Belly dance in English speaking countries

Реферат по английскому языку

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«Belly dance in English speaking countries»

«Восточный танец в англо-говорящих странах»

Contents

I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………… 4

II. Main body

1. Eastern dance …………………………………………………………….. 5

2. Origins ……………………………………………………………………. 6

3. Costume …………………………………………………………………... 9

4. Techniques………………………………………………………………….10

             4.1. Raqs Sharqi……………………………………………………….10

             4.2. Egyptian-style……………………………………………………..11

             4.3. Mahmoud Reda………………………………………………...…11

             4.4. Turkish belly dance………………………………………………12

5. Belly dancing in the Western world…………………………………….......13

             5.1. United States………………………………………………………15

             5.2. Canada…………………………………………………………….17

             5.3. United Kingdom……………………………………………..........17

             5.4. Australia………………………………………………………..…17

6. Male belly dancing…………………………………………………………..18

7. Health and belly dancing…………………………………………………….21

8. Prohibition of belly dancing…………………………………………………22

9. Belly dancing in pop culture…………………………………………………22

III. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………23

IV. Bibliography………………………………………………………………..24

I. Introduction

The delicate world of the East has always attracted the inhabitants of Europe. To solve the secret of the East the Europeans had to come into close, contact with their culture and traditions. To study their ardent soul they have plunged into the world of their dances, where belly dance is on the 1st place. As I fond of  belly dance I have decided to learn something more about Belly dance in the Western world. I would like to get to know if such English speaking countries as the USA, Canada, Australia and UK can pretend to be the capital of the European belly dance and are there any specific features of this amazing dance in the countries what language, I am studying is spoken.  

II. Main body                                                                                                                                                                                  1. Eastern dance.

Belly dance is a Western name for an Arabic style. Some American devotees refer to it simply as "Middle Eastern Dance".  

In the Arabic language it is known as raqs sharqi رقص شرقي ("eastern dance") or sometimes raqs baladi رقص بلدي ("national" or "folk" dance). The term "raqs sharqi" may have originated in Egypt.

The term belly-dance is a creation of Orientalism, and is first attested in English in 1899, translating French danse du ventre.

The performance dance form known in the West as the belly dance is based on one of the oldest social dances in world history, native to North Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Much of the support for this theory stems from the similarities between poses in ancient Egyptian artwork and the modern dance.

In Palestine and Iraq, this social dance is called raks baladi, and is performed by people of all ages and both sexes during festive occasions, such as weddings, and other social gatherings for fun and celebration. It is the theatrical zed version, performed by both male and female professional dancers and called raks sharqi in Arabic that is most popular in America today.

In its native lands, boys and girls learn the dance from an early age. As with many social dances, it is learned informally through observation and imitation of their elders during family and community celebrations, as well as during informal gatherings with friends. Today, these ancient dances are taught in classes offered throughout the world, and skilled dancers are able to share their knowledge that has been passed down from the indigenous peoples who created them.

2. Origins

The exact origin of this dance form is actively debated among dance enthusiasts, especially given the limited academic research on the topic. Much of the research in this area has been done by dancers attempting to understand their dance's origins. However, the often overlooked fact that most dancing in the Middle East occurs in the social context rather than the more visible and glamorous context of the professional nightclub dancers, has led to an overall misunderstanding of the dance's true nature and has given rise to many conflicting theories about its origins. Because this dance is a fusion of many dance styles, it undoubtedly has many different origins – many of them in ethnic folk dances.

Many dancers subscribe to one or another of a number of theories regarding the origins of the form. Some of these theories are that the dance form:

        descended from Greece, spreading with Alexander the Great

        descended from indigenous dances of ancient Upper Egypt

        descended from a religious dance Temple Priestesses once practiced

        had been a part of traditional birthing practices in the region(s) of origin

        had spread from the migrations of the Romani people (also called "gypsies") and related groups, with origins in India.

Of the theories, the first explanation is rarely invoked, even with such high-status proponents as the Egyptian Dancer Doctor Mo Geddawi promoting it. The most well-known theory is that it descended from a religious dance. This idea is usually the one referred to in mainstream articles on the topic, and has enjoyed a large amount of publicity. 1960s American singer/dancer Jamila Salimpour was one proponent. It was also popularized in works such as Earth Dancing and Grandmother's Secrets.

The "birthing practices" theory covers a sub-set of dance movements in modern raqs sharqi. Strongly publicized by the research of the dancer/layperson anthropologist Morocco (also known as Carolina Varga Dinicu), it involves the rework of movements traditionally utilized to demonstrate or ease childbirth. Although lacking an "origin point", this theory does have the advantage of numerous oral historical references, and is backed by a commentary in the work The Dancer of Shamahka.

Two points suggest Roma dance as its origin. The Roma, and other related groups, are seen as either having brought the form over as they traveled, or picked it up along the way and spread it around. Thanks to the conflation of Roma forms of dance into the raqs sharqi sphere in the West, these theories enjoy a vogue in the West that is not necessarily reflected in their original countries – although some of that may be due to strongly-held prejudices against the Roma.

Wherever it began, the dance has a long history in African and the Middle East. Despite the restrictions in Islam regarding portraying humans in paintings, there are several depictions of dancers throughout the pre-Islamic and Islamic world. Books such as The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250 show images of dancers on palace walls, as do Persian miniature paintings from the 12th and 13th centuries.

Outside of the Middle East, raqs sharqi dancing was popularized during the Romantic movement in the 18th and 19th centuries as Orientalist artists depicted their interpretations of harem life in the Ottoman Empire. Around this time, dancers from different Middle Eastern countries began to exhibit such dances at various World's Fairs; they often drew crowds that rivaled the technological exhibits. Some dancers were captured on early film; the short film Fatima's Dance, was widely distributed in the nickelodeon movie theaters. It drew criticism for its "immodest" dancing, and was eventually censored due to public pressure.

Some Western women began to learn from and imitate the dances of the Middle East, which at this time was subject to colonization by European countries. Mata Hari exemplifies the issues surrounding these activities; despite posing as a Javanese dancer, her mystique is linked not to Indonesian dance but to the Middle Eastern dance forms. The French author Colette and many other music hall performers engaged in "oriental" dances, sometimes passing off their own interpretations as authentic folkloric styles. The great dancer Ruth St. Denis also engaged in Middle Eastern-inspired dancing, but her approach was to put "oriental" dancing on the stage in the context of ballet, her goal being to lift all dance to a respectable art form. (In the early 1900s, it was a common social assumption in America and Europe that dancers were women of loose morals.)

Fantasy-inspired non-historical Belly dancing costume, with coin bra, face veil, and beaded hip belt over skirt

Historically, most of the dances associated with belly dance were performed with the sexes separated; men with men and women with women. Few depictions of mixed dancing exist. This practice ensured that a "good" woman would not be seen dancing by anyone but her husband, her close family, or her female friends. Sometimes a professional dancer would go to a women's gathering with several musicians and get the women up and dancing. Today, sex segregation is not as strictly practiced in many urban areas, and sometimes both men and women would get up and dance socially among close friends in a mixed function. However, while social dancing during acceptable circumstances such as family functions is accepted and even encouraged, there are many people in Middle Eastern and North African societies who regard the performances of professional dancers in revealing costumes, for mixed audiences as morally objectionable. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that such performances should be banned.

3. Costume

Because the most popular venue for the dance remains night clubs, (as well as the proliferation of video and DVD recordings of popular Egyptian dance celebrities), it is this version, rather than the folk or social versions of the dance that is most popular. The costume now associated with this dance is called bedlah in Arabic (meaning "uniform") and was adopted by dancers in Egypt in the 1930s, from where it spread to other countries in the region. It owes its creation to the harem fantasy productions of vaudeville, burlesque and Hollywood during the turn of the last century, rather than to actual authentic Middle Eastern dress. An enterprising night club owner in Cairo named Badia Masabni is credited with adopting this costume due to the fact that this was the image that Western tourists came to expect, rather than the native costumes which covered and concealed the contours of the body, with only a scarf or belt tied around the hips to highlight the movements.

The mainstays of costuming for these styles include a fitted top or bra (usually with fringe of beads or coins), a fitted hip belt (again with a fringe of beads or coins), and leg coverings that include harem pants and/or skirts (straight, layered, circular, or paneled). In the U.S. a "veil" may also be used; this is a three-and-a-half to four-yard piece of fabric that is used in part of the dance to move about and frame movements for the dancer. In the 1940s King Farouk of Egypt employed Russian ballet instructor Ivanova to teach his daughters, and it was she who first taught the great dancer Samia Gamal to use the veil to improve her arm carriage. Most Egyptian dancers use the veil as an opening prop which they discard within the first few minutes of their routines, while many Western dancers will use the veil for an entire piece. In Egypt, night club dancers will also wear full beaded dresses, called baladi dresses, to do the folkloric routines. These types of outfits are also used by American and European dancers when performing folk dances such as the Cane Dance, or the Candelabra dance.

4. Techniques

Most of the basic steps and techniques used in belly dance are circular motions isolated in one part of the body; for example, a circle parallel to the floor isolated in the hips or shoulders. Accents using "pop and lock" where a dancer either shimmies or makes a striking motion in her shoulders or hips are common, as are feats of flexibility, rolling one's belly muscles, balancing various props like baskets, swords or canes, and dancing with chiffon or silk veils.

4.1. Raqs Sharqi

Raqs Sharqi belly dancing consists of movements that are initiated by the feet and executed throughout the body. The focus of the dance is the pelvic and hip area. It is, fundamentally, a solo improvisational dance with its own unique dance vocabulary that is fluidly integrated with the music’s rhythm.

Raqs Sharqi dancers internalize and express the emotions evoked by the music. Appropriately, the music is integral to the dance. The most admired Raqs Sharqi dancers are those who can best project their emotions through dance, even if their dance is made up of simple movements. The dancer’s goal is to visually communicate to the audience the emotion and rhythm of the music. This is especially apparent during the drum solo portion of a performance.

Many see Raqs Sharqi as a woman's dance, celebrating the sensuality and power of being a woman. A common school of thought believes that young dancers have limited life experience to use as a catalyst for dance. Sohair Zaki, Fifi Abdou, Lucy, Nagwa Fouad, and Dina are all popular Egyptian dancers above the age of forty.

Despite the fame of female dancers, men often perform Raqs Sharqi as well.

4.2. Egyptian-style

Egyptian-style belly dance is based on the work of belly dance legends Samia Gamal, Tahiya Karioka, Naima Akef, and other dancers who rose to fame during the golden years of the Egyptian film industry. Later dancers who based their styles partially on the dances of these artists are Sohair Zaki, Fifi Abdou, and Nagwa Fouad. All rose to fame between 1960 and 1980, are still popular today, and have nearly risen to the same level of stardom and influence on the style.

4.3. Mahmoud Reda

Though the basic movements of Raqs Sharqi have remained the same, the dance form continues to evolve. Mahmoud Reda is noted for incorporating elements of ballet into Raqs Sharqi and his influence can be seen in modern Egyptian dancers who stand on relevé as they turn or travel through their dance space in a circle or figure eight.

In Egypt, three main forms of the traditional dance are associated with belly dance: Baladi/Beledi, Sha'abi and Sharqi.

Egyptian belly dance was among the first styles to be witnessed by Westerners. During Napoleon's invasion of Egypt (the campaign which yielded the Rosetta stone, leading to the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics), Napoleon's troops encountered the Ghawazee tribe. The Ghawazee made their living as professional entertainers and musicians.

The most important non-Egyptian forms of belly dance are the Syrian/Lebanese and the Turkish. Turkish forms

Some mistakenly believe that Turkish oriental dancing is known as Ciftetelli  due to the fact that this style of music has been incorporated into oriental dancing by Greeks and Roma, illustrated by the fact that the Greek belly dance is called Tsifteteli. However, Turkish Çiftetelli is more correctly a form of wedding folk music, the part that makes up the lively part of the dance at the wedding and is not connected with oriental dancing.

4.4. Turkish belly dance

Turkish belly dance today may have been influenced by Roma people as much as by the Egyptian and Syrian/Lebanese forms, having developed from the Ottoman rakkas to the oriental dance known worldwide today. As Turkish law does not impose restrictions on Turkish dancers' movements and costuming as in Egypt, Turkish dancers are often more outwardly expressive than their Egyptian sisters. Many professional dancers and musicians in Turkey continue to be of Romani heritage as well. (However, it should be noted that people of Turkish Romani heritage also have a distinct dance style which is uniquely different from the Turkish Oriental style.) Turkish dancers are known for their energetic, athletic (even gymnastic) style, and particularly, until the past few years, their adept use of finger cymbals, also known as zils. Connoisseurs of Turkish dance often say that a dancer who cannot play the zils is not an accomplished dancer. Another distinguishing element of the Turkish style is the use of the Karsilama rhythm in a 9/8 time signature, counted as 12-34-56-789. Turkish belly dance costumes can be very revealing, with the belt sometimes worn high up on the waist and split skirts which expose the entire leg, although dancers today are costuming themselves more like Egyptian dancers and wearing more modest "mermaid"-style skirts. The Turkish style is emphasized further by the dancer wearing high heels and often platform shoes. Famous Turkish belly dancers include Tulay Karaca, Nesrin Topkapi and Birgul Berai.

When immigrants from Turkey, Iran, and the Arab states began to immigrate to New York in the 1930s and 1940s, dancers started to perform a mixture of these styles in the nightclubs and restaurants. Often called "Classic Cabaret" or "American Cabaret" belly dance, these dancers are the grandmothers and great-grandmothers of some of today's most accomplished performers, such as Anahid Sofian and Artemis Mourat.

5. Belly dancing in the Western world

The term "belly dancing" (believed by some to be a mis-transliteration of the term for the dance style Beledi or Baladi) is generally credited to Sol Bloom, entertainment director of the 1893 World's Fair, the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Although there were dancers of this type present at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia, it was not until the 1893 fair that it gained national attention. There were authentic dancers from several Middle Eastern and North African countries, including Syria, Turkey and Algeria, but it was the dancers in the Egyptian Theater of the Street in Cairo exhibit who gained the most notoriety. The rapid hip movements and the fact that the dancers were uncorseted, was considered shocking to the Victorian sensibilities of the day. In fact, there were attempts by many, most notably Anthony Comstock, head of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, to have the Egyptian theater closed.

Although it is popularly believed that a dancer named "Fatima", also known as Little Egypt, stole the show, and continued to popularize this form of dancing, there is in fact no evidence to support this claim, (Donna Carlton: Looking for Little Egypt). Neither photographs, nor reviews of the Egyptian Theater mention any such person. The truth is that photographs as well as accounts of the entertainments show that there was not one solo dancer, but an entire troupe who performed in the Egyptian Theater. The popularity of these dancers spawned dozens of imitators after the Fair, many of whom claimed to have been dancers at the Chicago Fair. The most well known being Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, who it was said stayed in the States after the Fair and married a Greek man, named Spyropoulos. Oddly enough she was neither Egyptian nor Algerian, but Syrian. Although she was Middle Eastern, there is no evidence that she was one of the dancers in the Egyptian theater.

The dance performed by the many dancers calling themselves "Little Egypt" was nicknamed the "Hootchy-Kootchy" or "Hoochee-Coochee", or the shimmy and shake. Due to cultural misunderstanding about the nature of the dance and misrepresentations by the many imitators in Burlesque halls and carnival sideshows. Another name for the dance is "danse du ventre", which in French literally means "dance of the stomach."

Because this dance style created such a craze, Thomas Edison made several films of dancers in the 1890s. Included in these are the Turkish dance, Ella Lola, 1898 and Crissie Sheridan in 1897 both available for on-line viewing through the Library of Congress. Another in this collection is Princess Rajah dance from 1904 which features a dancer playing Zils (finger cymbals), doing "floor work", and balancing a chair in her teeth.

In addition, the sensational stories about the pseudo-Javanese dancer Mata Hari, who was convicted in 1917 by the French for being a German spy during World War I, and the fact that belly dancing could be seen only at vaudeville and in burlesque shows gave belly dancing a questionable reputation in polite society. Hollywood did not help the reputation by only having three roles for a belly dancer (those of slave to be saved, a background dancer while the main characters talk, or a deceitful woman who uses her wiles to trick the main character), which created stereotypes of belly dancers that many dancers and instructors today are working hard to overcome. It is due to these stereotypes that many practitioners refer to the art as "Middle Eastern Dance".

While the beautiful classical Raqs Sharqi is still popular in the West, many dancers have created fusion forms such as Tribal Style and American Tribal Style inspired by the folkloric dance styles of India, the Middle East and North Africa and even flamenco. Dancers in the United States, while respecting the origins of belly dance, are also exploring and creating within the dance form to address their own needs. Many women today in the U.S. and Europe approach belly dance as a tool for empowerment and strengthening of the body, mind, and spirit. Issues of body-image, self-esteem, healing from sexual violation, sisterhood, and self-authentication are regularly addressed in belly dance classes everywhere.

5.1. United States