Kharmine

I recently ran across this essay again by Morocco that I had completely forgotten about: Welcome to Morocco's Meanderings

I don't agree with every point she makes, but it's well-written and very interesting. Morocco has done extensive firsthand research in the Middle East, which makes what she has to say about the different styles of what we call "belly dance" worth reading and considering.

Note: For those who aren't familiar with her, Morocco herself hates the term "belly dance" as being racist/colonialist/sexist, etc. and insists that is not common in the Middle East when referring to raqs sharqi.

I'd be interested in knowing people's reactions to what she has to say!

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What if the hokey pokey is really what it's all about?

Maria_Aya

I just read carefully this article.

As i cant copy paste this article here, pls go to 7. and read about Greek Tsifteteli. And what you read FORGET IT !!
Its not that its wrong, but sometimes a small spin on something leads to a total different conclusion.

a) Anatolitikos choros (and not Anatholitikos) doesnt mean Turkish dance or from Anatolia, for greeks Anatoli means arab countries.
When we say "magemeni anatoli" = the magnificant east we DO mean the magnificant arab countries.

b) we had 400 years being under Turkish from 1453 (that happened the conquest of Konstantinoupoli (today Istanbul) until 1821 where started the revolution in central Greece. In these years, greeks kept their customs, their religion, their language, and it was TOTAL unexpectable to take music or dance from the conquires.
So after 1920 where greeks from turkey came to Greece (around 2.000.000) they injected to the mainland the mix of music and dances they had there.

For more pls DO read Chryssanthis excellent article on greek tsifteteli.

What is Tsifteteli?

A bit clearing up for greek tsifteteli again.
And also we have more than 3 different types of the dance.
The original Smyrneiko tsifteteli, the one of 60's which had more of classic arabic songs translated in Greek (and also many greek dancers at Beirout and Alexandria, it was like taking movements from these places also), the 80's era (bliah), and now, where 90% of the greek hits are arabic pop songs, the last 5 years Oriental dance is a huge hit, so the tsifteteli is going more to look like "Oriental - Tsifteteli".

Maria Aya, Athens

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... www.orientalexpression.gr

Aisha Azar

Dear Aya,
Thank you for clearing that up. I have a lot of respect for Morocco and number her among my dance friends, but like everyone else, she is not correct 100% of the time. Occasionally people tend to put someone on a pedestal as THE authority figure on a subject, and that is not healthy because no one is right all the time!! I find that she and I have some big differences but still can respect each other. I like her as a person very much. There are simply times when my experience seems very different from hers. She is never nasty or condescending to me and I appreciate that more than I can say.
Regards,
A'isha

samsied

I enjoy reading anything written by Morocco and I love that she is so generous sharing what she has learned over the years. I can't wait for her to finish her book!

Saying that, I believe she wrote this article some years ago as I believe I read this when I first started studying this type of dance. I would expect some of the current information to be dated unless she recently revised the article. Also, as Aisha pointed out, I wouldn't expect one person to know absolutely everything , 100% accurate especially when talking about so many different cultures and dance forms that are not always well documented.

Thanks Maria for the clarification! Kharmine, I am curious whet you feel may not be accurate and why?

rakgirl

I love Morocco and feel that she is more correct than most. too many people in this dance form don't care at all about any background. And i agree with her i hate the BD term