her own profit. Who was Mata Hari? A woman shrouded in mystery,
accusation and audacity. Random searches on Mata Hari on the Internet
give various versions of her life. She had moved to Java with
her military husband. Some stories say he was a brute, other stories say
she was bored. One child was poisoned and the other was taken from her
in their divorce. She, a woman alone in the early 1900s, went to Paris
and designed the character of Mata Hari. Her ‘Dance of Love’ became a
sensation where men promised fortunes for her favours, even the German
royalty. Her sensation lasted no more than five or so years. During WWI,
she was accused of being a spy. Sometimes she was a German spy,
sometimes a French one, sometimes both. Sometimes she was a scapegoat
who had an unfortunate weakness for men in uniform. She was executed by
firing squad in 1917.
When discussing the history of bellydance,
Hannan said, “There are
several theories about the history of the dance, but I don't believe
that we have had thousands of years of "bellydancing" as we now know it
… I tend to think that the reasons people give to explain the history of
something that is undocumented can tell us more about their agenda than
the history they are trying to explain.”
The sexual association with this dance is not entirely due to the
influence of the West. Historically, many of the women who cultivated
and studied this dance were also raised to be prostitutes.
 In an article by dancer and researcher,
Jasmin Jahal, entitled,
The Ouled Nail of Algeria, she
describes the skilled female dancers of the Ouled Nail in Algeria. The
Ouled Nail are known for introducing some of the most elaborate
movements and accessories to the bellydance. These women earn their
living by dancing and prostitution. “They leave their desert town
between the ages of nine and twelve … The Ouled Nails have to obtain
sufficient wealth to secure a good marriage. After the marriage, an
Ouled Nail settles down to being a good wife and mother.”
The article quotes
Ted Shawn, a famous American dancer from the early
1900's who didn’t encourage the decadent version of this dance
after witnessing the Ouled Nail: “It is not a suggestive dance for the
simple reason that it leaves nothing to the imagination, and because of
this unashamed animality, revolts the average white tourist to the point
of being unable to admire the phenomenal mastery which these women have
of parts of the body…”
Yasmina describes another tribe of women called the Awalim:
"...known
today as prostitutes and dancers, but were once highly respected in
society for their expertise in all the arts including poetry,
literature, dancing, music and the art of making love. It was their
occupation to teach these arts. In the Middle East today and abroad in
Arab communities, it is customary to perform the Wedding Procession or Zaffah at all weddings. The Rakiseh or Bellydancer leads the wedding
procession from the church or mosque to the reception party. Along the
way, she encourages the couple to perform hip movements and to
occasionally kiss. Whether the family is Christian or Muslim, this
tradition is so strong that many mothers feel if the Bellydancer is not
present at the wedding, the couple may not produce babies and wealth. In
small villages, still today, the Bellydancer leads the newlyweds to the
bridal chamber to consummate the marriage rather than taking them to the
banquet hall.”
In
Jasmin Jahal’s article on Turkish bellydancing,
Top Turkish Talent, it is clear that their version is sexual.
Although, Turkish bellydancing has existed for at least 500 years, the
focus to cabaret bellydancing began around 1923, “At that time, women
were liberated in many aspects of life, and bellydancers enjoyed a
freedom they never before had. Dancers found more opportunity to perform
in a way that allowed them to aggressively display their feminine beauty
and emphasize sexual appeal.”
It is even suggested towards the end of the article, that the aggressive
sexuality in Turkish bellydance is not just from a desire to be decadent
but also as a resistance. “Turkish belly dancers, today, struggle
against the morals of a Moslem country. As artists they dare to see how
far they can take sensuality into sexuality.”
“In fact,”
Maya suggests, “the West’s initial fascination [with
bellydancing] might be the result of a similar resistance to the
Victorian era.”
Maya wishes to remind all dancers scarred by the stripper stereotype,
“Sex isn’t bad.“ When
Maya dances her focus is personal expression. “I
want to show how much I love this dance. Genuine expression includes
life, vitality, love, sensuality, joy and friendship. Sex is one of
them.”
As quoted by
Hannan, this dance is “strength through softness.”
Whatever our personal feelings about ‘the sex object’, she is rooted in
the history of women as well as this dance. We have been repulsed and
fascinated by this creation. If we dance as a way of celebrating or
understanding our feminine nature should we not accept or try to
understand all aspects of our sex. Being women ourselves how can we
ignore that we know she isn't just a sex object.
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Conclusion
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There are new hopes and fears as popular culture is again rearing its
head towards this dance. Artists such as Beyonce Knowles and Shakira
have introduced bellydance elements into their acts. Though this attention creates renewed interest & revenue for
the dance, these proud women threaten to put bellydancing right back
into the sexual stereotype it has fought so hard to get out of.
“We are still unable to accept the idea of an autonomous woman,”
Maya stated.
 Hannan
is concerned that the popular styles are shutting out the
traditional styles. “There are other dance forms that this dance grew
from, and they still exist or are dying out for the same reasons that
native culture persists or dies anywhere. In Egypt, the dance (as a
professional art form) is in a perilous situation because of the growing
fundamentalism and economic situation there.”
As there are so many strong voices involved in bellydancing today,
Maya
is more encouraged by the idea of evolving the dance so long as
standards of pride and integrity are maintained.
The main wish for the future of this dance is that the history of the
dance be preserved and that the dance be acknowledged as a legitimate
art form. These two walk hand in hand. To study this dance, is
to understand its true merits and complexity.
To press any of these dancers with too many questions on the
anthropology of women and bellydancing would veer towards being beside
the point. She is a dancer. Her best answers come when you watch her
dance. Thus, forcing me, a woman, to ask the question, why and how can I
look to bellydancing to explain my nature and potential? Perhaps,
the dancer will
explain the nature and potential of the bellydance.
My last observation as a beginner bellydancer, went thus:
“Funny how the hip shimmy can be so difficult one minute and next I'm a
freakin’ bumble bee. I don't think it's about how much you practice
rather my level of ease at the time. Unlike most dance steps, shimmies
can't be broken down into parts and done in slow motion. I tried doing
it really slow, but of course that's not shimmying that's doing accents. Shimmy means you LET GO! Now how do you explain how to do that? You just
do. Somehow. And I do. Sometimes.”
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Bios &
Acknowledgements of Article Participants
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 Yasmina Ramzy, founder and
Artistic Director of Arabesque Dance Company and Arabesque Academy,
School of Middle Eastern Dance and Music Arts, received her key training
from leading instructors in the Middle East, including Mohammed Khalil,
director of the National Folklore Troupe of Egypt and Ida Nour. With an
early foundation in ballet and constantly pursuing innovation and new
challenges, Yasmina has broadened her knowledge base by studying Modern,
Azerbaijani, Latin, Brazilian, Abinaya, Pilates, Capoeira and Aikido.
She has studied Arabic language at the University of Toronto, as well as
Arabic drumming and voice with Dr. George Sawa.
For more personal details on
Yasmina’s career, please see the following links:
Cafe Ami's profile on Yasmina Ramzy
Yasmina Ramzy
by Venus
Belly-dancing and Women's Self-Esteem
by Yasmina Ramzy, Arabesque Academy and Company
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Maya
Al Samry
She
was introduced to bellydancing in 1996 and has been doing it obsessively
ever since. Aside from learning from Noura, Yasmina Ramzy and Roula Said
from Toronto, Cynthia has also traveled across Canada and the US in
order to learn from a wide variety of teachers including Suhaila
Salimpour from San Francisco, Elena from New York, Hadia from Calgary
and Jalilah from Montreal.
|
Leona Wood is perhaps best known to the dance
world today as artistic director of the Aman International Dance Company, and
through her writing about dance, which appears on record lbums, in Dance
Research Journals and other publications. By the late 1950's Ms. Wood had
founded "Friends of Arabic Music," an organization that has sponsored numerous
cultural events in Los Angeles including a program for the Federation of the
Islamic Associations, the Egyptian folk artists brought to this country by the
Smithsonian institute and many others. In 1961 Ms. Wood presented a program of
Middle Eastern Music and dance in cooperation with the institute of
Ethno-musicology within the lecture series, "The Near East: Islamic Tradition
and the Modern World" at the University of California, Los Angeles. This
presentation created the beginnings of an academic acceptance of oriental dance
that was realized several years later, when Ms. Wood conducted the first of her
lecture series, "The Performing Arts in a Moslem Context" at UCLA.
|
Aisha Ali
is an internationally recognized authority on the dances of Egypt and North
Africa. Following her successes in the United States, she performed widely in
Europe and the Middle East. For over twenty years she directed her folkloric
ensemble, the Aisha Ali Dance Company.
In 1971, Aisha traveled to the Middle East to observe firsthand many traditional
styles of dance not seen in the United States. She made subsequent visits to
Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia from 1973 to 1997 to document folkloric materials
that were fast disappearing. As a result, she has released numerous audio and
video recordings.
In 1973, while a featured soloist at the Municipal Theater in Sfax, Tunisia, the
Maison de la Culture asked Aisha to form a dance company. Later that year she
stayed among the Ouled Naïl in Algeria, a tribe famous for its dancing women.
Over the years she has frequently danced at celebrations in Upper Egypt with the
Banat Maazin, a Nawar gypsy family of Ghawazee.
In the United States, Aisha directed the North African performers at the Los
Angeles Olympics opening festival in 1984 and was soloist at the grand opening
of the LA Festival in 1993. In 1994, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by
the American Academy of Middle Eastern Dance in New York, and in 2000, she was
an honored speaker and soloist at the International Conference of Middle Eastern
Dance. Recently she was featured in a folk dance program at Cornell University.
For many years, Aisha contributed articles to Arabesque magazine, and continues
to write articles for Habibi. She has contributed articles to numerous
publications, including an article on the Ouled Nail published by the
International Institute for the Study of Islam, the section on Egypt for the JVC/Smithsonian
"Anthology of World Music and Dance," and articles on Algeria and the Ouled Naïl
in the International Encyclopedia of Dance published by Oxford University Press.
In addition to teaching classes at her Los Angeles studio, Aisha gives
lectures/demonstrations at universities such as UCLA and Cornell, and conducts
workshops and master classes in North America, Europe, New Zealand and
Australia. She is presently editing her latest Egyptian footage.
|
 Hannan is an instructor and
award-winning performer of Middle Eastern Belly Dance. Currently based
in Toronto, Ontario, she has delighted audiences all the way from
Seattle, Washington to Istanbul, Turkey. As a teacher, she has educated
students from coast to coast. During her formative years as a dancer,
Hannan undertook intensive training with Aziza of Portland, Oregon. Her
movement training includes belly dance, ballet, and yoga. A dedicated
artist, Hannan has traveled to Egypt to learn from renowned instructors
such as Raqia Hassan, Aida Nour, and Dina.
Captivating stage presence, endearing persona, and excellent dance
ability make Hannan a highly sought-after entertainer. A versatile
performer, Hannan is featured in nightclubs, restaurants, private
functions, weddings, festivals, and corporate events.
Dance students benefit from Hannan’s excellent dance training and her
love for the art of bellydance. Students enjoy a positive atmosphere and
high-quality instruction. In Hannan’s classes, the focus is on safe
movement, fun, and good technique.
In addition to awards won with former troupe members of Banat Al Fez,
Magidah Wahab and Aziza, Hannan also holds these titles:
2003 Ms. Bellydancer USA:
Bellydancer USA Competition
2002 Professional Dancer of the Year:
MED&CA Competition
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Jasmin Jahal
- It is rare to find a true artist of Egyptian dance, also known as oriental
dance or belly dance. When a person of Middle Eastern descent comes across such a
unique performer, they instantly appreciate the special treasure they have found
in one who has a gift for interpreting the flowing complexity of Egyptian music,
rhythms and movement. In Chicago, Jasmin Jahal is the only oriental dancer who
has such a gifted reputation. Promoting the art with dignity and beauty, Jasmin
Jahal is in world renown. Her performances are in great demand throughout
Europe, the Middle East and across the U.S.
Having studied with the best Egyptian and Lebanese dance masters, Jasmin Jahal's
goal as an instructor of oriental dance is to educate the Western mind to see
that authentic Egyptian dance is tasteful, exciting, sensual and artistic.
Jasmin instructs local, national and international dance workshops, and teaches
weekly bellydance classes throughout the Chicago area and suburbs. She is the
founder and artistic director of the Jasmin Jahal School of Dance.
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Informal References |
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The
Title |
** Please note that this author acknowledges that a portion of this title,
“Written on the Body” has already been used by many authors for various subjects
from the art of tattoo, sex, biometrics and a film based in Las Vegas starring
Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt.
 The most esteemed, in my opinion, would be Jeannette Winterson’s novel. Give it
up for one of the finest fiction writers of our day.
"The most beguilingly seductive novel to date from the author of The Passion and
Sexing the Cherry. Winterson chronicles the consuming affair between the
narrator, who is given neither name nor gender, and the beloved, a complex and
confused married woman. "At once a love story and a philosophical
meditation."-- New York Times Book Review.
But as wonderful as Winterson is, the title of this
article does not hold any
reference to any of the other subjects found under this title.
Also check out my favourite of her work, “The Passion.”
Set during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion intertwines
the destinies of two remarkable people: Henri, a simple French soldier, who
follows Napoleon from glory to Russian ruin; and Villanelle, the red-haired,
web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, whose husband has gambled away her
heart. In Venice's compound of carnival, chance, and darkness, the pair meet
their singular destiny. In her unique and mesmerizing voice, Winterson blends
reality with fantasy, dream, and imagination to weave a hypnotic tale with
stunning effects.
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Feedback on the
article: |
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Dec. 28, 2004
I read your article and I'm very impressed. It must have
been a pretty big project to do. Even though it's long it kept my interest
and I think you really are a very good writer. I've tried to read two
biographies recently, about people I was interested in, but I gave up
because the writing was so tedious.
Amazing how you managed to work Jeannette Winterson
into the article.
Ken Glazebrook is a director of dance film documentaries.
His credits come from: Spirit
of Dance Series
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Jan 25, 2005
I feel you did an excellent job of presenting different
issues related to the dance. I was very impressed that you sought out a
number of sources. Thank you so much for writing such an informative
article!
Hannan
- is an instructor and
award-winning performer of Middle Eastern Belly Dance. Currently based in
Toronto, Ontario, she has delighted audiences all the way from Seattle,
Washington to Istanbul, Turkey.
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Have your say. Add your comments on the article by sending an
email to
lyw.
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Related Links |
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Check
out related links:
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Other
MED
Articles: |
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Cafe Ami's Featured
MED
Artists: |
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Other Articles & Links on Dance & Music: |
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| Other
Related Dance & Music Communities |
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**The Dancer of Shamakha by Armen Ohanian
- "A description of what it was like at the end of the
nineteenth century
appears in the
memories of an Armenian dancer, Armen
Ohanian. Her
adventures in Persia-where she danced for the young Shah-and in
Egypt, give a fascinating
picture of the milieu from which she emerged. A patient perusal
will be amply
rewarded with a fascinating account of a vanished world."
Leona Wood
Where can we find this book?
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