The story of Ishtar and
Tammouz (4,500 BC)
When Ishtar's husband,
Tammouz, died (to this very day, Tammouz means July in Arabic) and
returned to the world of darkness, the womb of the earth, Ishtar
decided to save him by craft and to bring back the light. She dressed
up in all her splendor, tied a girdle around her hips and donned seven
veils to enter the netherworld through seven gates. The goddes of love
danced seductively at each gate, each time leaving one veil to gain
entrance. At the seventh gate, she removed the last veil. During the
whole of her stay in the underworld, all life on earth stood still,
deprived of love, growth and celebration. Only when Ishtar returned,
fully veiled to shield her secret from human eyes, did life on earth
blossom again. her reunion with Tammouz was celebrated every year at
the beginning of spring and symbalized the reawakening of nature and
life.
Ishtar's dance of the seven
veils survived troughout history. It was
given several interpretations according to different social attitudes
towards women. Although we can only guess at ishtar's seduction dance,
her movements must have resembled those of bellydancing. The girdle or
scarf tied around the hips by every Middle Eastern dancing woman
reminds us of Ishtar's dance and transforms today's women into
interpreters of a culture long ago.
(Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi
"Bellydancing")
Belly dancing is most likely
the oldest dance still existing as an art
form today. It can be traced back to times when the moon was worshipped
as the life giving goddess, connected to all women because of it's
influence on
their fertility and menstrual
cycles. According to many historians,
women in those days used to gather especially during the time of the
full moon to worship their fertility through movements of their womb
and dance, which has always been the most potent form of ritual and
worship.
With the change of religion
from a female to a male dominated one, the
dance changed into an art mainly performed by women for kings and
pharaohs, but still for a long time was seen as a sacred feminine art
with magical powers of invocation. During the time of the pharaohs the
meaning of the dance began to split into worship and entertainment and
professional dancers enjoyed a high status in society.
With the arrival of
Christianity and the catholic church (which was the
major political power throughout the middle ages) this status began to
decline. Followers believed that humans are split into mind, body and
soul with the body being the seat of all evil and women (based on the
story of Eve and the snake) being the incarnated sinfulness, a
combination that soon lead to denial of all physical and sensual
pleasure.
Another influence began to
play a major part: A surplus of women in the
cities lead to many women turning towards becoming either a nun or more
often a prostitute as these were the only available alternatives
to marriage. This increased their “sinfulness” to a point were women in
general were so much feared by the catholic church that countless women
were tortured and killed. After the witchhunts all dancing (and often
singing) was prohibited by the church.
At the end of the middle ages,
when agriculture increased and the
population grew, a strong upper class was formed and chivalry was a
part of their ideology. Dancing returned in forms of very controlled
versions of courtship with movements more designed to show off an image
of beauty and chastity and with men and women touching their hands only
lightly through gloved hands. At this time it was only the gypsies
(roma) who had brought their old ways of dancing from India, changed
them and and kept them alive throughout their travels. In Egypt, those
gypsy dancers are called “ghawazee”, literally meaning “outsider” or
“intruder”. Some gypsy tribes, like the Ouled Nail from Algeria, became
very famous for their dancing, and earned almost all their living from
it, which highly increased the status of their women and made the birth
of a girl reason for great celebrations. As all gypies used to wear all
their worldly belongings on their bodies, successful dancers showed off
their status in the form of coins, heavy jewellery and rich
fabrics.
Some dancers were employed by
kings and wealthy members of high society
and were called “Awalim”. They performed the moves of the gypsy dancers
but were trained and educated to fit into their society. They were
taught certain manners, changed some of the moves and given costumes to
fit their employers’ taste and although they were able to lead a
wealthy life and were therefore given a high status in society, the
dance and the dancer became more or less the object of male
fascination. In many cases, especially during times of war, (like the
dancers of the Berber tribes in Algeria), women were made to dance
naked in front of the soldiers. As a result, many of the old original
dances have become rare or lost.
Soldiers and Travellers
brought the dance to the stages of Europe and
later to America.
Raks Baladi/Raks Sharki
In rural parts of Egypt a form
of belly dance is known as Raks Baladi
(meaning “native dance”). This folk dance is danced very commonly at
all celebrations. It’s moves are earthy and feminine and focus mainly
on hips while the upper body is hardly used.
Raqs Sharki (meaning “eastern
dance”) is the professional form of the
baladi. It uses the whole body and draws on other dancing traditions
like Indian, Persian, Turkish and sometimes western ballet. It is what
is known as classical arabic or oriental dance.
Oriental dance, middle eastern
dance, raks sharki, goddess dance or
womens dance are all names for the same dance.
The term "belly dance" has
probably appeared some time during the 19th
century and was created by western audiences. Although it is now the
term most commonly used by both audience and professional dancers, it
is neither really authentic nor is it technically a good description of
the dance. The moves, although emphasis is put on the hips, include all
parts of the body, arms, hands, fingers, head, chest, eyes, legs and
feet, mostly in a combination of isolation moves.
Belly Dance today
Since decades, Belly Dancing is celebrating a major comeback not only in the middle east but in every corner of the globe. Women of all cultures and background are discovering this ancient dance for it's natural beauty and suitability for the female anatomy.
This "globalisation" of Belly Dance has caused it to evolve into many
different and interesting styles, the most popular being Tribal style, Egyptian style (modern, classic and folkloric) and Turkish Rom, as well as fusions between any of those styles and other dance forms, like spanish, indian or persian dance, contemporary dance or hip hop and street dance.
TRIBAL BELLYDANCE
Fat Chance Belly Dance, a
dance group from San Francisco,was created in
1987 by Carolena Nericcio, who first developed and analyzed original
Tribal dance moves from tribes like the Ghawazee.
Carolina was a student of
Jamila Salimpour in Berkeley, CA.
Jamila was the first American woman to teach belly dance classes, (50's
and 60's), and her students began taking over the local Renaissance
Fair. So she organized it, brought in balancing acts and a mix of
musicians, created the costuming to make it look like a "tribe" with
different dance styles from different countries(in the Middle east),
and called them Bal Anat.
Carolina
Nericcio
created a style that became known as American Tribal Style (ATS), a
dance form based in middle eastern styles fused with flamenco and
indian dance. A
number of her students took this style and added their own touch by
using other dance/art forms like theatre and performance art (Ultra
Gypsies) or Yoga (Rachel Brice), etc. to create a new trend known as
Tribal Fusion Belly dance.
As in the original Ghawazee dresses, the costumes for those styles are
still often made by the dancer herself, consisting of coins, shells,
heavy fabrics and other natural and personal decoration.
EGYPTIAN BELLYDANCE (RAKS SHARKI)
During the 19th and 20th century professional dancers in Egypt were
classified mainly as either Ghawazee - Gypsy dancers - or Awalim, the
more educated women who were invited to perform in rich households and
courts. Their dance was performed mainly in it's traditional Egyptian
form - Baladi. Technically it developed as a solo dance, with the main
focus on performing for an audience. The costumes of those dancers were
more glamorous than those of the gypsies (Still today, the "pure"
Egyptian style favours more elegant, tight fitting and "glitzy"
costumes, often heavily beaded and very expensive.
“The dominant religion in the Middle East is Islam, and the pervasive
influence of the Muslim faith impacts upon all aspects of Middle
Eastern culture, including dance. To people who are not of Middle
Eastern descent, there is an apparent paradox in Middle Eastern dance:
although the dance is very sensual and includes dramatic hip movements,
chest lifts, and abdominal rolls, there is a great deal of modesty
required, particularly in Egyptian raqs sharki. ...The movements
of raqs sharki seem very small when compared to other styles because in
raqs sharki, the dancer is very inwardly-focused, and her movements are
very contained. Most importantly, in raqs sharki, the dancer's
legs stay together, and she does nothing to call attention to the area
between her legs." (Nisaa)
A
site with lots of
video clips to watch: http://www.amulya.info/bellydancenet/
TURKISH BELLYDANCE
Probably due to the larger Romani population in Turkey and their
influence in the dance, belly dance in turkey has a different flavour
to egyptian style. Although the basic moves are largely similar, they
are somehow more lively, more fiery, more energetic and playfule and
maybe less elegant. The main rhythms are Ciftitelli, which sounds a bit
similar to Maqsum and is used for slow and sensual moves and floorwork
and Kashlimar (or Karsilama) which is a very lively 9/8 rythm that
shows the strong inflluence of romani music and is danced with bold
moves, jumps "hitting" hand gestures and swinging skirts. Tambourines
are often used by the dancer.
Modern turkish style costuming also has a trend of relealing quite a
lot of skin which is not always seen as apropriate.
Ethnic Fusion Belly Dance
Middle
eastern dance, Indian dance,
spanish dance, turkish romani, african dance and others are explored in
there pure form as well as in fusions with each other to create unique
and exciting choreographies. Especially the dances of the gypsy trail
blend with each other perfectly through their connection with their
common source of indian dance (with rajasthan being the birth place of
the gypsy trail) that follows through persian dance, turkish dance,
egyptian, greek and Spanish Flamenco.
Belly dance for men:
