Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

Hi bin-rodi, Thank you for contributing to the forum and the thread. I think dancers in the West get so caught up on so many trivial matters when it comes to Oriental dance without realizing some women(and men) really suffer if they want to dance. It's something we take for granted. But I want you to know I love this dance form and if I thank you maybe, in a way I can thank all the people in your country for sharing it with us.
Yasmine

taheya

Very interesting to hear your explanation bin rodi, but makes me sad at the same time. I think I and everyone in this forum is very committed to this dance form and it is hard to hear first hand of its bad reputation in Egypt (although I was sort of aware). I like to think that things will get better and we can all play a part in improving the reputation of bellydance.

Rebecca_

What an interesting discussion! I recently made friends with an egyptian who is in the states to study, and when he found out I bellydance he commented, "You know, in Egypt, it's not a good thing to be a bellydancer. A family never wants a bellydancer in it. Bellydancers are basically prostitutes that dance sometimes too." He's known me for a while now and sees how hard I work for the dance - not only practice but trying to understand culture as well as meanings of songs I think he's gotten a lot more respect for what I do.
As for attitudes here, I can't really represent views across America as I reside in a highly scientific academic community. The people around me will be my coworkers one day, and the professors I see around will be helping me get into grad schools as well as help me network with major corporations so I can get funding for my research. It would be pretty bad for my future if I were performing at a local resturaunt, and a professor I knew decided to take himself and some of his coworkers out to dinner to tell them about all the wonderful researchers in his lab and then saw one of his researchers up there dancing. In short, people in the scientific academic community don't give bellydance a chance and just assume it's stripping.

bin_rodi

bin_rodi

Rebecca_

You bring up a good point. While here some people may look down on us, our family isn't going to disown us and people aren't going to spit on us in the street here. Maybe we should be thankful here in the west.

Aniseteph

Is it that it's bellydance though, or just the performing bit?

Difficult to think of a comparison - what about if you were singing in a piano bar, or doing that close-up magic they have in some restaurants? I don't know whether it's the lowly status of being the paid entertainment that the boss would be embarrasssed by or the fact that his researcher can shake her sequins about.

Expect mine would be mortified, embarrassed, and very very scared. Don't think I'd get too damaged career wise though... unless I was really rubbish. Which is a strong possibility, so keeping the sequins under wraps for now!

bin_rodi

Rebecca_

I don't think it's the performing, it's more the bellydance, and that potential bosses wouldn't understand bellydance easily. Many people assume bellydance is just stripping and involves no talent...

Zumarrad

For what it's worth, the woman who is currently the longest-standing belly dance teacher in my town works in high-end specialist scientific research, and I don't think it's been a problem.