Suheir

The Times newspaper has a free trial of its online archive so I've been trawling through for any Brit-belly dance snippets. Here's what I found!

"The Times | April 27, 1982
Snippets (fashion page)

Belly dancing is an aid to slimming, heightens sexual pleasure, lifts depression and helps with childbirth, according to a fresh-faced dance-teacher, who proved the first theory by a personal demonstration last week. Three sensuously wobbling ladies of the more familiar belly dancing tradition celebrated the publication of Tina Hobin's book, which shows you how to bring a touch of Eastern magic to the privacy of your own bedroom. The Complete Veil Routine, the floor movements and a series of exercises show Ms Hobin in action and black fishnet tights. Some of the steps look suspiciously like my own weekly dance class designed to flatten and stretch the bulging flesh, it all seems a long way from the “symbolic and rhythmic rituals" so gracefully described in the Song of Solomon ("Your belly is a heap of wheat encircled with lilies . . . ") Various literary figures, including the pin-thin novelist Beryl Bainbridge, gave an impromptu display which proved that belly dancing is not as easy as all that. Ah well... back to the cottage cheese. Belly Dancng for Health and Relaxation by Tina Hobin (Duckworth £2.50)"

"The Times | May 7, 1983
Dance
DANCERS FROM THE EAST
The Place
Sun – Fri 8pm

Five soloists or groups take part in this short festival of Indian and Middle-Eastern dances. Ritha Devi appears Sunday and Monday in Kuchipudi, Bharata Natyam and Odissi dances. On Tuesday and Friday, Priya and Pratap Parwar, who are Kathak specialists, share the bill with the great Indian dancers (from Southall) in their harvest folk dance Bhangra. Chitra Sundaram (Wednesday) performs the classic Bharata Natyam, and Selwa Rajaa (Thursday) offers a revival of the pre-Islamic Raks Sharki – apparently the pure origin of belly dancing"

"The Times | June 18, 1983
Dance
EGYPTIAN DANCE
Commonwealth Institute Theatre, today, 8pm

Soloist, Selwa Rajaa, whose rehabilitation of the historic Middle Eastern dance forms has attracted favourable comment, performs for the first time with live musicians"

"Times June 21 1983
LIVING TRADITION
Suraya Hilal, Commonwealth Institute

Imagine the frustration, just as you are making a name for yourself, of having to change that name for family reasons. The performance by Selwa Rajaa advertised for Saturday was given by Suraya Hilal – who is the same woman. But good Arab girls are not expected to go on the stage – which is ironic, since what she has done is to rehabilitate an often mocked Arab folk art and find new, thrilling possibilities for it.

She calls her style of dancing by its Egyptian name, Raks Sharki, to avoid the connotations of belly-dancing. Well, belly-dancing it is, but forget everything you saw, heard or imagined under that description. Suraya Hilal is a choreographer of subtlety and high skill, and a dancer of quality.

The way she turns, rolls, stretches, shakes, twists, thrusts or vibrates her hips, waist and the whole pelvic region is every bit as wonderful to see as the virtuoso tricks of other styles, but there is much more to her dancing than that. Head, shoulders, arms and feet are in constant motion too, with contrasts of speed and emphasis making the most intricate rhythms and patterns.

You see elements in her work resembling the dances of India on one hand, Spain on the other, yet the best comparison is with her contemporaries in the recent waves of modern dance. Her choreography achieves a variety within accepted restrictions comparable with that of Lucinda Childs or Dana Reitz, and the sustained flow of energy males even Molissa Fenley look short-breathed.

For the first time, she had persuaded a group of Arab musicians from various London clubs to play together for her. Their mixture of traditional and modern instruments testified to a living tradition, and their playing in these unfamiliar circumstances was jubilant. The rapport between dancer and musicians was an added joy in an exhilarating evening.

John Percival"

"Times Feb 2 1985
ON YOUR TOES

Up and down the country people are putting their best feet forward – but what’s behind this dance explosion? To find out, Judith Mackrell visited Oxford, and discovered a range of forms, from ballet to belly…

Say “belly dancing” to a militant feminist and you may expect a hiss of disapproval. But call it by its original Middle Eastern name of Raks Sharki and you may receive, surprisingly, a nod of approval.

It is one of the oldest known dance forms, and, as its origins are exclusively female, has become popular among the American women’s movement. Both the folk and classical variants were developed by women in Islamic and pre-Islamic Middle Eastern cultures as a means of celebrating weddings, births and other important festivals – a function it still retains. One theory advanced by American feminists in the 1970s but now hotly disputed suggests that it began as a form of ante-natal exercise. When the Ottoman Empire seized on belly dancing as a popular court entertainment, it was performed to mixed audiences for the first time. The style is very different from Western dance, concentrating on coordinated movements in the torso, hips, shoulders, arms and head, rather than on speed and elevation.

The dance is still performed in Egypt, although one of its greatest living exponents is Suraya Hilal, who works in Europe and was based until recently in Oxford. Katrina Robinson, a 37-year-old publishers’ editor, remembers being “stunned by the sheer beauty of the movement, the costumes and the music” when she first saw Hilal perform.

“It requires immense suppleness and coordination, but seems to be very satisfying for women of all ages, perhaps because it was developed exclusively for women’s bodies. It is also so different from Western styles of movement, that it can be a positive advantage to have no training whatsoever”"

"The Times | February 25, 1983 TV listings

ITV 2.00pm Simon Read interviews Wendy Buonaventura, author of Belly Dancing (published by the feminist publishing house Virago) ; and Judith Chalmers talks to Peter Noone, now playing in The Pirates Of Penzance at Drury Lane"

"The Times | February 21, 1983 Radio listings

BBC Radio 4 2.02 Woman's Hour introduced by Sue MacGregor. Today, Bob Prizeman presents an item entitled Men Can't Do it which Is an investigation into the world of belly-dancing"

"The Times | February 2, 1985

Steps In Style

So you want to dance? Christine Painell puts you on a fashionable footing.

Fashion and fitness move hand in hand in the athletic 1980s. Fun, figure-hugging leotards and tights are worn by all ages and sizes in dance studios that have opened countrywide. Clothes to complement your chosen exercise or dance style are available from High Street stores. Your fit-kit for aerobics, jazz or contemporary dance will be a coordinated trio of leotard, dance tights and legwarmers. On top go tracksuit trousers and/or a baggy T-shirt for warming up and covering figure faults. It is best to begin a class with I&M-a sort of dress rehearsal, attending as a spectator (some studios have plate glass windows) before you splash out on dance clothes and shoes for a method that may not suit you.

BELLY ROBES The sensual rolling action from waist to hips in belly dancing means clothes that reveal movement and give the correct sense of body proportions. A leotard, tights and tracksuit trousers folded down to the hips or long scarf or heavy belt are worn by beginners. At a certain standard, the teacher may suggest you make your own costume of panelled skirt, weighted coin belt. Belly dancing is done barefoot. Many studios have showers and sometimes saunas, so remember to take toiletries and a towel. Wrap up well afterwards - keeping warm can mean fewer over-stretched muscles and aching joints"

"The Times | April 20, 1976

Dance record: (photo) Soraya, a Turkish belly dancer, who yesterday broke a world record and won £5,000 by dancing for 31 hours. The money was given by Mr Joseph Mourat, owner of the restaurant in London where she dances. The previous official record was six hours"

"The Times | June 10, 1976

Briton with ‘bribery’ evidence is robbed.

From Sue Masterman The Hague, June 9 A British zoologist, Mr Tom Ravensdale, yesterday was robbed of his briefcase by a hit-and-run driver shortly before he was to have had an interview with the commission appointed by the Dutch Government to investigaite allegations that Prince Bernhard had taken bribes from the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Mr Ravensdale, aged 39, who is married to Soraya, the belly dancer, is in hospital in The Hague with severe concussion. He approached a Dutch MP two weeks ago with evidence which he said would interest the commission. Mr Ravensdale was a former public relations officer of the British branch of the World Wildlife Fund. The robbery happened when Mr Ravensdale and his son, Mr John Christopher Jackson, aged 20 were wallking through The Hague early this morning. A car ran down Mr Ravensdale and a tall man leapt out of it, picked up Mr Ravensdale's briefcase and ran back to the car. Mr Jackson told the, police that he did not know what his father's briefcase contained, but he assumed that it was tapes and documents. Mr Jackson was the only witness to the incident and the Dutch police are treating the whole affair as a case of robbery with violence"

I wonder if the last two events were related?!

Suheir

From December 20, 1969, a review of several vintage department store catalogues which had been reissued in facsimile.

"For social historians, of course, here's gold for the taking and guessing. Why had Sears, Roebuck in 1908 almost suppressed the sale of foodstuffs? Had rural distribution improved and/or had frequent shopping for perishables become an essential part of social life? Do you want to know exactly what people were wearing from top to toe, from skin to pelt? Or just when they were playing and singing, say the "Midway Danse Du Ventre", "Under The Bamboo Tree" , "For Propriety's Sake" and "Reponse a Une Amoureuse"?"

So, "The Midway Danse Du Ventre" must have been best-selling sheet music in 1908. Was this Sol Bloom's tune, I wonder?

From June 25 1920 we have a review of the play "The Garden Of Allah" in Drury Lane, London:

"Obviously Mr Hichens need not have placed his story of the monk and the lady in the Garden of Allah. It might have happened in Hatton-garden. But he did choose to place it in North Africa and the Saharan desert, and probably divined Drury Lane and Mr Arthur Collins in the sand there..."each scene is an absolute reproduction of the locality in which the action takes place" - and we can easily believe this about the "Street Of The Ouled Nails" which not even Mr Collins could have invented "out of his own head", and is a street scene, that is for itself alone, worth going to Drury Lane to see. The Arab costumes, the Arab music, the danse du ventre , the blue of the sky, the yellow of the sand, the unconcerned camels and rather frightened goats combine so faithfully to reproduce the real atmosphere that you can almost smell it"

Hmm. I'm not convinced I want to smell frightened goats...

Suheir

The Times, October 5th 1893 has a review entitled "The World's Columbian Fair (from our Philadelphia correspondent) Chicago, Sept. 11". The whole review is a couple of columns but here's the relevant section:

"The place that attracts the greatest crowds and excites most comment, however, is the "Midway Plaisance", where all kinds of shows are gathered together, to which admission is had for fees, and a crowd constantly throngs it all day and until late at night. This is a long strip of land extending west from the ground and covering 80 acres. Here is the "Irish Village", which is sought by many who get in for a shilling...The "International Beauty Show" on the "Midway" gives the costumes of all nations attractively displayed by girls of the different races. There is a South Sea Islands Village, a Java Village, and a Japanese bazaar. There is also a very fine German village, which gives a display of great interest showing the ethnographic development of the country.

A Turkish village, which has a theatre with Oriental exhibitions that have had to be toned down, draws large crowds. The "Street In Cairo" is exhibited, and also a Pompeii view and a Persian palace, with dancing girls whose performances have been much criticized. A Moorish palace, a model of the Eiffel Tower, another of St Peter's at Rome, and an "Artificial Ice Railway" are close neighbours, thousands taking sleigh and sledge rides on this icy road produced by refrigerating machinery. The Hawaiian volcano of Kilauea is on exhibition in miniature, with its burning crater and sea of fire. The "Old Vienna Village" is popular, and the Algerian and Tunisian village and East India bazaar are in close communion..."

It goes on to describe the Wild West Show and the Ferris Wheel.

I seem to remember Sol Bloom being quoted about the Algerian dancers, yet this review states that the dancing girls of the Persian palace have been "much criticized" and "Turkish village, which has a theatre with Oriental exhibitions that have had to be toned down, draws large crowds".

Suheir

There's no stopping me now!

New York Times, March 10 1894:

"Attractions Of The Midway Plaisance

The reproduction of "The Midway Plaisance" in Madison Square Garden is attracting much attention from the people of this city and from strangers in town. Crowds wander through the villages and theatres and streets of Cairo, looking at the sights which were presented at the World's Fair last Summer. Every performance is introduced by Oriental dances by Fatima and Alima. Grimaldi, the fire eater, is seen munching pieces of red hot iron, while the Ali brothers, the acrobats, perform wonderful feats, and the whirling dervish spins round for twenty minutes. The extraordinary tricks performed by the fakirs in the Hindu temple delight the young and old. In the Chinese theatre jugglers give interesting performances on a wire rope and in necromancy. The representations and scenes from the Occidental world are not the least interesting"

So, there was a Fatima, but in the reproduction of the Midway Plaisance in Madison Square Gardens. Intruiging!

Suheir

An extract from another New York Times article from June 19, 1893:

"Wonderful Place For Fun - What The Money Catchers Offer In Midway Plaisance

Chicago, June 18...There is what is called a Persian theatre, of which the illusion is disturbed by a sign in the lobby that reads "Persian Restaurant: Homemade Pies"; there is a Tunisian cafe chantant ; there is a Turkish theatre; there is an Algerian theatre; there is a room furnished from an old palace in Damascus, an a very interesting room it is, with a family of Syrians shown in connection with it; there is a street in Cairo reproduced with great accuracy, and an Egyptian theatre thereto, and a Chinese theatre...the full orchestra of the Mohammedan countries seems to be in all cases virtually the same, a big mandolin, a big zither of curious construction, played with the fingers; a tambourine, an hour-glass shaped drum beaten by the fingers of a houri; and the common European fiddle, held like a violoncello, and played like the double bass.

The music it makes is noteworthy mainly for the fidelity with which what of it is worth catching has been caught by such of the German composers have found it worth while to consider it. The Algerian orchestra, however, is noteworthy for a unique and infernal contrivance in the "wood wind" department, which actually adds new terrors to the bagpipe...As to the curious Mohammedan "theatres", they are for the most part merely dancing places, and from them a New-Yorker will conclude that "the Orient" may be fairly well translated as "the east side". An exception ought to be made in favor of the Syrian dance, which is decent and not ungraceful, and of the Soudanese dancing, which is not dancing at all.

The dancing in the Turkish theatre comes at the end of a very well-arranged pantomime called "The Kurdish Drama", and exhibiting the life of the nomads of Western Asia, and is a series of dances that are evidently national and highly characteristic. They are really worth seeing, especially the Thessalonian dance, in which a young lady in a balloon skirt revolves with bewildering rapidity and a still more bewildering endurance, as if she were a top. Carlyle could not have made here the same explanation that he made for leaving the ballet at the opera, because he "hadn't the heart to stop and see a woman with an immortal soul making a Manx penny of herself". The conventions of Oriental dancing costume prevent that, and as an exhibition of suppleness and endurance, the dance justifies the boast of the showman that "she could keep it up for an hour", an unconscious parody of the immortal Mme Cardinal's declaration that her daughter lived on tiptoe.

Of all the Oriental dancing, however, this is the only one that is worth seeing. The Algerian ballet is a dismal ordeal. An enormously fat ex-pride of the harem, assisted by the guardians of the same, twangs the African mandolin while one houri who has really earned her retirement, waddles ridiculously around. The dancing at the Egyptian theatre is not describable except by saying that it is disgracefully indecent. It is certain that it would not be tolerated anywhere in the United States outside of the Midway Plaisance, and there is no reason why it should be tolerated there. The concession, at least, should be promptly withdrawn"

Blimey! Mizmar terror and indecent Egyptians!

Suheir

From a letter to the New York Times, July 2, 1893:

"NO EXTORTION AT THE FAIR. It Costs to Do Midway Plaisance, but that Is a "Side Show."

...If one wishes to spend the money, I should most certainly advise seeing the Midway Plaisance. It is money spent with much satisfaction, for one is not only enabled to see how the Laplanders and Esquimaux live, to witness the "danse du ventre" of the Persians, but one also gets a good idea of the habits, customs and amusements of most of the savage trives, even those of the South Sea Islands..."

Caroline_afifi

WOW... that is all I can say!

Shanazel

Yeah, wow. This is all fascinating.

Suheir

"The Prince Of Wales In Egypt

Cairo, Oct 28th

The readers of The Times have already received by telegraph a general idea of the Royal doings in Egypt, but as further detail may still be interesting, I send the result of my diary during the Prince's visit here...the Prince had already made the ascent [of the Great Pyramid] and this time he contented himself with strolling about the Pyramids and visiting the Sphinx and the tombs. Mustapha Pasha and Seffer Pasha, two high officials of the Khedive, were in attendance, and among other things, had prepared an Arab dance for his Royal Highness. The dance of the Ghawazee, who correspond to the Indian dancing girls known as Nautch girls, is much esteemed by native Egyptians. It is the opera of the true Oriental, who lies on his cushion and follows every motion, as the tale of Eastern love the dance usually represents is gradually unfolded. But the sight to Western eyes, though curious as an old national custom, was neither beautiful nor pleasing, and the girls, dressed in loose Turkish dress, were neither pretty nor graceful"

Suheir

"Civil Service Clerks Serve As Waiters And Barmaids

A sample survey taken recently among more than 400 Civil Service clerical officers and assistants in London showed that nearly half of them were doing other jobs in their spare time. Many were spending their evenings as barmen, bar-maids, usherettes, waiters, and office cleaners. Some worked at night as Post Office telephonists. A number of young men travelled to Liverpool every weekend to work as football pool clerks. Others drove taxis, sold newspapers, worked on evening and weekend shifts in light engineering factories, delivered ice cream or acted as attendants at night clubs. One man was an assistant in a mortuary. A woman clerk at Ministry of Labour headquarters did so well as a belly dancer in a night club that she left to make a full-time career of it"