” The dancer’s body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul.”

Isadora Duncan 

It came to me that this subject of the’ Language of Oriental Dance’ has, seemingly, many layers.

It is evident , from my own experience, and the years of witnessing and hearing about other women’s experience, that we unanimously agree that this dance is transformative. Regardless of our initial motive to learn to Belly Dance, the experience of the dance, the music and movement, the feminine quality, the fun and sisterhood…and the profound feeling of confidence ,clarity and connection with our spirit  that we each develop and experience is the  captivating gift we all share!

Just as Isadora Duncan, in the early 1900’s, created her own version of dance based on the themes of Greek Mythology, ‘Belly Dance’ in the Western world, particularly in America, has evolved it’s own mythology!

” Virtually alone, Isadora restored dance to a high place among the arts. Breaking with convention, Isadora traced the art of dance back to it’s roots as a sacred art.”

The restrictive and repressive era of Isadora was the catalyst for her to find a ‘template’ based on a cultural foundation to express her passion and spirit in a free and natural form of movement.

In the 60’s and 70’s in America women were also seeking ways to break free of convention. The ‘template’ of Oriental Dance which became labeled as ‘Belly Dance’ in the West provided not only the cultural foundation but the very essence of free and natural feminine movement!

Arabic music with it’s ‘Heartbeat’ rhythms, exciting, exotic sounds and melodies, along with the powerful movements of Oriental Dance, allowed the Western woman to enter an unfamiliar portal that opened the floodgates of creativity, personal power and freedom!

In the same way that Isadora ‘created’ a form of dance, based on what she imagined might have been in an ancient culture, we American dancers from the 70’s and beyond ‘created’ Belly Dance from what we only could imagine it to be…given our limited knowledge and exposure to the culture of it’s origins at that time.

Also, like Isadora, those of us that burned with the passion of our new found ‘freedom of expression and art’ sought to elevate ‘Belly Dance’ to a ‘high place among the arts’.

At the same time, in the land of it’s origins,the women of Oriental Dance were creating an equally powerful phenomenon within Middle Eastern Culture. The Oriental Dance Stars from Egypt and Lebanon,such as Najwa Fouad, Suhair Zake, Fifi Abdou, Mona El Said and Nadia Gamal, were actively evolving this Dance from it’s traditional origins, with the aid of the sweeping power of the film industry and tourism, to a popular and elevated stature on stage and silver screen!

It is interesting to note that although Oriental Dance and it’s Western forms of Belly Dance finds it’s expression as a Performance Art, at the same time, it is also, in both cultures, an experience of ‘Collective Joy!’ In the Middle East the women dance with and for each other in women’s parties,( Haflas) and gatherings just as Western women Dance together in classes, workshops and Haflas. In both instances this dance allows women to share sisterhood, joy and creativity in an environment that supports an experience of dance in freedom and abandon!

Here is a treasure from a Documentary of Moroccan Women Dancing in a Birth of a Child Celebration!

At the root of it all, the desire for individual and collective joy is the impetus to dance and to share our dancing with others. Whether we are alone on a stage or in a gathering, when the music calls, our soul responds and we call it ‘Dance’ !

Here is a wonderful video I just discovered that depicts the fun and pure joy that can emerge from even the most seemingly austere and grey surroundings! This is an ‘After New years’ gathering in Bulgaria…I believe this is actually called ‘Kucheck’ yet it seems to have Oriental Dance roots!

Cold weather…Hot Kucheck!
Read the rest of this entry »

What Language are YOU speaking?

If language is considered to be a system of communication ‘ using sounds, symbols and words to express a meaning, idea or thought’ then dance is a language.

 The language of Oriental Dance, is an expression of the feminine soul in movement to the music…That means ‘Your Soul’! That expression is as unique as your ‘voice’. 

In keeping with the metaphor of dance as language…..we can explore a subject that has come to the forefront of the “Belly Dance World’ in recent years! That is, dancing improvisation or with choreography!

First off, they are not mutually exclusive..there is certainly a place for both! The question that comes to mind is with respect to ‘ learning’ the dance through choreography with the exclusion of Improvisation!

It has come to my attention, through various sources lately, that women are being taught to dance perdominantly through choreography…this has created the ‘phenomonon’ that students can’t dance without a choreography!

This would be like, learning a language and only being able to speak words in sentences that communicate thoughts, expressions and ideas that come from someone else. You would not be able to communicate your own thoughts, expressions and ideas!

This dance comes from a culture that is ‘foreign’ to us, not only in language but in movement, musical tone and rhythm. In order to ‘learn’ this language of dance we must learn the basic vocabulary/movements, immerse ourselves in ‘hearing’ the spoken language/music and allow ourselves to experience the expression by speaking/dancing!  

The above elements of the dance are a ‘whole’ expression, they are not isolated parts. If your learning experience is simply a repitition of isolated movements that are then strung together into counted out phrases that are in sync with the music… forming a dance created by someone else… you will have learned ‘a dance’ but not ‘to dance’! 

It is like the difference between writing a poem and reciting someone else’s poem…..

Shall we ask ourselves the REAL question? What attracted us to Belly Dance and why did we want to learn it?

Was it to experience the Beauty, Joy, Excitement, and Power that we saw and felt when we watched an Oriental Dancer?

In order to have that experience, it is necessary to understand and ‘FEEL’ the music and movement.  How do we accomplish that? How do we make this dance our own original authentic art?

Since this subject of ‘How’ we learn and develop in Belly Dance is a ‘Core’ subject, I would like to spend some time in the next couple of blogs exploring it!

I would like to invite you to leave your comments and questions that arise from your own experience with respect to ‘Learning the Art of Belly Dance’!

” True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,                                                   As those move easiest who have learned to dance”  

                             Alexander Pope

And so Beautiful Dancers, I close with a video to inspire you, from a dancer that said in her own words, ” I have never choreographed anything in my life”… Read the rest of this entry »