Quote:
Originally Posted by A'isha Azar
DEar Machiavellia,
When you say the words "belly dance" you are evoking for your audience a definite effect of something coming from the mysterious Middle East. To westerners, this term does not mean anything western, it means a specific dance, and even if they do not know where it comes from exactly, they know if as a form from somewhere exotic and far away. Belly dance IS the English for Raqs Sharghi. The term "belly dance" may have been a western invention, but it definitely meant dances from over there, and in the eyes of he general public still does! Arabs, when they speak of the dance in English, call it belly dance for the most part.
7 dance companies there!! I think that's wonderful. My father was in the military, and the Air Force base was there or by there. The closest I am probably going to get to Newfoundland under my own steam is that I am going back to Maine, where I was born, in September. I am up for being sponsored if they are interested. I have not worked in Canada for a couple of years, but my passport is in order!! My website for more info on me is Raqs Azar and my dance company is Barharat!!.
Regards,
A'isha |
A'isha,
As I mentioned previously, the origin of my moves is still Middle Eastern, although the aesthetic and cultural context is not strictly so. Personally, I don't have a problem with audiences, as my company always has a blurb before a performance or in the show's program explaining that the of the dance vocabulary is Middle Eastern, and the context within which it is presented is modern and Western. We also address the relevant women's issues associated with bellydancing (aka it is not stripping). Bellydancing is the best English word to connote the origin and the style of the dance, which is still Middle Eastern, although it is not only Middle Eastern. My company uses the term tribal fusion bellydance fairly often, and locally, people are beginning to know what to expect from a group in that style.
Bellydancing is not the first cultural dance that I studied, that was actually Irish dancing. A good parallel to the bellydancing question is Irish step dancers who incorporate elements of American street tap, jazz, hip hop and ballet into the aesthetic and musical style of the dance. The dance vocabulary remains essentially Irish, and that's what people still call it, although they explain that it's a fusion. I feel the consistently about that.
I guess I feel like if you tell people what you're doing, explain the origin and the different influences, you can't go wrong with experimentation. It does, however, require a thorough knowledge of more cultures and more disciplines, and I do think many people fail for that reason.
Well next time we talk about sponsoring in a workshop teacher, I will definitely throw your name in the ring
With seven dance companies all fairly different in style, I think a traditional workshop would be something everyone would be interested in.