Quote:
Originally Posted by Dipali
Dear Forum
I think Dina is also some how responsible for making Belly dance a controversial thing in Egypt. She loves controversy , that’s what I think after what I see and have read about her. At the moment many radical movements are on the rise in Egypt and other places that will attempt to impose pressure to cover up and stop anything that sounds or looks sensual , also as Tarik said economic meltdown is a big cause , I was watching an independent programme about the food crisis in Egypt and the current situation when an average person has to think twice before spending any money on daily life.
Re - Belly dance is still somehow an underground culture in Western countries. Although I see a rise of people wanting to do Belly dance or want to learn about the dance but it seems Belly Dance never presented itself as a brand in the mainstream culture. I know many people don’t want their art to be commercialised but to keep this art alive you just have to do what others are doing. A perfect example is Yoga from India, When Indian people presented that to the rest of the world they presented it as a brand , most of the time the spiritual aspect is missing which is one of the main elements in yoga , but you know what a new Yoga class gets more publicity than a new Belly Dance school , well at least in Australia. People show great interest and they don’t mind talking about it to their friends but When it comes to Belly dance , a lot of people don’t want other people to know that they are Belly Dancing. Maybe that’s one of the reasons its difficult to propel this art form forward in the West.
Regards
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You make some very good points. I think where Dina's concerned, there is a part of her that is controversial and provocative because its her way of protesting the hypocrisy and double standards of the society. On the other hand, wisdom says when there's a fire, you don't throw gasoline on it. Egyptian society is very conformist. They don't like having things thrown up in their faces. Some people may adopt this tactic in the hopes of gaining acceptance, but it usually ends up back firing. Mahmound Redda realized this when he created his company and regardless of how I may feel about his dances with regards to the male dancer, it did gain a certain amount of acceptance from society. I don't think I've ever heard anyone voice objections over the propriety of a woman dancing in The Redda Troupe.
For the performance style to survive it needs to evolve. It needs to be more accessible to the general public. Luxury night clubs and tourist barges won't cut it anymore. Not that I'm saying they need to do away with them, but that they need other venues and contexts in which to present the dance. However, given the current state of the economy, I don't know how that would happen.
As for the dance here???? I know what you're saying, but at the same time I fear seeing the mainstream do to it what Ballroom Dance has done to Latin Dances, where they have no resemblance to the actual Samba, Mambo, Merengue and don't even use the ethnically correct music. God help me, but I can't even watch one episode of Dancing with the Stars. How the hell can you call something Salsa Dance when you don't use Salsa steps and you do it to Hip-Hop music? Where is Cuba and Puerto Rico in all that? Yet Ballroom classes are full to the brim. Can you believe they even want to enter it into the Olympics? So now its not even dance anymore, its a sport! I don't want to see that happen with Oriental. I'd rather it stay a sub-culture if that's the case.