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I was approached with an opportunity to discuss tribal style belly dance. I jumped at the chance.
I told them I wanted to hit on the subject of the stigma behind it. After we did 2 days of filming.
The two days were not the interveiw but filming of the performing. We schedule to do the interveiw
after the weekend. Then the day rolls around and I get an email that cancelled the interveiw. I later asked why.
The man I was interveiwing with very apologetically explained to me that he's new boss didn't know if they
should show the "belly dance" piece. He said she has never even seenany of the photage. But simple going off of the word
"Belly dance". He said he is still trying to work on her about it. But I am really pissed about this.
This is not the first time this has happened. I have heard talk of some tribal dancers wanting call "belly dance" "tribal fusion dance"
and leave out the "belly dance". What are the thoughts on this?
I told them I wanted to hit on the subject of the stigma behind it. After we did 2 days of filming.
The two days were not the interveiw but filming of the performing. We schedule to do the interveiw
after the weekend. Then the day rolls around and I get an email that cancelled the interveiw. I later asked why.
The man I was interveiwing with very apologetically explained to me that he's new boss didn't know if they
should show the "belly dance" piece. He said she has never even seenany of the photage. But simple going off of the word
"Belly dance". He said he is still trying to work on her about it. But I am really pissed about this.
This is not the first time this has happened. I have heard talk of some tribal dancers wanting call "belly dance" "tribal fusion dance"
and leave out the "belly dance". What are the thoughts on this?
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 6, 2009 - 2:52 AMNo one is ever going to get educated about what belly dance is if we stop calling it belly dance!
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 6, 2009 - 5:47 AMMan, I ran into that recently - asking if the local farmer's market would like our student troupe to perform.... she said "No thank you, this is a family venue."
I resisted the urge to reply "Well, this is a FAMILY dance!"
Alicia makes a good point. If we stop employing the use of the term 'belly dance', no one will ever understand the reality of the art form. I sincerely hope that this woman will reconsider. -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 6, 2009 - 6:31 AM'I resisted the urge to reply "Well, this is a FAMILY dance!" '
Goodness, why did you? People who not only misconstrue the dance but are rude about it as well need to be put into their place ASAP.
Keep the name as long as the dance that's being represented is indeed belly dance. Ironic that you were doing a piece on the stigma of belly dance, only to be stigmatized. Isn't there a way you can influence this broad to at least WATCH the tape? -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 6, 2009 - 8:43 AMDitto on the reply. You don't need to be nasty (not that you were going to), but I think the response above would have been absolutely warranted.
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 6, 2009 - 4:45 PMThere has been a lot of talk as to whether Tribal Fusion dance should even be called belly dance. Belly dance as the term has been used is Middle Eastern Dance where most tribal fusion is more modern and has more american and flamenco influences. So do we still use it. I don't have a problem with it since for me Tribal still has many of the music and style influences of ME dance but if I started calling it Tribal Fusion Dance I would then have to explain the belly dance influence anyway so why not keep it.
My teacher who teaches more traditional Middle Eastern styles uses belly dance because as she says "no one would come if she called it Middle Eastern Dance" You can't teach them if they don't come.
Belly dance is going to have a stigma until we change it, and that is going to take a while. Perhaps we should all arm ourselves with a videotape of a performance, or a brochure on belly dance history, give out tickets to your next performance if possible and ask them to see for themselves if it's right for their venue.
Imagine hoards of belly dancers carrying bags bulging with flyers and DVD's swarming the streets randomly attacking people with the truth!
sorry that made me smile a little bit before having to work on a paper.
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Wed, October 7, 2009 - 12:54 AMLOL...We could call it "operation belly drop". -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Wed, October 7, 2009 - 6:33 AM"Operation belly drop"
That's a great name for it! :D -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Wed, October 7, 2009 - 10:10 AMbtw, there is an organization who does try to promote cultural awareness about belly dance -- Public Urban Ritual Experiment or PURE: www.pureglobe.org/ If this is something you're truly interested in, I would encourage you to develop a PURE chapter in your town! :) -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Wed, October 7, 2009 - 1:18 PM
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Thu, October 8, 2009 - 6:51 AMBellatrix, awesome!! I'll check it out. Thanks! :) -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Fri, October 9, 2009 - 6:58 AMI am a high school teacher....imagine my fear of being "discovered" one day at a performance....It is the worst feeling to love what you do so much, and live in fear of getting in trouble for doing it. My principal knows, as do a few other teachers, parents and kids, but very few. I have an entire auditorium with a real stage, lights, seating, dressing rooms....and I can't use them....*sigh* -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Mon, October 12, 2009 - 5:47 PMThat's really sad, isn't it? Imagine what we could do for the young girls of this world, if we could only introduce them to belly dance while at such a volatile age...it would give them much more of a sense of self-worth...to be able to accept themselves for who they are and not be so stuck on body images...it's not like they'd have to wear the really revealing costumes, either...with so many different styles in costuming (as many as there are styles of the dance, really) we could actually start to change the world's image of us, along with changing young girl's lives. Geez, how cool would it be to have an elective belly dance class in our high schools?! *sigh* Alas, it will likely never be. :-(
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 13, 2009 - 7:11 AMI'm also a teacher, but I'm in elementary. Quite a few of my kids know that I bellydance and it's no big deal (I can still hold onto my authority by virtue of my greater height...lol). But, I agree, high school would be a much more eggshell thing.
I have made the decision to not perform in events in my school's area, however. Parents knowing that I bellydance is one thing, but seeing me out there with a bare belly doing undulations and omis is a whole other level of reality. It's a pretty conservative area, as well, so you never know when some wacko is going to kick off a new witch hunt. It's a little depressing sometimes! :-/ -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 27, 2009 - 5:30 PMI teach college, and I've performed here at our college. The idea of sharing that I do bellydance wasn't so much of an issue for me as the fact that I'm tattooed. My college is just south of gangstaville, and tattoos have a certain association. However, it was interesting for students to see me, the next morning, dressed in my Teecher Clothes, giving them a mid-term and a research paper assignment. I could sort of see them forced to weigh their assumptions and realize that tattoos are a personal choice that don't have to relegate someone to the ghetto. I was concerned about some of my more conservative middle eastern and Muslim students and how they would perceive the dance, but every one of them loved it and they were thrilled by the performance.
Yet... I haven't been asked to repeat the performance, and I do wonder if administration has quietly put the kabash on it to minimize focus on a) bare midriffs, b) tattoos, and c) tenured faculty with bare midriffs and tattoos. Dunno. Anyway, I'm planning on trying to bring the dance to the college and teach it as an academic subject. We'll see how far I get with that. -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Sun, November 1, 2009 - 9:28 PMSounds great, good luck!
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 13, 2009 - 1:05 PMThe more we appear to "hide" bellydance, the more people think there is a reason it should be hidden.
I know it is scary, but we need to be vocal with our love for bellydance. Prove there is no shame in it, and instead something to be proud of! -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 13, 2009 - 1:23 PMAmen.
One of my troupe members and one of my Level 3 students are both High School Teachers. The troupe member obviously performs, and the Level 3 lady doesn't perform ATS yet, but she does other styles. They are not afraid for the school or students to find out. It's not something that they flaunt because honestly, how much does any teacher go around broadcasting her home life? But they don't hide it.
If they were selling their bodies for drugs or pushing on the streets, then yeah.... maybe keep that a secret, but belly dancing? Come on.
There was a very weird article about belly dance on npr.org today. It's a topic which I request that Shay cover on her blog, 'Adventures of a Tribal Dancer' once she feels better..... I also wrote a short bit about it on my tribe.net blog....
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 13, 2009 - 1:51 PMWhich article? I heard a story on NPR this morning about a Chinese man who teaches belly dance. Is that the one you're referring to? -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 13, 2009 - 3:01 PMYes, this is the one, unfortunately.
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 13, 2009 - 6:31 PMThanks for your interest in my opinion on it, Carrie. Seems a topic for another thread, perhaps: bellydance in the media, or the lack thereof. But ultimately, this article is more about cultural norms being broken down in China than about the dancer themself. And the parts about the dancer are focused on his ego and business of selling whatever he is peddling at the time (now hula, too?), rather than on the dance itself. Seems the media still isn't ready to focus on the real story: the dance and the women it empowers! -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 13, 2009 - 8:08 PMthanks babay!
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Thu, October 15, 2009 - 6:33 AMI agree, although I remember when I was first starting out in bellydance (back then it wasn't all over the place like now), I was loathe to tell people because of the negative connotations I was sure they'd have.
I think I steeled myself to just get used to telling people over the course of time.
My opinion nowadays is there's no reason to be reticent about telling people, because it's so easy to point people in the mental direction you want them to go. You can reference the Shimmy TV show, the BDSS for theatre venues, numerous "how-to" DVDs in the library, etc. It's not like the only image people have of bellydancers is "oh, exotic strippers" or James Bond films!
Hiding things does tend to put the onus of "shamefulness" on it. Telling people about bellydancing is an opportunity to raise their consciousness & clue them in - instead of letting them continue to think the wrong way about it.
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Mon, October 26, 2009 - 8:43 PMI know what you mean. I'm a 4th grade teacher. It's a "joke" amongst my colleagues, but I don't think their is anything funny about it. The troupe I am in is actually doing a paid performance for one of my co-workers. Her birthday falls on Oct. 31. So, this will be the first time that I have ever performed for someone that I work with. There will be 2 other teachers there as well. I hate the stigma that's attached to belly dance. We shouldn't have to feel ashamed of what we do. -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Fri, October 30, 2009 - 4:10 AMI remember last year one of our troupe members wanted us to do a performance for her work X-mas party.
She wanted them to finally see what they are always talking about.
Then they turned us down saying peoples wives would be there and that would make them uncomfortable.
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 13, 2009 - 9:32 AMI just heard they are still going to go through with it....YAY!! I guess the man I'm working with on this pulled some magic :) -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Tue, October 13, 2009 - 9:49 AMAwesome! Let us know how it turns out. :) -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Wed, October 14, 2009 - 3:25 PMCool to hear Neophips. On a positive note, when my team at work were submitting their entry for 'Team of the Year' at a National Customer Service award event, they put down some peoples hobbies - gutiar teacher , guide leader, running for charity and they put 'and we bellydance too - oh yes we do!'
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Fri, October 23, 2009 - 1:00 AMHere it is. www.facebook.com/home.php#.../video.php
Some of it didn't come out the way I had meant for it to. Plus, I look like a deer caught in headlights. LOL
But I think for the purpose of introducing the military and their spouses the belly dance it worked good.
I tryied to fit alot into a very small amount of time. -
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Wed, October 28, 2009 - 11:47 PMGreat interview! I hope you don't mind my sharing it on fb? :)
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Fri, October 30, 2009 - 1:10 AMAwesome, awesome interview! You two rock!
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Re: the stigma of "belly dance"
Thu, November 19, 2009 - 3:31 PMi dont understand why people are so uh ill use SHY for lack of a better term about BD--lol no joke me, my grandma, and mom belly dance (to loose weight)...
i am actually thinking about part time teaching a class while full time i own my own massage business-
-www.massageluxe.com/franchis...ustry.htm
but yeah i think people get associate it with being a stripper or something. Well atleast my dad does :(
