Oriental dance

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Oriental dancer

Oriental dance , popularly known as belly dancing , is a mostly of women in special costumes for oriental music executed dance .

In the Arab world , the dance Raqs Sharqi  /رقص شرقي / raqṣ called šarqī . Due to the literal translation of “dance of the east”, the German term “oriental dance” is correct, but does not refer to the entirety of all oriental folklore dances , but only to the Egyptian solo dance .

history

Jean-Léon Gérôme - The Dance of the Almeh (1863)

Oriental dance refers to a dance form that originated in Egypt and describes the female solo dance there. Anthony Shay contradicts this . On the basis of a wealth of literature references, Shay comes to the conclusion that oriental dance "is danced by everyone in a wide variety of performances: by amateurs and professional dancers, by boys and girls, by women and men". However, this tradition expired in large cities such as Cairo and Bukhara after the First World War.

In Egypt, dance has always had a high priority on all festive occasions. Strangers and travelers have been fascinated by this dance for centuries and reported about it in their letters, travelogues and books. Since the colonization of Egypt and with increasing technical progress and cultural exchange, the dance also spread abroad. Today it can be found in Europe, Australia, Scandinavia, Japan and the USA as well as in Egypt. Some representatives adhere closely to the Egyptian tradition, others have incorporated influences from other dance styles and musical genres. There is now a controversial argument about what the “real” Egyptian dance is; different schools and styles emerged.

At the time of the world exhibition in Chicago (USA) around 1893, the Syrian dancer Fahreda Mazar Spyropoulos with the stage name Little Egypt performed oriental dances in front of an international audience for the first time. At this time, towards the end of the 19th century, showing a bare belly as well as showing a foot or uncovered hands and arms was socially sanctioned. The dances of Little Egypt, which later appeared in burlesque performances in the USA , were a sensation despite or perhaps because of the display of normally covered body parts. Officially, only indignant attention was paid to the dance and the dancer, but her name and some photos of various dancers who also called themselves Little Egypt are known to this day.

With the development of oriental dance into show and stage dance, which exists alongside traditional forms, elements from classical ballet were integrated. This expanded the spectrum of the dance and, above all, allowed more expansive movements that use the stage, and led to more elegance and lightness. At the same time the dance loses part of its erotic charisma.

The oriental dance is considered to be the origin of striptease and burlesque , its movements lend themselves to erotic performances. It also includes the exhibitionistic aspect of dance. In the United States in the late 19th century from the belly dancing was derived Hoochie Coochie the immediate precursor of the striptease. In this context stands the revival of belly dancing during the sexual liberation movement in the 1970s.

The term "belly dance"

The name "belly dance" probably comes from the French name Danse du ventre ("belly dance"). In their novels, the French writers Émile Zola and Gustave Flaubert called oriental dance the Danse du ventre . Gustave Flaubert describes in his travelogue Reise in den Orient also oriental dancers whom he has seen on his travels. It is also conceivable that the name “Raqs Balady”, translated “dance of the people” (locals in Egypt), led to the English name “Bellydance”.

Franz von Stuck - Salome (1906) (The painting probably shows the dancer Saharet )

"Belly dance" is the slang term for oriental dance. The term "belly dance" reduces the diversity of oriental dance and the skills of the dancers to the stomach, hips or buttocks. As with all dances, arms, legs, hands, feet, shoulders and head are of course moved.

Dance in the harem by Giulio Rosati

The widespread idea that belly dancing was used in the past as a coitus animation for sultans or as a seduction trick stems from pompous harem fantasies and is one of the many legends that have grown up around belly dancing.

The following gladly told stories contributed to the formation of further legends about belly dancing:

  • that Salome was the first oriental veil dancer in the Bible.
  • that the Queen of Sheba performed a belly dance in front of King Solomon.
  • that Cleopatra VII seduced Julius Caesar with an oriental belly dance.
  • that belly dancing was invented in the harem.

However, none of this can be proven by ancient sources.

Essential components

Movements and approaches to movement

According to the movement approach (e.g. muscles of the pelvis or rather of the legs) styles can be differentiated. In the typical Egyptian solo dance, the movement is taken from the middle of the body and often returns to it energetically. With a more westerly orientation, the movements usually come from the legs, are quite large and are seldom stopped by the muscles. There are soft, snake-like movements that are danced to the melody, and harder, rhythmic movements. Basically, it is a dance style with isolated movements of the individual body regions.

Above all in the shimmy , the rhythmic, isolated trembling of the hips or other body parts, the skillful isolation of the dancer can be seen very clearly. The shimmy can be shown in different intensities, the dancer can dance (i.e. the shimmy is placed over the larger dance movement) or tries to balance a shamadan or saber on her head as calmly as possible. The better the isolation is trained during shimmy, the more movement-free the dance accessory is balanced. As a side effect of the shimmy, the decorations attached to the belly dance costume (especially on the hips and top) are set in motion (with metal decorations also made to sound). You need a lot of body control to be able to show the Shimmy technically flawlessly.

A lot of hand and arm movements are used, especially in the western style. The traditional oriental style, on the other hand, sees the arms and hands as framing the dancing body. The movements can be roughly divided so that the feet follow the basic rhythm, the pelvis of the tabla / darbuka and the entire body reflects the melody. In Arabic dance, knowledge of the text is essential because a dancer has to interpret it, i. H. the body language ( gestures as well as facial expressions ) and the text must be consistent. In contrast to the Egyptian dance scene, instrumental dance pieces are preferred in Turkey .

Belly dance is mostly perceived as a typically female dance that expresses the emotional world and strength of women. Especially in Egypt, women over 40 are very popular belly dancers, such as Suhair Zaki , Fifi Abdou , Lucy and Dina . This is also due to the fact that a good dancer must have life experience and many years of stage experience.

The belly dance costume

Dancer in a typical costume
Dancer with a green veil

The typical belly dance costume was created around the 1920s in cabarets in Algiers , Beirut and Cairo . Mainly in the cabarets of Cairo, the Arabic belly dance was developed in its present form and performed as an entertainment dance.

A typical Raqs-Sharqi costume consists e.g. B. from a sequined bra -like top, a likewise sequined belt (together with the top called Bedleh ) and a skirt. The traditional costume or folkloric clothing uses coins as decoration and at the same time as an investment (see also Ouled Nail ). The oriental dance costumes have changed over and over again due to fashion trends. They were more or less revealing, had wide or tight skirts, shorts or trousers. A veil or cape can be used as an accessory for a classic solo. In classical oriental dance, the veil is an intro accessory and is placed on the stage by the dancer after the entrance part of the music.

Fine veils, sabers or candle trays are used as dance accessories. Dances with such elements are sometimes referred to as fantasy , as many accessories were introduced into exotic dance by American and European dancers of the 19th century (e.g. Ruth St. Denis ) and only very distantly related to the original dances of the Orient are. The typical veil dances of Salome or dances of veil dance groups are also not a classical oriental dance. The veil is only danced continuously in the Fantasy category. For more information, see veil dance .

In addition to the classic belly dance costume, special dresses or costumes are worn for the folkloric oriental dances and styles in the Arab world (e.g. Hagalla, Iskanderani, Saidi) that are not subject to such clearly recognizable fashion trends as e.g. B. the Sharqi costumes.

Even with the oriental dances of the western world (e.g. American Belly Dance) one wears different clothes than in the "classical show", e.g. B. Saber dance or tribal style dancing.

Oriental dance styles

Tribal style fusion dance group

Fantasy

These dances were conceived according to old pictures and stories, without any real historical basis for the dance forms and steps.

Historical dance

Fashion dances

Dances like Samba Oriental , Oriental Techno or Oriental Pop are dances that have taken over elements from Oriental dance, but belong to the modern fashion and party dances or to the dance sport and the dances of youth culture. The clothing, the variety of movements and also the music can be freely selected and processed. The best-known trendsetter of the "oriental pop wave", who incorporated many typical belly dance movements into her choreographies, video clips and live performances, is the Colombian singer Shakira . Beyoncé Knowles , Britney Spears , Christina Aguilera and Cher also showed and still show many typical movements and dance combinations from oriental dance.

Oriental dance today

The evolution of the Cairo style

The Arabic Raqs Sharqi was developed and performed in its basic form and form in the cabaret scene in Cairo . This cabaret style was mainly spread through the Egyptian film industry. Egypt has a strong film industry to this day, and film production and performances boomed between 1920 and 1950. Since admission to a film cost little and distracted from the dreary everyday life, the dance styles shown in the films quickly established themselves and were further developed in the cabarets and nightclubs. Even television, which still likes to show old films to this day, and which is switched on around the clock in Egypt, has since its establishment helped to keep the great dancers of early Egyptian cinema in mind.

Well-known and famous dancers of the Cairo style , also outside of Egypt, are u. a. Samia Gamal , Tahia Carioca , Naima Akef and later Nagua Fouad . Suher Zaki and Fifi Abdo also set high standards in oriental dance, which are not only used and imitated in the Arab world.

In Egypt and the Arab world, especially from around 1980 until today, dance has the status of an upscale entertainment art.

Oriental dance outside the Arab world

Belly dance, as it is known today in the western world, is a special form of oriental dance. Belly dance is also widespread in Turkey , Greece and generally in the Balkans . In Greece and the Balkans it is danced primarily as a ballroom dance and is rarely performed.

The Turkish belly dance is called Göbek Dansı (Göbek; Turkish belly) or Oryantal Dans, the Greek Tsifteteli . These two forms know fewer movements than the Arabic belly dance, and the music for them is rhythmically mostly uniform, in contrast to the Arabic belly dance music, which has a large variety of rhythms in a single piece.

With the first appearance of oriental dance in the United States over forty years ago, the exotic dance became a mainstream movement. With the hippie era, the discovery of Far Eastern philosophies and alternative life models, oriental dance was rediscovered in the USA. In the course of time an independent style was developed, the American Cabaret Bellydance (also called AmCab) or "American Bellydance", which differs from the classical oriental dance. This development of an independent style promoted the creativity and self-confidence of American dancers to bring in their own fusions and movements without having to deal with authenticity problems.

Well-known contemporary American dancers (this list is by no means exhaustive) are: Suhaila Salimpour , Ansuya , Dalilah, Cassandra , Dalia Carella , Suzanna Del Vecchio , Morocco , Latifa and Helena Vlahos , who rolled coins on theirs on American television in the 1970s Made belly dance.

The term modern Egyptian dance refers to the further development of traditional Egyptian dance movements. In order to further develop traditional Egyptian dance, new elements (movements and combinations) have been introduced into the belly dance by Egyptian dancers for several years. For better differentiation and naming, these newer movement elements are often named after the individual dancers who showed and disseminated these movements.

According to conservative advocates of the pure Egyptian style, another development in the form of so-called “western alienation” of Egyptian dance takes place daily in Europe and the USA. These new elements, movements and processes are usually not named after their creators or are only disseminated within the framework of regional activities by the dancers themselves. The term modern Egyptian dance is also often used to denote a simplified Raqs Sharqi for modern pop music. In Egypt in particular, such developments are perceived as alienation and are hardly noticed, or rather with amusement.

To date, numerous very good and well-known dancers have developed out of the conservative shadow of the pure Egyptian style. Through their work with belly dancing, many dancers have now earned a respectable reputation in Germany, Europe and on an international level. The international dance festivals in Egypt, the USA and Europe are still used as a platform for a worldwide exchange of dance and experiences.

Zadiel Sasmaz Male belly dancer

In the western world, oriental dance is being changed a lot, which de-sexualises it. The frequent emphasis on technical training also contributes to this.

Belly dance ban

Belly dance performances are and were repeatedly affected by bans or restrictions in different countries at different times, such as B. in the Ottoman Empire . Above all in countries with a strictly religious government or countries whose religious leaders are very critical of the display of undisguised, especially female body parts, belly dance is repeatedly the focus of numerous debates. Therefore, dance is also used as an opportunity to mark the moral decline of a society and thus to brand the dance as well as its performers as morally reprehensible. As a reaction, forms emerged in which men or boys danced instead of women, e.g. B. Köcek .

In Egypt, a one-year performance ban for non-Egyptian dancers was issued, which was in force until September 2004. The Minister of Culture of the Palestinian Territories, Attallah Abu al-Sibbah , reportedly indicated in 2006 that he was planning to ban belly dancing altogether.

Belly dance in popular culture

Although belly dancing is often smiled at and not seen as a real dance art, there are very many artists, dancers, musicians and singers who work with oriental music and the oriental dance movements. Belly dancing has a great influence on music and film in particular.

Belly dancing in music productions

  • In the video clip for Madonna's song Frozen , the American singer not only has the typical henna paintings on her hands, her hand and arm movements also show clear oriental features (or tribal style dance ).
  • In the video clip for the song I'm a Slave 4 U , Britney Spears shows typical belly dance movements.
  • The American singer Beyoncé shows typical belly dance movements in her video clip Baby Boy .
  • In the song by the American rapper Eminem Ass Like That , the first verse begins with the text: "The way she moves, she's like a belly dancer". The music for this song is also clearly orientalized.
  • The song Bananza by the American singer Akon contains the following text passage: “Don't be shy girl, go bananza. Shake your body like a belly dancer. "
  • The most famous singer who shows belly dance moves and also uses Arabic music in her productions is the Colombian singer Shakira . She showed her song Hips Don't Lie at the MTV Video Music Awards 2006 in New York , which was created in collaboration with Wyclef Jean . Her half-Lebanese ancestry is very evident in her dance and also in her choreographies.
  • In 2002, at the age of 56 , Cher decided to end her touring with one last farewell tour . This ended on April 30, 2005 after 325 shows around the world (5.880 million visitors) with a record income of around 400 million US dollars (323 million euros). During the concert, Cher disguised herself as an Oriental and rode on an art elephant on stage.
  • Christina Aguilera appeared in a commercial for a large American beverage company as a belly dancer and as an Indian dancer. In her hit Genie In A Bottle , which was released in 1999, she made reference to the television series Beaubergende Jeannie (in the original: “I dream of Jeannie”), in which an oriental genie with magical abilities plays the main role, and shows oriental dance movements in the accompanying video clip.

Belly dance in film productions

The list of these films does not claim to be exhaustive and is only intended to give a small overview of the many films that show belly dance, often even made famous by the appearance of a well-known actress in an oriental dance scene. Although belly dance is hardly noticed in the films, it often plays an important role in the plot (e.g. Wild Wild West), serves to intensify the feeling that the Orient is a different world, should the audience (and the protagonist ) literally seduce or is incorporated in a playful, comedic way. The films that deal with oriental themes and motifs begin very early in the cinema era, at the latest in 1917 with Cleopatra:

Organizations

The Federal Association for Oriental Dance has existed since 1994 , which has set itself the goal of maintaining and promoting oriental dance in Germany.

literature

  • Wendy Buonaventura: Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World . Interlink Publishing Group, 1998, ISBN 1-5665-6300-3 .
  • Karin Van Nieuwkerk: A Trade Like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt . University of Texas Press, 1995, ISBN 0-29278-723-5 .
  • Wendy Buonaventura: Belly Dance . Kunstmann Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-8889-7106-3 .
  • Dietlinde Bedauia Karkutli: The Belly Dance Book . Rowohlt 2002, ISBN 3-4996-1328-X .
  • Eluan Ghazal: The sacred dance. Oriental dance and sacred eroticism . Simon & Leutner, 2005, ISBN 3-92238-995-3 .
  • Eluan Ghazal: snake cult and temple love. Sacred eroticism in archaic societies . Simon + Leutner, 1995, ISBN 3-92238-963-5 .
  • Brygida M. Ochaim, Claudia Balk: Variety dancers around 1900. From sensual intoxication to modern dance, exhibition by the German Theater Museum in Munich, October 23, 1998– January 17, 1999. Stroemfeld, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-87877-745-0 .
  • Stephanie Mattes: Orient in Film. The history of belly dance from its beginnings to the present . Books on Demand GmbH, 2002, ISBN 3-83113-690-4 .
  • Monika Kaiblinger-Ickert , Ludmilla Schuhbauer: Belly dance harmony and sensuality . Blv Verlagsgesellschaft, 2005, ISBN 3-4051-6799-X .
  • Rosina-Fawzia Al- Rawi: The call of the grandmother. Or the doctrine of the wild belly . Promedia, Vienna, 1996, ISBN 3-85371-110-3 .

Web links

Commons : Raqs Sharqi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anthony Shay: The Male Dancer in the Middle East and Central Asia. In: Nima Kiann's Forum of Persian and Middle Eastern Dance.
  2. ↑ Ulrike Wohler: Oriental dance and cultural globalization. In: Female Exhibitionism: The Postmodern Image of Women in Art and Everyday Culture. transcript Verlag, 2009, ISBN 9783837613087 , pp. 121-122.
  3. ↑ Anthony Shay, Barbara Sellers-Young: Belly Dance: Orientalism: Exoticism: Self-Exoticism. In: Dance Research Journal, Volume 35, No. 1 (Summer 2003, pp. 13–37, here p. 14)
  4. ↑ Ulrike Wohler: Oriental dance and cultural globalization. In: Female Exhibitionism: The Postmodern Image of Women in Art and Everyday Culture . transcript Verlag, 2009, ISBN 9783837613087 , pp. 120ff: In a footnote it says: “The dancers of oriental dance vehemently deny that striptease originated from oriental dance. However, on the one hand, one cannot blame a dance genre if something new should emerge from its repertoire of movements, [...] on the other hand, however, it is precisely the movement spectrum of oriental dance that can be used for a performance of erotic undressing [...]. "(P. 121)
  5. ^ Anthony Shay: Ethno Identity Dance for Sex, Fun and Profit: Staging Popular Dances Around the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2016, pp. 66f
  6. ↑ Amira Jarmakani: Dancing the Hootchy Kootchy: The Bellydancer as the Embodiment of Socio-Cultural Tensions. In: The Arab Studies Journal, Volume 12/13, No. 2/1, Fall 2004 - Spring 2005, pp. 124-139, p. 127
  7. ↑ Ulrike Wohler: Oriental dance and cultural globalization. In: Female Exhibitionism: The Postmodern Image of Women in Art and Everyday Culture. transcript Verlag, 2009, ISBN 9783837613087 , p. 129
  8. ↑ Chris McGreal: Bellydancing out, cinema in, says Hamas. In: The Guardian, April 6, 2006