ORIENTALiSH

Tahrir Square, January 25, 2012

2012-01-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

From "Gilded Serpent": Facing the Truth about Working in Cairo

2012-01-26T20:59:00.000-08:00

I love Egypt and Cairo. Like a good Orientalist, I'm always trying to figure out how I can get back. Still, this article, "Facing the Truth," by Leila of Cairo in Gilded Serpent Magazine is an interesting read. She takes aim at our belly dance communities' romanticized (aka Orientalist) view of working as a dancer in Egypt. Clearly embittered but dedicated to her career, Leila reports on the system of paying "impressarios" to get work, politics, sexual advances by night club managers, and the many dancers vying for few jobs. Some of these challenges exist in any city, of course. My biggest qualm is in regards to her complaint about policies that limit the number of foreign dancers in Cairo. I can understand why such policies exist but don't know enough about how they are enforced or controlled. When I was in Cairo in 2010, I got into a discussion with a very liberal minded Egyptian (Cairoenne) Egyptologist from AUC who was all for limiting the amount of work foreign archeologists and Egyptologists could do in Egypt. I tend to agree. But, as with all "policies," I'm certain enforcement turns ugly. Anyway, this article about dancing in Cairo before and after the January 2011 is an interesting inside view of one dancer's experience. Please read:
http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/2012/01/19/leila-farid-facing-truth-working-dancer-egypt/#axzz1kd793DHb

Elastics Training with Maureen Fleming

2012-01-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

Maureen Fleming and I with the Elastics

My trip to Oneonta to train with other students of Maureen Fleming was all I'd hoped it would be: seven hours of stretching and dancing and learning her slow movement technique. The first night (Thursday) included a five inch snow fall that turned the drive and their homestead outside of Oneonta even more silverier and pristine and silent than it naturally is. In between dance sessions, I worked furiously on my novel, inspired by the training in both body and mind, and stories told by Maureen, her husband, visual artist and dancer Chris Odo, and other participants (a ecologist/dog mama, a sailor, and a visual artist) in the workshop around the dinner table.

Dance studio at Pumpkin Hollow Dance Center

The Fleming Elastics technique is a developing project that uses resistance to go even deeper into the muscles than yoga and makes more clear to me, the quality of lightness and control that I see in Maureen's movement style. The day after I got back from this four day trip, I went to yoga class and found I'd advanced quite far in my regular practice after only three days of doing this work.

Fellow workshop partcipant, Shakti.

Writers on Belly Dance: Simone de Beauvoir (3)

2012-01-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

In the previous post, a Spanish dancer performs for Francoise (Simone de Beauvoir character), Pierre (Sarte), and Xaviere, a younger woman mired in angst:
"Francoise could not help taking a surreptitious glance at Xaviere: she gave a start of amazement. Xaviere was no longer watching, her head was lowered. in her right hand, she held a half-smoked cigarette, which she was slowly moving toward her left hand. Francoise barely suppressed a scream. The girl was pressing the lighted end against her skin, a bitter smile curling her lips. It was an intimate, solitary smile, like that of a half-wit; the voluptuous, tortured smile of a woman possessed of some secret pleasure. The sight of it was almost unbearable, it concealed something horrible.

"The dancer had finished her repertoire and was bowing amid applause. Paula had turned toward the table, and now gazed speechlessly with questioning eyes. Pierre had noticed Xaviere's performance some time before. Since no one thought fit to speak, Francoise held her tongue; an yet what was going on was intolerable. With her lips rounded coquettishly, Xaviere was gently blowing on the burnt skin which covered her wound. When she had blown away this little protective layer, she once more pressed the glowing end of her cigarette against the open wound. Francoise flinched. It was not only her flesh that rose up in revolt, but she felt herself attacked in a more profound and irreparable way, and to the very center of her being. Behind that maniacal grin, was a danger more positive than any she had ever imagined. Something was there that hungrily hugged itself, that unquestionably existed for its own sake."

From Chapter 4 of "She Came to Stay."

Dancing unveils the self. In the previous post, the dancer enacts the anguish of relationships and self pity, which overcomes Xaviere in this scene. The body, beauty, and the ephemeral qualities of dance and theater all conflict Francoise and Pierre, who are anxious and overwhelmed by the smallness of their art in the face of war. Enough of the soapbox. I loved reading these descriptions of dancers that had such consideration for the larger ideas the individual body can represent.

Writers on Belly Dance: Simone de Beauvoir (2)

2012-01-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

My last post on De Beauvoir's surprising references to belly dance in her first novel She Came to Stay ran back in November. The overall book considers the role of artists in the face of war (in de Beauvoir's case, Paris anticipating with dread the impending transformation of World War II). She asks where should the writer's or artist's loyalty fall? This, in addition to a complicated love triangle between Francoise and Pierre (based on de Beauvoir and Sartre) and the youthful and sultry Xaviere. Here, in Chapter 4, the three are at a club with a dancer named Paula. They all watch a dance show, a Spanish style dancer or gypsy (the stereotypical "other" that represents the viewer far more than the viewed) in a nightclub, that has a dramatic effect on Xaviere:

"A plump, mature woman, in Spanish costume, was moving toward the middle of the dance floor. Her perfectly round face, beneath the black hair, parted in the middle and surmounted by a comb as red as her shawl, suddenly lighted up. She smiled to everyone around her while the guitarist plucked out a few staccato notes on his instrument. He began to play. Slowly, the woman straightened her torso, and sloly her body began moving with the lightness of a child. The wide flowered skirt whirled about her muscular legs.

"How beautiful she's suddenly become," Francois said, turning to Xaviere.

Xaviere did not reply. In her enraptured contemplation, no one else existed. Her cheeks were flushed, her features were no longer under control and her eyes followed the movements of the dancer in dazed ecstasy.

Francoise emptied her glass. Although she knew that no one could ever be at one with Xaviere in any thought or action, it was hard, after the joy she had felt earlier at regaining her affection not to exist for her any longer. She again turned her head to the dancer, who was now smiling at an imaginary gallant. She enticed him, she spurned him; finally, she fell into his arms. Then, she became a sorceress, every movement suggesting dangerous mystery. Following that dance, she mimed a joyful peasant girl at some village festivity, whirling dizzily, with delirious uplifted face and frenzied eyes. All the youth and reckless gaiety evoked by her dancing acquired a moving purity as it sprang, transmuted, from her no longer youthful body.

From Chapter 4 of She Came to Stay, by Simone de Beauvoir

Continues in next post.....

Alia and Thalia at D'Jam Under Je'Bon

2012-01-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

Alia Thabit, Earth Goddess of Vermont

I'll be dancing on Wednesday, February 1 with two of my students and the lovely Alia Thabit of Vermont! Alia is a dance friend and writer who I always happy to see at classical Arab music events and dancemeditation classes with Dunya. I'm thrilled to share the stage with her and Carmine and Casey and other live musicians....the whole event is hosted by Kaeshi of Bellyqueen (of course!) Also performing..... two students from NYU! Aakriti, who knocked everyone out at the Lafayette Grill last fall and Shely (live music debut!). Please join us:

Full info: http://bellyqueen.com/events/2012-02-01/

February 1, 8:30-10:30 p.m.

Je'Bon Noodle House

15 St. Mark's Place

New York, NY

$10 cover/$5 table minimum

Dance Weekend with Maureen Fleming!

2012-01-19T05:20:00.000-08:00

This weekend I'm heading to the Catskills with one of my favorite dance inspirations, Maureen Fleming. At Pumpkin Hollow Arts Center in Oneonta, we'll be stretching with Fleming elastics, working on breath work, and working intensively on her innovative internal body technique. All of that in a rustic (heated!) barn, great food by the wood stove, and dance talk into the evening.....

Register for Spring Courses at NYU!

2012-01-19T05:12:00.000-08:00

We’re starting spring classes at NYU Coles Gym! There will be a beginning/Level 1 classcovering basic movements and drills to tone muscles, define isolations, andshort combinations as the class continues. Advanced/Level 2 will start with veil work and cover introductory zillsin addition to drills and technique. Join us!
Level 1: CLS 230.1 Fridays, 3:30-4:25 p.m.

Level 2: CLS 232 Fridays,4:30-5:25 p.m.

This is a C/D semester course and runs for ten weeks.

Online Registration:

Now Through January 25th at 8:00pm

http://www.gonyuathletics.com

(Go to the Recreation Classes tab)

In person Registration:
(at Coles Sports Center)
Tuesday, January 24^th: 8:00am-1:00pm and 4:00-8:00pm
Wednesday, January 25^th: 12:00pm-8:00pm
Classes begin on Friday, January 27th

Questions? Please contact me: jennifer@holisticbellydanceproject.com

Randa Kamal: Egyptian Style Dance

2011-12-13T05:44:00.000-08:00

I love this video for many reasons. I've seen Randa every time I've been in Egypt and her graceful athleticism has always impressed me. She has a style that's strong and as "no nonesense" as I've seen. Additionally, in this video, you can really see her legs and the posture that is often called "Egyptian style" in the States. By this, I mean the straighter, long-legged posture that gives the shimmies and hip-lifts the relaxed flavor of an afterthought that in my view is inherent to modern "Egyptian style" belly dance.

And....Randa always looks like she's having a great time time!

NYU Belly Dance Level 2 Routine

2011-12-08T17:12:00.001-08:00

Here is our drum solo from the Belly Dance Classics with Fifi Abdou CD, "Tabla of Said." Nice work everyone! It was great semester, including the beginning of the NYU Belly Dance Club started by Aakriti and Misty. Join us again everyone in January for classes and in February for a (possible) show.....

NYU Belly Dance Level 1 Routine

2011-12-08T17:08:00.001-08:00

Here is the routine we finished in our Level 1 class in addition to a semester of quarter-rolling and stretching our hips on a weekly basis. Nice work dancers! Have a great winter break and join us again in January!

Writers on Belly Dance: Simone De Beauvoir (1)

2011-11-20T17:00:00.001-08:00

Photo from The Guardian

Yes! Simone De Beauvoir writes about dancing, belly dance specifically in her first novel, She Came to Stay I've had this book on my shelf for years; I picked it up first with Sarte's work, "The War Diaries." The bookseller at the Gotham Bookmart insisted I couldn't read one without the other, but I did until now. Set in Paris just before the Second World War, the novel is very much about the manner in which artists, in this case playwrights and writers, respond to impending war.

This excerpt is from the second chapter and very much in theFrench Orientalist vein, but dance throughout this book represents freedom of the body and expression in a time when nothing else in life is certain:
From Chapter 2 of Simone De Beauvoir's She Came to Stay:

"From the back of a Moorish cafe, seated on rough woolen cushions, Xaviere and Francoise were watching the Arab dancing girl.

"I wish I could dance like that," said Xaviere. A light tremor passed over her shoulders and ran through her body.

Francois smiled at her and was sorry that their day together was coming to an end. Xaviere had been delightful."In the red-light district of Fez, Labrousse and I saw them dance naked," Francoise told her casually. "But that was a little too much like an anatomical demonstration."

"You've seen so many things," Xaviere said with a touch of bitterness.

"So will you, one day."

"I doubt it."

Show: Aakriti and Misty at Lafayette Grill!

2011-11-17T12:50:00.001-08:00

We had a great time on November 6 with solo performances by Aakriti and Rachel, both founding members of the new belly dance club at NYU! The live music was provided by Scott Wilson and band, performing every Sunday at the Lafayette Grill.

Layla Tayeb who taught classes last summer also performed. Everyone was amazing and we had a great time!

Class Music: Level 1 Choreography at NYU

2011-11-17T12:34:00.001-08:00

In our Level 1 class at NYU, we’re currently working on a routine to Najwa Karam’s "Bkhaf Mnil'May (I'm Scared of Losing You)" from her CD KibirAl Hob, an album that was popular in Lebanon in 2005 due to an innovative advertising campaign. Najwa Karam is Lebanese and heralbums often include the heavier drum accents and a few dabke or line dancetracks, characteristic to Lebanese music. Other tracks we've use for warm up music is Ali Jihad Racy's "Land of the Blessed," Simon Shaheen's "Saarab," and Nancy Ajram, in a ddition to traditional tracks from an older album, called "Baladi Plus" from Hossam Ramsy. Enjoy.....

Nov. 6 Lafayette Grill with Scott Wilson and Band

2011-11-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

We're dancing this Sunday with Scott Wilson at the Lafayette Grill! Come support new belly dance club founders Aakriti and Misty and last summer's teacher Leila Tayeb and me with music by Scott Wilson and his evolving group of musicians.

November 6, 7-10 p.m.

Lafayette Grill

54 Franklin Street (just off Lafayette)

212-732-5600

$5 cover.

We'd love to see you!

Simon Shaheen in Brooklyn on Oct. 29

2011-10-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

Simon Shaheen plays a concert celebrating the historical connection between Arab political identity and musicians, composers, and writers in their respective countries. Don't miss this important event taking place during this pivotal time. Tickets are available from the Wold Music Institute: http://www.wminyc.org.

Class Music: "Claude Chalhoub" by Claude Chalhoub

2011-10-21T06:54:00.000-07:00

We used Claude Chalhoub's version of Erik Satie's classic "Gnossienne #1" this last week for a cool down in Level 2 and one of you students came up and immediately asked for album info., which always happens when I use this track a first time. Classical music players and fans often know who Erik Satie is (French pianist and composer) but know less about Chalhoub, a younger violinst originally from Beirut and composer who only has one recording from what I can tell "Claude Chalhoub" but has worked and studied in London and worked with conductor Daniel Barenboim in his "West-Eastern Divani." He also, according Wikipedia, plays Arab folk music.
Unfortunately, the only album I found on Amazon was $60. Here is the YouTube version of "Gnossienne":

Class Music: "Belly Dance Classics with Fifi Abdo"

2011-10-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

Belly Dance Classics with Fifi Abdo, featuring the Cairo Orchestra, is invaluable to dancers at all levels. Many of these songs (such as "Sallam Allay," "Zikrayat," and "Ghannali Shawayyi, Shawayyi") comprise the standard belly dance repertoire. The only downside is some of the drum tracks sound "electronically enhanced" (aka drum machine). We're using Tabla of Said for our Level II class at NYU. Practice! Enjoy! Also, check out Fifi Abdo on a previous link in Orientalish.

Schiff's "Cleopatra" on WNYC FM

2011-10-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

Leonard Lopate's Book Club features a discussion with biographer Stacy Schiff on her book, Cleopatra: A Life. She'll discuss her bestselling work on Oct. 31, 2011 at 8 a.m. (Yes, 8 a.m. Plan ahead.)

The Rosetta Stone on "Entitled Opinions"

2011-10-20T23:03:00.000-07:00

I love the podcasts on Stanford University's "Entitled Opinions" and get hours of mileage on the elliptical fitness machine thanks to ever smart and intriguing host Robert Harrison and his astounding cadre of guests (look up Blair Huxby on Aristotle's "Poetics," Rush Rehm on Greek tragedy, a two-part session on Beethoven, Epicureanism, or "Romanticism and Organic Form"). The October 12, 2011 episode featured Patrick Hunt on the Rosetta Stone. Politics, ownership, power, Empire, lust, classic Orientalish. Listen to all podcasts for free at: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/fren-ital/opinions/

The novel gets closer to done.......

2011-09-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Glimmer Train.

Novelists Hisham Matar and Ali Al-Muqri Speak on Writing During a Revolution

2011-09-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

Hisham Matar

Ali Al-Muqri

Libyan novelist Hisham Matar (Anatomy of a Disappearance) and Yemeni novelist Ali Al-Muqri (The Handsome Jew) consider the writer's role during revolutionary times in this recent post written for Arabic Literature (in English): http://arablit.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/hisham-matar-and-ali-al-muqri-on-writing-during-a-revolution/ The IPI will bring writers from other parts of the Arab world in the same series. See M. Lynx Qualey's great blog for more information: Arabic Literature (in English).

"The Best of Habibi" Goes Online

2011-09-18T06:37:00.000-07:00

Covers from the earlier years.

When I was dancing in Boston in the early 90s, I remember crowding around my friends to read Shareen El-Safy's invaluable magazine, Habibi: A Journal for Lovers of Middle Eastern Dance and Arts Journal Dancrs at my teacher's, Lorraine Lafata's, house. This was in the days when the magazine was carefully curated and had classy black and white covers. El Safy edited the magazine from 1992-2002. We miss that Habibi and the even older Arabesque! I just got the announcement that Ms. El-Safy is putting the magazine online. A great resource for dancers and students. Sign up on her website, The Best of Habibi, for email updates!Thank you, Shareen!

Belly Dance Classes at NYU: 2011 A/B Quarters

2011-09-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

Previous NYU dance students after a group performance at the Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon (NYC) with me and musican Scott Wilson.

We're starting classes again this fall at NYU Coles Gym! There will be a beginning/Level 1 class studying basic movements and isolations ending with a short combination and an Intermediate and Advanced Class/Level studying more complex layering and a drum solo combination. Please join us and consider joining the newly forming NYU Belly Dance club!

Registration for classes:In-person at Coles Gym:Tuesday, Sept. 13: 8 a.m.-1 p.m. and 4-8 p.m.Wednesday, Sept. 14: noon-8 p.m.Online starting Tuesday, September 13:

http://www.gonyuathletics.com/recreation

Course codes:
Level 1: CLS 230.1

Level 2: CLS 232

(Picture shows a previous NYU class group performance at the Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon (NYC) with musician Scott Wilson.)

Writers on Dance: Said Makdisi on Gypsies

2011-08-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

In this excerpt from Jean Said Makdisi's memoir, Teta, Mother and Me: Three Generations of Arab Women, the author tells of her childhood memories of the mysterious gypsy women who came to their summer village in Lebanon. In this section, the natural lifestyle of these women, the freedom they exhibit with their gestures, makes the author conscious of her own:

"A band of gypsies came to Dhour al-Schweir every summer, as surely as we did, and camped just beyond the summit of the hill behind our house. Although we were strictly forbidden to go in their direction, there was no way to stop them from coming in ours. And sothere was a steady stream of young women--at least, now they appear young; at the time, they seemd ancient. We would hear a call in the distance: "Bassarra, barraje; bassara, barraje', a fortune-teller claiming to see what others could not, and to interpret the zodiac.

"If mother was out--for we would never dare do this if where were at home--my sisters and I....would rush out and call for a gypsy to come and tell our fortune. A young gypsy woman wearing long black robes and usually bare-footed, her head covered with a black scarf wound tightly over her forehead and around her chin, would suddenly appear out of the woods, startling us although we were looking for her. Her costume gave her cheekbones height and her face character, all of which was accentuated by the tattoos on her face and hands, and by her eyes heavily lined with kohl. These women always bore themselves with extraordinary grace, as if they should have been carrying a water jug on their head, which they were doubtless used to doing. They swung their hips as they walked, while their upper bodies remained fixed and straight, their necks and heads held high." (p. 96)

I'm breaking this passage in two because it is lengthy. What I like in this passage is the mystery imagined in the women's dancelike walk and lifestyle. While Makdisi is describing a culture on the fringes of her own culture, I am reminded of both Emerson's journals when he went down the Nile of his perception of the Egyptian manner of walking so gracefully and of Flaubert's controversial descriptions of Kuchuk Hanem. While Makdisi is intrigued as a child, there is some element of "otherness" that is similar in all of these writings--certainly financial class (the Saids were financially privileged) and displacement or lack of place of those being observed. But more powerfully, she experiences an enchantment when viewing these women. The perceived lifestyle of the women being observed make Makdisi, it seems, more aware of her own. Orientalist? Of course.

The book, Teta, Mother, and Me, presents a case study of three generations of women living through turmoil in Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt. Jean Said Makdisi is Edward Said's younger sister. Someone gave the book to me recently at an Arabic music conference. Before then, I wasn't aware of her work. (Photo: Gerome's Almeh. I used this iconic painting because it represents a woman with the tatoos Makdisi mentions and represents those of us on the outside, looking in.)

From Gilded Serpent: Orientalizing Orientalism

2011-07-31T20:17:00.001-07:00

I just came upon this article, "Orientalizing Oriental" by Paola in Gilded Serpent, a dance review about UNESCO's dance conference. Despite somewhat typical complaints, this writer offers interesting pauses including the optomistic: "We need healthy, robust debate about our dance’s identity, and we need more scholars willing to brave the front lines of the intellectual battle. We need to discuss, doubt write, question, agree, disagree, and make proposals – in the spirit of sisterhood and advancing not only the cause of our dance, but the cause of modern-day women’s community." The above picture comes from the full article, Orientalizing Oriental , at Gilded Serpent.

Kazuo Ohno performs "Admiring La Argentina"

2011-07-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

This famous tribute to the Spanish dancer "La Argentina" keeps coming to mind after seeing Elena Lentini's new work with her company, Caravanserai. The following clip was released a year ago by the Ohno studio around the time of this master's death. I'm not certain of Ohno's age in this clip, but the haunting (video) representation of this older man inhabiting the spirit and art of an older woman will never lose its effect on me.

Additionally, in a previous post I quote Federico Garcia Lorca's " In Praise of Antonia Merce, La Argentina."

Writers on Dance: Lorca on "La Argentina"

2011-07-24T07:00:00.001-07:00

Spanish Civil War-era writer Federico Garcia Lorca's searing poetry and tragic life has been covered many times. A favorite portrait of mine is one that ran in the New Yorker many years ago, "Looking for Lorca" by Elizabeth Kolbert. In his short book of essays, In Search of Duende, he offers an introduction he gave for the famous Spanish (Argentinian born) dancer "La Argentina," who was visiting New York City. (Butoh master Kazuo Ohno also danced a tribute for her.) The excerpt below from: "In Praise of Antonia Merce, La Argentina," his specific and poetic imagery and his identification of her real name (which many others don't do) keep it from falling into the traps of cliche that often comes when portraying dance.

Whereas Said, in writing about Tahia Carioca, defends culture and dignity, the poet in Lorca focuses on the search for harmony in this dancer's art:

"...In the art of dance, the body struggles against the invisible mist that envelops it and tries to bring to light the dominant profile demanded by the architecture of the music. Ardent struggle, endless vigil, like all art. While the poet wrestles with the horses in his brain and the sculptor wounds his eyes on the hard spark of alabaster, the dancer battles the air around her, air that threatens at any moment to destroy her harmony or to open huge empty spaces where her rhythm will be annihilated...The dancer's trembling heart must bring everything into harmony, from the tips of her shoes to the flutter of eyelashes, from the ruffles of her dress to the incessant play of her fingers. Shipwrecked in a field of air, she must measure lines, silences, zigzags, and rapid curves with a sixth sense of aroma and geometry, without ever mistaking her terrain. In this she resembles the torero, whose heart must keep to the neck of the bull. Both of them face the same danger--he, death; and she, darkness.

" She must fill a dead gray space with a living, clear trembling arabesque, one which can be vividly remembered. This is how she speaks, this is her tongue. And in all the world, no one is as good as Anotonia Merce at inscribing the drowsy air with that arabesque of blood and bone. She combines her intuition of dance with a rhythmic intelligence and an understanding of bodily forms possessed by only the great masters of the Spanish dance. . . [She] is a heroine of her own body. She is a tamer of her own facile desires, which are always the most tempting. She has earned the reward of pure dance: double vision. I mean that when she dances, her eyes are not trained on herself; they are looking ahead, governing her movements, making her expressions more objective, and helping her receive the blind, impressive bursts of pure instinct. "
Photo from Wikipedia: La Argentina

(In my previous post featuring Edward Said on Tahia Carioca, I mentioned these two sections were written in response to a teaching assignment given me by Wah Ming Chang for her class at Barnard. Thanks, Professor Chang!)

Counterpoint: My Experience of the Sahara (January 2010)

2011-07-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

Because I just posted Tanya Hurley's animation of Paul Bowles' poetic statement "Baptism of Solitude" about the Sahara that's making the airwaves today, I have to offer my experience traveling from Siwa to Bahariyya Oasis through the Western Desert and the Great Sand Sea. This took place midway on the 10-hour caravan my driver and I were a part of, and I asked several of the drivers how they would dance to the music blasting from their stereos across the dunes. (This crew would have nothing to do with Egyptian/Arab pop.) Though it's not obvious in this clip, riders from the other vehicles are on a blanket having tea prepared on a bunsen burner. Unlike Bowles' depiction, my experience was comprised mostly of laughter and bright, glaring beauty.

"Baptism of Solitude": A Tribute to Paul Bowles by Tanya Hurley

2011-07-23T07:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Mikhail Iossell on Facebook, I caught Tanya Hurley's dramatic animation of Paul Bowles' famous recording : "Baptism of Solitude." Bowles is of course, one of the great Orientalists at its best and worst. Anyone who has read The Sheltering Sky (or at least seen the movie) knows his vision of the Moroccan Sahara represents violence, silence, and overwhelming emptiness. However, much of this borders on that idea of the violent and animal "other," which is uncomfortable for those of us with far different, if not opposite, experiences. Still, as is often the quandary, Bowles' language is so evocative and disturbing and evoked so beautifully it becomes something (if not accuracy). My favorite line: ..."Loneliness presupposes memory."

Writers on Dance: Edward Said on Tahia Carioca

2011-07-22T04:52:00.000-07:00

My good friend Wah Ming Chang asked me to visit her writing class at Barnard to talk about Writing and Dance. In preparation, I looked up two of my favorite dance descriptions, Edward Said writing about his admiration for the famous Tahia Carioca (1919-1999) who comes in this essay, to represent the fluctuating politics and social mores of her beloved Egypt, and Federico Garcia Lorca's written introduction for "La Argentina."

I chose the following excerpt from Said's essay (which appears in his collection of essays Reflections on Exile) for obvious, pedagogical reasons. In these paragraphs, he begins with his eloquent definition of why her dance is specifically Egyptian ( "As in bullfighting, the essence of the classic belly dancer's art is not how much but how little she moves...") and then deftly transitions to a paragraph that concretely describes her movements with such clarity, a reader with some knowledge of the dance could enact the movement. Specificity and definition and context were, of course, fundamental in Said's quest to understand and avoid generalizing those with less power.

The essay, "Homage to a Belly Dancer," (which originally appeared in the London Review of Books) is a great find to anyone interested in belly dance, Tahia Carioca, or the process of writing about dance and the body. Here is an excerpt, starting with Said as a teenager infatuated with this woman who was for many, the essence of beauty and feminity:

"...We were about as far from the stage as it was possible to sit, but the shimmering, glistening blue costume she wore simply dazzled the eye, so bright were the sequins and spangles, so controlled was her quite lengthy immobility as she stood there with an entirely composed look about her. As in bullfighting, the essence of the classic Arab belly dancer's art is not how much but how little the artist moves: only the novices or the deplorable Greek and AMerican imitators, go in for the appalling wiggling and jumping around that passes for "sexiness" and harem hootchy-kootch. The point is to make an effect mainly (but by no means exclusively) through suggestiveness and--in the full-scale composition Tahia offered that night--to do so over a series of episodes kintted together in alternating, moods, recurring motifs.

"Her diaphonous veils were laid over the modified bikini that was basic to the outfit without ever becoming its main attraction. The beauty of her dance was its connectedness: thefeeling she communicated of the spectacularly lithe and well-shaped body undulating through a complex but decorative series of encumbrances made up of gauzes, veils, necklaces, strings of gold and silver chains, which her movements animated deliberately and at times almost theoretically. She would stand, for example, and slowly begin to move her right hip, which would in turn activate her silver leggings, tnad the beads draped over the right side of her waist. As she did all this, she would look down at the moving parts, so to speak, and fix our gaze on them too, as if we were all wathcing a separate little drama, thythmically very controlled, re-configuring her body so as to highlight her semi-detached right side. Tahia's dance was like an extended arabesque elaborated around [the seated singer who shared the stage]. She never jumped, or bobbed her breatsts, or went in for bumping and grinding. There was a majestic deliberateness to the whole thing that maintained itself right through even the quicker passages. Each of us knew tha we were experiencing an immensely exciting--because endlessly deferred--erotic experience, the likes of which we could never hope to match in real life. And that was precisely the point: this was sexuality as a public event, brilliantly planned and executed, yet totally unconsummated and unrealizable."

Photo Credit: from the Al-Ahram newspaper's report of Carioca's death in 1999.

HYPHEN Magazine on the Syrian Lesbian Blogging Hoax

2011-07-20T19:48:00.001-07:00

Lisa Nakamura's blog post at Hyphen Magazine: Syrian Lesbian Bloggers, Fake Geishas, and the Attraction of Identity Tourism is a well considered report on recent blogging scandals and, more importantly, the motivations behind these thefts of not only identity but image of other cultures. She quotes Gayatri Spivak who writes in her book, Can the Subaltern Speak? about the too frequent practice of: "...white men...saving brown women from brown men." (Graphic from the Hyphen Magazine post.)

Summer II Classes at NYU

2011-06-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Registration for Summer II classes at NYU is underway. We have a Level 1/2 course from 6:30-7:25 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 12-Aug. 4. (Four weeks)

In person Registration: July 5-6, noon-8 pm at Coles Gym

Online Registration: now through July 6: http://www.gonyuathletics.com/recreation

Join us this summer!

Leila Tayeb Teaches at NYU

2011-06-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

While I'm in Montreal, NYU dance students will get the opportunity to study with the beautiful Leila Tayeb, a performance studies graduate student who specializes in Middle Eastern dance. Students will benefit from Leila's extensive and very recent travels and field research in the Middle East and North Africa. I'll return to teach at the end of June.

NYU Summer Dance Classes

2011-05-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

We're beginning registration for the first five week summer session of dance classes at Coles Gym. In advanced classes, we'll work on drum solo technique and then there will five classes taught by the fabulous Leila Tayeb who has traveled extensively and lived in Morocco and other parts of the Middle East! I'll return for the last week of classes to finish up the drum solo. (Leila is subbing for me because I won a writing fellowship to Concordia University in Montreal where I'll be studying from June 12-25.)

Here is the info. on the dance classes:

Beginning Level
(CLS 230.1)Tuesdays and Thursdays: 6:30-7:25 p.m. at Coles Gym

Intermediate Level
(CLS 231.1) Tuesdays and Thursdays: 5:30-6:25 at Coles Gym

IN-PERSON REGISTRATION AT COLES GYM: May 23-24, noon-8 p.m.
ONLINE REGISTRATION: May 24, 8 a.m through midnight May 26

http://www.gonyuathletics.com/recreation

Come dance with us!

Kaeshi and Djinn at Je'Bon

2011-05-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

It's always hard to follow Kaeshi at Je'Bon! Here are two pictures from her shows on Wednesday at Je'Bon:

Sisters of Bast at Je'Bon, May 4

2011-05-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at Je'Bon dancing with D'Jam hostess Kaeshi Chai and the music of Djinn. We danced to two songs: the introduction to Alf Layla wa Layla, the classical version, and to the pop song, Mayagoreshk.
These photos came from my Ipod and contain mostly pre-show jitter shots. If others have some to share, particularly of the dance, please send them in!

Democracy Now: Rula Jebreal and Issandr El Amrani

2011-04-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

Pen America's World Voices Festival hosted a panel last night that featured both journalists featured on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now that appeared earlier the same day. Some of the issues discussed are similar. This clip focuses on Israel, Palestine, and tenuous relations between Fatah and Hamas:

Thalia and the Sisters of Bast at J'Bon on May 4

2011-04-11T17:27:00.001-07:00

D'jam at Je'Bon
Je'Bon Noodle Shop
15 St. Mark's Place
NYC, NY
Reservations: 212-388-1313
Cover: $10; table minimum: $5.

With Kaeshi Chai and live music by Djinn.

Thanks to lovely Kaeshi Chai, we'll dance once more this semester at Je'Bon before classes end! Kaeshi will dance as well. Please come and dance or watch or both..... (Photo: Peter Turco)

PEN World Voices: Revolutionaries in the Arab World

2011-04-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

PEN World Voices offers a panel with Abdelkader Benali , Abdellah Taia , Rula Jebreal , Ghassan Salamé , and others. Wednesday, April 27: 7:30 p.m. 92nd Street Y, Unterberg Poetry Center, 1395 Lexington Ave., New York City
Tickets: $20/$15 PEN Members, students with valid ID. Call (866) 811-4111 or visit ovationtix.com
Co-sponsored by the 92 Street Y, Unterberg Poetry Center

NYC Event: Hafla Honoring Ibrahim Farrah

2011-04-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend's show and workshop promises one of the most unique events of the season. Though these dancers from NYC are gathering to honor their late mentor, Ibrahim Farrah, they are legends on their own: Elena, Samara, Phaedra, Leila Gamal (who was my very first teacher in the late 1980s), and the list of dancers goes on. Eddie "the Sheik" Kochak is also scheduled to make an appearance. Anyone with interest in the this field should come to honor this history. And, of course, to have a great time. For more information: http://www.samaradance.com/

Hamid Dabashi's Brown Skin, White Masks

2011-04-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

Hamid Dabashi's Brown Skin, White Masks sounds sorely needed. I'm not a great fan of John Green's review and wondering why find no reviews here...curious.

Sufism vs. Traditional Islam in The Huffington Post

2011-04-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

As a teenager, the only Sufi order I knew of lived in a communal trailer park in western Kansas. When I moved to Boston in the early 90s, I encountered the American version of Sufism through dance mentors and poetry and used copy of Sa'adi's Rose Garden I found in a used bookstore in Davis Square. I still remember a memorable lecture on Sufism at Harvard Divinity School presented by a Sufi scholar from the American southwest. Unfortunately, his name escapes me. His main focus was that American Sufis avoid the connection between Sufism and Islam. I'd always associated both together and was surprised by this, but soon became aware of this sticky topic. Since then, I've also encountered doubt from those who follow traditional Islam toward contemporary Sufis in the US. This topic continues to interest me. Today's appearance of this column by Omid Safi "Is Islamic Mysticism Really Mysticism" showed up in The Huffington Post's Religion section. ..." The second half of the essay interests me most: So what we have had for the last few decades is a situation of Orientalists and Salafi Muslims seeking to construct a "real Islam" that is untainted by Sufi dimensions, and many new agers seek to extract a mysticism that stands above and disconnected from wider, broader and deeper aspects of Islam."

Montreal in June with SLS

2011-04-05T13:26:00.001-07:00

I just received a fellowship to study in Montreal for two weeks this June at Concordia University with Summer Literary Seminars. This news was timed perfectly. I'm returning full attention to my novel now that I finished my yoga teacher training last weekend at YogaWorks. Yoga? Orientalism? Yes. Even more of an Orientalist than before.

Level 1: Desire and Pursuit of the Roll

2011-03-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'm reposting a few belly roll posts I made for a workshop in 2009. We won't go so in depth in this class, but these sources are still valid. I've learned a few new things in my current Yoga teacher training but will have to add those here when I'm done with my yoga finals. Bring your quarters and try to take a look if you can: At this description of the Triple Axis Belly Roll; explanation of quarter rolls and clip of a Nine Quarter Roll, and yoga links for desiring belly rollers I put together for the previous workshop. Bring quarters to class if you remember...

Level 2 Class: Entrances with Veils

2011-03-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

In last Friday's class, I mentioned both the famous dancer Dina (the music we were using for an exercise was named for her) and also the use of the veil as an entrance prop more than a dance prop. YouTube has a great video of Dina demonstrating this technique. This is an older video, but Dina was still in amazing shape when I last saw her, and in this clip, she dances beautifully. The music is live and worth the watch.

Enjoy! Bring your veils on Friday!

Nawaal El Saadawi Speaks on Thursday at NYU

2011-03-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Jasmine Perryman for sending this information about feminist writer Dr. Nawal El Saadawi. Since it's publication in the 70s, this writer's seminal novel Woman at Point Zero continues to be a staple on many Women's Studies rosters in the West. I remember well my first reading of it in the early, early 90s.

Dr. El Saadawi was also vocal in January's revolution in Tahrir Square. Her comments on this week's events are awaited. NYU people: she's reading at the NYU bookstore tonight. Click here for information on Thursday's event.

Orientalish Lit Hit: The Sacred Night

2011-03-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

After a first read of This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun a few years ago, I have wanted to read this earlier work. The book is part of a trilogy that begins with The Sand Child. The Sacred Night picks up themes that run the other work I've read: injustice, the individual's ultimate "aloneness" in the face of the world, and the act of storytelling.

Best in The Sacred Night is the presence of storytelling as a life force. Here, the continued story of a girl raised as a boy to overcome the Islamic tradition of allowing only men to inherit a family's wealth hinges around the act of storytelling. A storyteller opens the novel with a dreamlike sequence where we see this woman, who appears as a man, uses her stories to make a living.

As the book steps farther back, a clearer storyline emerges. After her father's death, the narrator south where she loses her virginity in a confusing rape scene and then joins the house where she falls in love and learns from a blind man the art of writing and the raw value of holding onto memory. The blind man leads her into his dreams where there are factories of words. Sensual scenes where women exist as forgotten, discarded words seem to illustrate the beauty of forgotten stories, which are ultimately all stories.

The culmination of the novel shows her falling in and out of madness in prison, which reminds me of the power of Ben Jelloun's This Blinding Absence of Light. For me, the downfall of this novel is the storyline of the demoralized Muslim woman. While reality might fuel the original stereotype, the overuse of this as a plot line (and in a bigger sense to justify other acts of aggression) makes the storyline itself feel formulaic. That said, the ornate writing style and successful dream-making made The Sacred Night an evocative read.

Orientalish Lit Hits

2011-02-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

I’m starting a new blog category of book reviews, mostly fiction, that relate to my interests in Arab culture. They may or may not relate directly to dance, but I will keep dance interests in mind as well as those relating to the theme of this blog, Orientalish. My inspiration is from M. Lynx Qualey's "One Minute Review" on her blog: Arabic Literature (in English).

So much material awaits...
(Photo: Toth at Philae (the Temple of Isis) in Luxor, 2007.)

Revolution on Every Street in Egypt

2011-02-11T10:32:00.001-08:00

To follow events: The Nation: Revolution on Every Street in Egypt, M. Lynx Qualey still reporting on arts and literature while living in Cairo in Arabic Literature (in Translation), and on Democracy Now: Live Coverage of the Mubarak Resignation.

Reading Lists for Egypt

2011-02-05T17:09:00.000-08:00

M. Lynx Qualey's blog, Arabic Literature (in Translation), offers an insider's reading suggestions about Egypt during this time for understanding of the unfolding events as a counterpoint to the New York Times' dubious one. Qualey's pick for fiction Moon Over Samarqand, translated by Issa J. Boullata and published by AUC Press. Among nonfiction picks: Tom Mitchell's Colonizing Egypt See the blog post for a better wrap up: "What Does the New York Times Think You Should Read About Egypt?"

Winter Belly Dance Classes at NYU: Level 2

2011-01-31T19:15:00.001-08:00

Level 2 dancers just started a new routine using the introductory music from the legendary composition for Oum Kalthoum, "Alf Leila wa Leila." This is an Egyptian classic, drawing from a time when Egyptian politics and music and artistic expression were deeply intertwined. L up: "Alf Leila wa Leila" and try to get the original recording.

Suggested reading:
Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society by Virginia Danielson and Selim Nassib's
I Loved You for Your Voice.

Winter Belly Dance Classes at NYU: Level 1

2011-01-31T18:40:00.001-08:00

Welcome new students to belly dance....revious posts you might find useful are links to practice music and links to books and media and a few clips of dancers posted through the years including Fifi Abdo, and Turkish dancer Didem. There is an overwhelming amount of material out there! Also, check out Gilded Serpent for events and articles and Nourhan Sharif's dancewear. Also, I'm currently working on an article synthesizing recent academic treatments of belly dance and colonialism.

Keep dancing everyone...

Watching Egypt

2011-01-31T18:21:00.001-08:00

This moment in Egyptian history is sobering and stunning. Speculations are useless, but in trying to stay informed of shifting elements and powers, the following resources have been most informative for me:
Democracy Now's Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports live from Cairo:

and also offers perspective from Egyptian novelist Nawaal El Sadaawi and on the US's role. Also the Angry News Service and the Nation have been worth reading. My friend M. Lynx Qualey has had her thorough and important site, Arab Literature(in English), suspended.

Reading: January 9, 5 p.m.: Family!

2011-01-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

Reading Series: Family Stories
When: Sun, Jan. 9, 5pm – 7pm
Where: The Cell Theatre, 338 W 23rd St. ()
Donation: $5 * (writers, see note below)

Whatever you say, they’re still family!

I'm taking part in Karen Heuler's reading series this Sunday! Please come out and hear stories about family (fiction, mind you...) written and read by Matthew Lansburgh, Amie Hartman, and me. Then we’ll have an open discussion with these writers, joined by host Karen Heuler, about using our families in writing—how much do we change? How unethical do we feel? How much do you want to reveal—and is anyone revealing it about you?

Reception to follow.

For writers, this new year of the Tandem Reading series opens with a switch—the price of admission is $5 or a story. And any story you hand in, literary or genre, will be considered for future readings. Again, the Cell Theatre is located at 338 West 23 St. (between 8 and 9 Ave.; take the 1, C, E to 23rd St; www.thecelltheatre.org). 212-989-7434. Donation: $5. Or a story.
(Pictures from a trip last spring with my parents to one of my mother's ancestral sites in Pennsylvania.)

Metamorphosis 2011

2011-01-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

Best wishes to all throughout the coming year! I spent the evening assisting Butoh artist Maureen Fleming in her new "Dances from Home" production funded by LMCC. Her choreographies are experienced rather than simply watched, slowly evolving studies of they body's organic form. During the evening, I also read from "How to Be a Staircase," about assisting Maureen and Chris in previous shows. My last hour of 2010 ended with attendance at St. Bart's midnight organ concert and an impromptu commute home on the L train with big, buff Jacques, East Williamsburg's favorite personal trainer. There are so many reasons to love NYC! (Photo of Thalia by Aristo)

American Antiquarian Society.....almost

2010-12-23T21:20:00.001-08:00

No, it's not the same as actually getting the fellowship, but I was selected as an alternate for this year's Fellowship for Creative Writers and Performers at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. Maybe next year?

In the meantime, I hope to travel to the Society in January to do research on my fiction project about Ralph Waldo Emerson's 19th century trip up the Nile to visit the famed Temple at Philae (left, from the Description d'le Egypte in Wikipedia) For travel reading, I also picked up Robert D. Richardson's excellent book on Emerson's writing process titled First We Read, Then We Write. Emerson's writing philosophy is best summed up in his own words: "...the way to write is to throw your body at the mark when all of your arrows are spent."

Class Videos for NYU Students

2010-12-23T21:02:00.000-08:00

Happy winter everyone! Here are links to this semester's routines expertly filmed from a trusty folding chair tripod on a chilly December afternoon in the Village:

Level One classes at NYU:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piZ9z2AAshE

Level Two classes at NYU:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axtAHZ66wNY

Classes resume the last week of January. Dance wherever you are in the meantime....

Mr. Beller's Neighborhood: How to Be a Staircase

2010-12-14T20:56:00.001-08:00

My memoir/story about my harrowing adventures as a fledgling staircase while assisting my Butoh teacher Maureen Fleming is the "Story of the Week" on Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. Please read "How to Be a Staircase" and comment on their site! And also, go to Maureen's show "Dances from Home" on Dec. 25 and 31. (Photo by Lois Greenfield)

Gilded Serpent: Mohamed El Hosseny

2010-12-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

Gilded Serpent has just published my account of the workshop taught by Mohamed El Hosseny (sponsored by Nourhan Sharif) during this summer's heat wave. It was great fun! Click here for the story: Mohamed El Hosseny: "More is...More!"

New Republic: Refuting (or Trying to Refute) Said

2010-12-01T19:24:00.001-08:00

On New Republic blog, Martin Peretz's recent jabs at Edward Said are almost too annoying to highlight, and yet buried in Peretz's chest thumping is his pointing fingers at Arab collectors and enthusiasts of Orientalist art. Peretz claims it is ironic that Arabs are the newest fans and supporters of the Orientalism Said tried to identify. The problem for me is that Peretz falls into the common trap of assuming Said wished to vilify this aesthetic. My understanding is that Said wished to label and identify varying aesthetics so that commonalities between peoples become clearer and more accurate. The uneven power structures that he spoke out against were bolstered by the West's aesthetic habit and practice of making "the East" a romantic blur, easily understood, and simple. With this observation about the popularity of Orientalist art in the Arab cultures, Peretz makes a weird intellectual leap to this situation being a "refutation" of Said's theories. If Arabs buy this art, how can it be "Orientalist"? A simplistic argument on every level.
So here is the connection with Orientalish. Frequently dancers aspire accepted or applauded by Arab audiences, friends, or perhaps relatives as a way of achieving "legitimacy." There is a weird subservience to "approval." One group's support or admiration is different from the others; and at the same time, those seeking legitimacy (in dancing) are making money either way. Peretz doesn't go into who is making the most profit out of these traveling exhibits. He changes the focus instead to distasteful jabs at Said's place of burial. Creepy.
The article: Another Refutation of the "Orientalist" Disputations of Edward Said.

Here is the article:http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/79471/another-refutation-the-orientalist-disputations-edward-said

Yes or No?: Nine Year Old Belly Dancers...

2010-11-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

A bit of a quandry, especially the part in the write up that says Zheng Ciling is so shy, she burst into tears during the interview portion of the contest:

Gerome: The Charmer Seduces Himself

2010-11-18T17:46:00.001-08:00

The Jean-Leon Gerome exhibit at the Getty last summer has already moved to Paris, but I stumbled upon a book review of the catalog in the LA Times "Beyond the Surfaces of a Glittering Imperialist." Jumping off from questions raised by essays in the catalog, Jorie Finkel asks two questions that struck my Orientalish vein : 1) Though Gerome's representations are limited by the social perspectives of his time and place, to what degree are charges against his images is drawn on assumptions and fantasies of the viewers themselves? And, 2) noting collectors of Gerome and other Orientalist artists in "orientalized" regions such as Turkey and Dubai, "Can a painting still be considered racist if members of the race depicted apparently take pride in it?" Or dancing? No answers here. Plenty of opinions and complexities. And what if the technique makes it aesthetically beautiful?

Also look at the comments for a considered reaction and a reference to one of the must-reads on Orientalist paintings, The Orientalists by Kristen Davies. The painting is Gerome's famous "Snake Charmer" that adorns Edward Said's seminal work Orientalism.

Adonis: "..always more beauty to be seen..."

2010-11-03T06:39:00.001-07:00

Syrian poet and perrenial Nobel Prize contender Adonis offered a reading and discussion last Saturday (Oct. 30) at Alwan for the Arts. Though nothing was said about belly dance, but a great deal was said about the complications and anxieties of "globalization" and the Westernization of Arab culture. Marcia Lynx Qualey generously published my report in her excellent online mag--Arabic Literature (in English). Link to Adonis at Alwan: Always More Beauty to Be Seen. Also, read Adonis' new collection Adonis: Selected Poems with beautiful translations and an introduction by poet Khaled Mattawa published by Yale Press.

Readings: Colonialism and Belly Dance

2010-11-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

I post here several articles I am using for research, all centered around cultural ramifications of belly dance. They're published in academic journals and can be found through the Project Muse search engine found in most public and university library catalogs. (Note: NYU dance students you have no excuse!)

Tina Frühauf's "Raqs Gothique: Decolonizing Belly Dance" TDR: The Drama Review - Volume 53, Number 3, Fall 2009 (T 203) , pp. 117-138. This erudite article explores "goth" style belly dance through the lens of an ethnomusicologist, academic, and dancer based in New York. From the abstract: "Goth belly dance—or "raqs gothique"—fuses the already Westernized interpretative dance style of the Middle East with Goth subculture. Goth belly dancers want to reject or transcend the obvious roots of belly dancing in Orientalism, but how successful are they?"

Donnalee Dox's "Dancing Around Orientalism." TDR: The Drama Review; Winter2006, Vol. 50 Issue 4, p52-71. From the abstract: "This article discusses belly dancing in the West and orientalism. Western belly dancers commonly interpret Orientalist images as celebration of alternatives to Western patriarchy, materialism and logocentrism. During the 1960s and 70s, belly dancing developed as feminist efforts to claim and express sexuality of women. The emphasis on the open display of sexuality as self-empowerment for women is a function of Western representational practices. The term oriental dance to refer to belly dance distinguishes belly dancing from other forms of professional Western erotic dance and stripping.

Finally, Maira Sunaina's provocative "Belly Dancing: Arab-Face, Orientalist Feminism, and U.S. Empire." American Quarterly. Volume 60, Number 2, June 2008, pp. 317-345
Volume 60, Number 2, June 2008. From the lengthy abstract: "Belly dancing has become especially trendy among non-Arab women across the United States since the 1990s and in the San Francisco Bay Area where it was popularized in the 1960s and 1970s with the emergence of female liberation movements focusing on body politics. This article reflects on what it means for American women to stage Middle Eastern dance at a time when the United States is engaged in war and occupation in the Middle East and there is intensified preoccupation with the figure of the Arab and Muslim “other,” and particularly with the image of oppressed Middle Eastern and Muslim femininity. The research is based on interviews with belly dance students, performers, teachers, and managers in the Bay Area that explore: why is belly dancing so popular among non- Arab women in the Bay Area? Why has it exploded at a moment when Arab Americans themselves have been profiled and attacked during the War on Terror? What does this embodied performance of putatively “Middle Eastern culture” reveal about post-9/11 U.S. nationalism? I argue that belly dancing performances are entangled with the imperial engagements that link the United States and the Middle East and reveal a deeper politics of imperialism, racialization, and feminism in this moment of U.S. empire. The article situates the massive appeal of belly dancing and its growing resonance with white American women since 2001 in relation to contemporary gender and nationalist politics, demonstrating that belly dancing has become a popular site for the mobilization of “whiteness” and “Americanness” in relation to Arab/Muslim femininities and masculinities. Belly dancing has become a site for staging a New Age feminism and liberal Orientalist perspective on Arab and Muslim women. I explore how belly dance performances are layered with the politics of liberal multiculturalism, sisterhood, and female entrepreneurship."

Go read...then dance.

Theatrical Belly Dance Review, Part Two

2010-10-12T17:52:00.001-07:00

The second half of my review of this summer's Theatrical Bellydance Conference has been published in Gilded Serpent. This event pushed the boundaries of experiment and artistry in our field. Please read, please comment here or on the site. Part 2 of 2: The Performances
The NY Theatrical Belly Dance Conference 2010A Five Day Exploration of Dance Styles, Intention, and Content . My review of the panel discussions appeared earlier in the magazine: Report from the Theatrical Belly Dance Conference Part 1: The Panel Discussions. .
(Photo credits: Jeniviva and Mystical Hips by Brian Lin; Kaeshi Chai and Bellyqueen Dance Theater by Sal Romano; and Dunya and the Core Alembic by Sal Romano)

Thalia, Kaeshi, Sisters of Bast at Je'Bon on Oct. 13

2010-10-07T04:01:00.000-07:00

Please join me, Kaeshi, the Sisters of Bast (dance students from NYU), and soloists Ninette and Allison at Je'Bon this coming Wednesday. Djinn, the band, always makes this event a fun one and the food is good too.

Wednesday, Oct. 13
7:30-10:30 p.m.
D'Jam Under Je'Bon
Je'Bon Noodle Shop
15 St. Mark's Place
between Astor and 2nd Ave.
New York, NY
212-388-1313
Cover $10/ $5 min. per person
www.bellyqueen.com

AUC Biography of Edward Lane

2010-10-06T20:47:00.001-07:00

A new biography of the famed 19th century Orientalist, Edward William Lane (1801-1876), who translated Arabian Nights in addition to Manners and Customes of the Moden Egyptians was just released by AUC press. I have so many books to read, but this by Jason Thompson indeed seems necessary. A thoughtful review in Al-Ahram, "Pioneering Egyptologist and Orientalist," puts Lane in context as one of the prime European Orientalists identified Edward Said. Lane's fascination with the "Orient" manifests as such: he dresses, marries, speaks, and studies the culture with inensity. Is that the quandry, the more we study and try to perfect our craft, the more "expert" we become, the more we realize it is a dream? Or, as the article suggests, do we become seduced by our own research?

Belly Dance Clips: Tahia Carioca

2010-09-25T19:01:00.001-07:00

Here is a clip from the legendary dancer Tahia Carioca.

Belly Dance Clips: Samia Gamal

2010-09-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

Samia Gamal dances to Zeina...

Belly Dance Clips: Fifi Abdo

2010-09-25T18:46:00.001-07:00

This Egyptian dancer is a classic in the field. This older clips shows the stage and live band and mesmerized audience

Belly Dance Clips: Didem

2010-09-25T18:37:00.001-07:00

Several of my fall semester students have asked to be directed to dance clips for study. The first I'm presenting has been a favorite of students past. This is Didem, a young Turkish dancer who appears frequently on Turkish television.

NYU: Fall Belly Dance Classes Begin!

2010-09-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

It's time to start belly dance classes once again! Whether you're new or returning, please check the schedule as class times have changed. A new Advanced Level class has also been added. Information for the registration times follows at the bottom of this blog blurb. Beginner Level dancers will learn posture and alignment and basic movements including hip circles, lifts, and drops; several types of shimmies; arm patterning; and combinations with music. Intermediate Level dancers will review all of the above and works on "layering" movements by adding shimmies and undulations underneath the basic movements, and a short choreography. Advanced Level dancers will incorporate all of the above with a choreography that incorporates finger cymbals and some performance skills. All classes will include lots of fun, extraordinary Middle Eastern music, and the camaraderie of others drawn to this unique art form. All classes take place in Coles Gym on Mercer Street at Bleecker. (The picture below is our NYU crew Sisters of Bast at last fall's Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon.)

FALL CLASS SCHEDULE

CLS 230.1 Beginning Level: Fri., 3:30-4:25 p.m. (AB)
CLS 231.1 Intermediate Level: Fri., 1:30-3:25 p.m. A, B
CLS 232.1 Advanced Level: Fri. 4:30-5:25 p.m. (AB)

REGISTRATION INFORMATION:

On-Line Registration:
http://www.gonyuathletics.com/recreation
Tuesday, September 14th 8:00am - Friday, October 1st 11:59pm

In-Person Registration at Coles Sports Center:

Tuesday, September 14th 8:00am-1:00pm and 4:00-8:00pm
Wednesday, September 15th 12:00pm-8:00pm
Thursday, September 16th 12:00pm-8:00pm

If you have any questions at all, feel free to contact me:
jennifer@HolisticBellyDanceProject.com

New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference Review on Gilded Serpent

2010-09-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

Gilded Serpent has just posted the first of my two part review about the panel discussions at the New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference. Take a look and comment. Topics discussed in the two topics reviewed included fusion vs. tradition, performance venue, technique questions, issues of ethnicity in belly dance, and body confidence.

Expanding Traditional and Innovative Approaches:
Report from the New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference
Part 1: The Panel Discussions

Reading Notes: Flaubert in Egypt 6 (Dance: The Bee)

2010-09-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Here follows the often mentioned “Bee” dance performed by Kuchuk Hanem. Karayanni pointed out Flaubert’s frequent use of pejorative words such as brutal and grotesque, likely in relation to this famous passage.

Kuchuk dances the Bee. First, so that the door can be closed, the women send away Farghali and another sailor, who up to now have been watching the dances and who, in the background, constituted the grotesque element of the scene. A black veil is tied around the eyes of the child, and a fold of his blue turban is lowered over those of the old man. Kuchuk shed her clothing as she danced. Finally, she was naked except for a fichu which she held in her hands and behind, which she pretended to hide, and at the end, she threw down the fichu. That was the Bee. She danced it very briefly and said she does not like to dance that dance. Joseph, very excited, kept clapping his hands: ‘La, eu, nia, oh! Eu, nia, oh!’ Finally, after repeating for us the wonderful step she had danced in the afternoon, she sank down breathless on her divan, her body continuing to move slightly in rhythm. One of the women threw her her enormous white trousers striped with pink, and she pulled them on up to her neck. The other two musicians were unblindfolded. (117)

Another dance. A cup of coffee is placed on the ground. She dances before it, then falls on her knees and continues to move her torso, always clacking the castanets, and describing in the air a gesture with her arms as though she were swimming. That continues, gradually, the head is lowered, she reaches for the cup, takes the edge of it between her teeth, and then leaps up quickly with a single bound.( 118)

Reading Notes: The Orientalists' "Scopophilac" Gaze

2010-09-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

Continuing my reading on Flaubert and his trip down the Nile, I’ve read Stavros Stavrous Karayanni’s “Dismissal Veiling Desire: Kuchuk Hanem and Imperial Masculinity.” Karayanni’s take on Flaubert account I’m now reading is unusual among discourse on this text in that it focuses on “orientalism” in addition to the technical aspects of the dancing. Karayanni contrasts George William Curtis’ portrayal of Kuchuk Hanem in “Nile Notes Of a Hawajii (1850).” Locked up in the American view, Curtis remains detached, erudite, and bourgeouis according to Karayanni, when writing of Kuchuk Hanem. Karayanni points out his references to classical antiquity and Terpsichore as a way of keeping that safe detachment.

Of particular interest to me in this article, was the relation of a “scopophilic” gaze. Flaubert keeps drawing a wider net, according to Karayanni. This is true for all Imperialists seeking to “understand” landscape in a grander sense, and by attaching what he knows to a “larger context” (such as antiquity and the “knowledge” of the “West”), the Imperialist dominates and “knows” the subject more than the subject knows itself. Intellectual “Context,” having the resources and ambition to put “the Orient” into a wider or Western context becam a form of domination. Interesting.
Back to the dance aspects, Karayanni ends again with choreography. Her movements gave both men the option to be transformed by what they saw, where determined to see, as the anti-Western, native or savage side of Egyptian society. Flaubert succumbed and dismissed his emotions in a letter to Louise Colet and obsessed about Kuchuk Hanem for years. Curtis wrote that he had resisted fully succumbing to her power in order to assert his superiority. Her image remained in Flaubert’s “Salammbo,” “Herodias,” and the figure of Salome.

Great read:
Karayanni, Stavros Stavrou. “Dismissal Veiling Desire.” Ch. 4 in Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism, and Harem Fantasy. Eds., Anthony Shay and Barbara Sellers-Young. Mazda Publishers, 2005.
Also his own book:
Stavrou Karayanni, Stavros (2004), Dancing Fear & Desire: Race, Sexuality and Imperial Politics in Middle Eastern Dance, Wilfred Laurier University Press, ISBN 0889204543

Photo taken just outside of Siwa, January 2010.

The Getty Center Rethinks Gerome

2010-08-31T19:32:00.000-07:00

(Image Gerome's "Police Verso" displayed in Duggan's article.)

A catalog for a current exhibit at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, "Thumbs Up: Reconsidering Jean-Léon Gérôme," receives thoughtful review by Bob Duggan in Big Think. The article discusses the curators' intention to spark debate about Gerome's traditional realism and modernist tendencies, but the essays listed speak mostly to his notorious stereotyping. "Genre work" is always considered a lesser art form. Of interest to me is Mary Robert's "Gerome in Istanbul," which discusses the Orientalists work in terms of contemporary hangups and ethnic tensions. The exhibit runs at the Getty until Sept. 12. The book is

Reading Notes: Flaubert Meets Kuchuk Hanem (5)

2010-08-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

In Esna, Flaubert's famous encounter with the famed dancer Kuchuk Hanem:

Kuchuk Hanem and Bambeh begin to dance. Kuchuk's dance is brutal. She squeezes her bare breasts together with her jacket. She puts on her girdle fashioned from a brown shawl with gold stripes, with three tassels hanging on ribbons. She rises first on one foot, then on the other--marvelous movement, when one foot is on the ground, the other moves up and across in front of the shin bone. The whole thing done with a light bound. I have seen this dance on old Greek vases.

Bambeh prefers a dance on a straight line; she moves with a lowering and raising of one hip only, a kind of limping of great character. Bambeh has henna on her hands. She seems to be a devoted servant to Kuchuk...All in all, their dancing, except Kuchuk's step mentioned above, is far less good than that of Hassan el-Belbeissi, the male dancer in Cairo. Joseph's opinion is that all beautiful women dance badly." (p. 115-116)

Artwork:
Jean-Leon Gerome from Wikipedia
Text:
Flaubert in Egypt:A Sensibility on Tour. Trans. and ed by Francis Steegmuller. Chicago: Academy Chicago Ltd. 1979.

Reading Notes: Flaubert in Egypt 4 (Dancers)

2010-08-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

More on the male dancer Hasan el_Belbeissi in Cairo:

Saturday, December 29, 1849.
After our lunch on that same day, we had dancers in--the famous Hasan el-Belbeissi and one other, with musicians; the second would have been noticed even without Hasan. They both wore the same costume--baggy trousers and embroidered jacket, their eyes painted with antimony (khol). The jacket goes down to the abdomen, whereas the trousers, held by an enormous cashmere belt folded over several times, begin approximately at the pubis, so that the stomach, the small of the back, and the beginning of the buttocks are naked, seen through a bit of black gauze held in place by the upper and lower garments. The gauze ripples on the hips like a transparent wave with every movment they make. The shrilling of the flute and the pulsing of the darabukey pierce one's very breast.

Here is a translation of what the singer sang during the dance:

"A slim-waisted Turkish object has sharp and piercing eyes.

Because of them, the lovers have passed the night enchained like slaves.

I am sacrificing my soul for the love of a doe capable of fettering lions.

O God, how sweet it is to suck nectar from her mouth.

Is that nector not the source of my languishment, my wasting away?

O full moon. Enough of harshness and of torment; high time you fulfilled the promise you made to the languishing lover.

And, above all, make no end to the favors you grant him."

The dancers move forward and back. Expressionlessness of their faces beneath their cheeks of rouge and sweat. The effect comes from the gravity of the face contrasted with the lascivious movements of the body; occaissionally, one or the others lies down flat on his back like a woman about to offer herself, and then suddenly leaps up with a bound, like a tree straightening itself after a gust; then bows and curtseys; pauses; their red trousers suddenly puff out like oval balloons, then seem to collapse, expelling the air that's been swelling them. Now and again, during the dance, their impresario makes jokes and kisses Hasan on the belly. Hasan never for a moment stops watching himself in the mirror.

Meanwhile, Mourier was eating his lunch at a little round table on the left.
(p. 69-70)

Photo: Wikipedia: Kocek.
Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour. Trans. and Ed. Francis Steegmuller. Academy Chicago Limited. Chicago: 1979.

Reading Notes: Flaubert in Egypt 3(Dancers)

2010-08-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

Already in Cairo, this is Flaubert's first dramatic rendering of a dancer, mostly on the male dancer Hasan el-Belbeissi:

One day behind the Hotel d'Orient, we meet a wedding procession. The drummers (small drums) are on donkey-back, richly dressed children on horses; women in black veils (seen full-face, the veilsare like the paper disks that circus riders jump through, only black) uttering the zagarit;.....a male dancer--it was Hassan el-Belbeissi--in drag, his hair braided on each side, embroidered jacket, eyebrows painted black, very ugly, gold piastres hanging down his back; around his body, as a belt, a chain of large square gold amulets; he clicks castanets; splendid writhings of belly and hips; he makes his belly undulate like waves; grand final blow with his trousers ballooning." (38-39)

Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour. Trans. and Ed. Francis Steegmuller. Academy Chicago Limited. Chicago: 1979.

Photo: Kocek (male dancer) from Wikipedia.

Reading Notes: Flaubert (2) Landscapes with Slaves

2010-08-24T20:15:00.001-07:00

Continuing my literary excursion with Flaubert, the slavery connotations disturb me far more than the prostitutes or the sexualized interpretations of the dancing. The dancers (almeh and bardashes) appear to have some agency, (Kuchuk Hanem employs her own servants and keeps her money in the bank), and are worth conversing with in Flaubert's view. The slavery system depicted--the ships from Nubia, the older women hired to console the young female slaves embarking on their dismal futures, and the man who got away--haunts because the people exploited have no voices, no direct interaction with Flaubert. Flaubert, in his southern most jaunt in Upper Egypt, sees a camel running through the desert with a Nubian man tied to him. Flaubert surmises that the slave is being pulled to freedom by the animal.

Flaubert reports these sights. The fact that he reports them perhaps says what he is able to at that time. But the cool reportage is unnerving mixed in with the detail of an idealized landscape and laced with the specificity that would become part of the future novelist's trademark:
Sunset over Medinet Habu: The mountains are dark indigo (on the Medinet Habu side); blue over dark gray, with contrasting horizontal stripes of purplish red in the clefts of the valleys. The palms are black as ink, the sky is red, the Nile has the look of a lake of molten steel.
When we arrived off Thebes, our sailors were drumming on their darabukehs, the mate was playing his flute, Khalil was dancing with his castanets; they broke off to land.
It was then, as I was enjoying those things, and just as I was watching the wave-crests bending under the wind behind us, I felt a surge of solemn happiness that reached out toward what I was seeing, and I thanked God in my heart for having made me capable of such joy; I felt fortunate at the thought, and yet it seemed to me that I was thinking of nothing: it was a sensuous pleasure that pervaded my entire being."

Hollywood Orientalism 2010

2010-08-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Mia Mask's story on NPR, "Eat, Pray, Love. Leave: Orientalism on the Big Screen, reviews the popularity of modern movies with Orientalist tropes, most egregiously with "Eat, Pray, Love," the story of a woman who "finds herself" while traveling in the East. We still associate the east with barbarism and female sexuality. It's the simplification of Eastern spiritual tropes and the "West"'s (I've been nudged for the vague use of that word too) eagerness to make everything a commodity.

How does this relate to belly dance/orientalish? See Deagon's Patriarchy article (below) or any of myriad articles promoting belly dance for women's empowerment, a theory likely created in the "West" for women in the "west." As an active yogi, I fit the bill twice. I have no plans to quit dancing, to avoid books I want to read (such as Flaubert's degrading but captivating trip down the Nile) or to give up yoga, or..to point fingers at others doing the same. I just hope to take stock of what I do and to continue to carve out my own understanding of why I'm drawn to what I'm drawn toward. That is always a mystery to be pursued. (Note: I didn't read "Eat, Pray, Love" or go to the movie.)

Research: Flaubert in Egypt

2010-08-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

Continuing researching regarding early travels down the Nile for my Ralph Waldo Emerson project, I've been reading "Flaubert in Egypt." This book, with its fancy Orientalist cover, has been on my shelf for years. I love "Madame Bovary" and was worried this would repel me. Thus far, these accounts of his journey from France to Egypt in the fall of 1849 has proved a fascinating and aesthetically beautiful read. A collection of letters, journal notes, and sections from the memoirs of his travel partner Maxime Du Camp is very, very Flaubert, and very, very little Egypt. He sexualizes the men and the women and the children and even the street animals like that of a horny young artist. He goes of looking for splendor and fantasy and finds it precisely because he is seeing it through his own lens. As the translator and editor Francis Steegmuller states in her introduction he was sensualist and frequenter of prostitutes, male and female. He obsesses over the frequency of people hitting the lower classes, which is alarming. His visual impressions of the colors and scents and foods are worth the read.

Flaubert's literary influences in his perceptions of Egypt came from reading the romantic effusions of "The East" in works by Lord Byron, Victor Hugo's "Les Orientales," and the collected "Arabian Nights." He also, in a letter to his mother, refers to Lane's "The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians" (1836). Steegmuller juxtaposes a scene from Flauber's "pre-Egypt_ Orient and one from his travel account. That tomorrow....

Photos of Gustave Flaubert taken shortly before his Egyptian travels; Maxime Du Champ, his co-traveller. Both from Wikipedia.

"Twtty Orientalism" in the New York Times

2010-08-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

" She had so much." "But Will it Make You Happy?" The overwhelmingly popular column in the NY Times about a woman who stepped off the earn/spend treadmill and whittled her belongings down to 100 items hooked me. I still like it though I agree the article does oversimplify the "simple life." Among those who took odds with it was Adam Weinstein in "The New York Times' Twitty Orientalism " who criticized the Eastern religion references Hinduism, Sufism, Yoga, and other "eastern" paths that people flit in and out of in oversimplifed form when convenient (I see myself in that list). Weinstein is right in many regards. We're so mired by consumer society that sometimes our winnowing down of items ends up in buying more in the long run. Purge, binge. We use these other belief systems when convenient (and trendy) and just as easily take them off again. Spirituality is hard; commitment isn't popular in our society. Weinstein then moves into more serious territory that results from this winnowing down of that classic "Other." Orientalism exists, he says, with terrifying results though we live in an age that tries to educate ourselves away from it.

Also relevent to this Orientalish thing, Weinstein mentions his own youthful travels to Uzbekistan that made him a suden "expert" on Uzbek culture by local media when he returned. As I read Flaubert's 19th century travel accounts in Egypt, that point struck me as so much of what I'm reading seems Flaubert, Flaubert, Flaubert and very little Egypt. What also strikes me in this 100 items plan is the homes I saw in my last trip to Egypt where the economic situation is dire in the small towns. Some people would kill to own 100 things.

Maureen Fleming at Flushing Library in Queens

2010-08-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

Axis Mundi and Other Works:
A Tribute to Kazuo Ohno
By Maureen Fleming
Artistic Director and
Choreographer

Saturday, August 21 7:00 p.m.
Flushing Auditorium, Lower Level
41-17 Main Street
718-661-1200
(Directions below)

One of my favorite dancers and teachers performs and lectures this Saturday in Queens. This free show is a rare event. If you're in town, it's worth the effort to get there!

Maureen Fleming was born in Japan. After extensive study there with Kazuo Ohno, co-founder of Butoh, an avantgarde movement developed in post-war Japan, Ms. Fleming went on to perform with Ohno’s son, Yoshito, and tour internationally with performance artist/ choreographer Min Tanaka. This lecture/ demonstration includes excerpts of Ms. Fleming’s work and will be presented with intermittent videos, photographs and narratives that deal with the crucial relationship in her Japanese-influenced work to the changing role of art in society. Photography and visual design by Christopher Odo. Admission is free.
(Photo taken Aug. 2009 at La MaMa Galleria).

Train: 7 to Main Street (last stop) LIRR: Port Washington Line to Flushing-Main Street Bus: Q12, Q13, Q17, Q19, Q20A, Q20B, Q25, Q27, Q34, Q44, Q58, Q65, Q66, QBx1

Field Trip: King Tut at the Met Museum of Art

2010-08-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

As the Times Square exhibit continues, the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers a small scale sister exhibit, the Funeral of Tutankhamen. I attended a gallery tour with Egyptologist Phyllis Saretta. She started the tour with connecting look at Amenhotep the III and his son Akhnaton (credited by some for inventing monotheism in the ancient world) who fathered Tutankhamen. Tutankhamen, a young and relatively minor ruler who died at 18, paled next to the transforming reign of his father. I knew of the monotheism and that he changed the form of art into elongated figures, but what Saretta added to this was the "realism or naturalism of his artistic contributions." That period, known as the Amarna period, showed realistically drawn pharaohs with wrinkles and fat. After Akhnaton died, the priests, threatened by the monotheism that might put them out of business, managed to sway the boy pharaoh back to polytheism before he died.

What does this have to do with Orientalish? The fact that Tutankhamen was a relatively unimportant figure except for the fact that his intact tomb made the European explorers famous and wealthy. They researched and pillaged in the manner of their era (early 20th century), which was probably better than their predecessors did. The artifacts at the Met are modest in number at this exhibit but have beautiful detail. Soon...King Tut in Times Square...before it's gone.

Research: Emerson at Philae, Part 1

2010-08-17T19:15:00.001-07:00

During research on Ralph Waldo Emerson and his voyage down the Nile in 1872, I spent this weekend reading his essay: "Napoleon, or, Man of the World." Yes, that Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte of the Egyptian Campaign, 1798-1801. Emerson's essay focused on this conqueror's character and will. For the sake of cultivating his personal philosophy and ethics, Emerson studied rigorously the character traits great men and women had in common--their nature-- and this is the focus of his essay. According to Emerson's study, Napoleon's strength seeps most from his ability to act, "the execution of ideas," never on impulse but on calculation. Emerson portrays Napoleon's unparalleled ability to gain power over men while gaining their respect; they saw in him a role model that a common man can conquer the aristocracy. Emerson, Calvinist and American and Transcendentalist, admired Napoleon's organic rise to power through his wits.

But from the beginning of Emerson's essay, a shadow lurks. Emerson deliberately shows how Bonaparte subordinated all of his great powers and vision toward the material. They hit the mark…and ended there. He set aside "sentiments" such as beloved wife and children. According to Emerson, Bonapart invested his powers into the world, "never weak and literary," he acted. (In an essay on Plato, Emerson states the philosopher's fault was that he was "literary;" Plato's greatness was diminished because he didn't invest in the world.) In his journal during his Egyptian Campaign he wrote: "I have conducted the campaign without consulting anyone…my actions were as prompt as my thoughts." The savants and artists he took aboard, though heralded for advancing culture, brought material ends as their catalog and works became propaganda machines immortalizing his name. Napoleon says of his own character: "My ambition was great, but was of a cold nature."

Napoleon's grasping turned on him at the end. France and Europe tired of his egotism and reviled him. I think of the derogatory cliche that remains, a "Napoleon Complex." Emerson says, "As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick…Only that good profits which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men." (Paintings: Top, "The Egyptian Expedition under the orders of Bonaparte" by Leon Cogniet; center, "Bonaparte Before the Sphinx" by Jean-Leon Gerome both from Wikipedia, "French Campaign in Egypt.")

Article by Andrea Deagon: Belly Dance in Patriarchy

2010-08-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

"Belly Dance in Patriarchy: The Switzerland of the Soul," by Andrea Deagon on The Gilded Serpent, offers a considered view of many of fallacies consistent in the current belly dance scene. The use of goddess imagery is questioned, the uncomfortable conundrum between being drawn to belly dance for its acceptance of body types and learning quickly that what sells is typical slender good looks that meet a stereotype, the "dumbing down" of belly dance as it becomes more popular, and the belly dance scene's commodity driven belittling of Arab culture.

An excerpt: Also, we unfairly deny this sort of aesthetic expression to men in our own culture. We fail to acknowledge the aesthetics of the Arab world that created this dance, and we do that all-too-colonial thing: we feminize the Arab “Other,” which, in the metaphor of all patriarchies, aligns him with inherent flaws and inevitable defeat. In claiming that Belly dance is fundamentally feminine, we truthfully reflect the often-empowering ideals of our own culture. However, we also we fall prey to the limitations our patriarchy imposes on both genders, limit our own freedom of expression, exclude men, and repress Arabs all in one fell swoop. Deagon has several articles published in The Gilded Serpent that are well worth reading. Check out the Serpent!

August 2010 Choreography at NYU

2010-08-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

Here is our final dance class of the summer! How hot it was, and yet, how quickly it went. All of these dancers did amazing work in a very short amount of time. And now they leave to school, life, new faculty positions and beyond. Keep dancing everyone!

Hezze Ya Nawaem: Summer 1 at NYU

2010-06-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

NYU Drum Solo: Summer I

2010-06-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

This session's classes are nearing an end...we've finished one drum solo routine in our steamy fencing salle and start a new piece this week. We worked on the "Solo Tabla" from the Beata and Horacio's album "Oriental Fantsy 4." Enjoy, practice, send compliments to the dancers you recognize! And sign up for the next session of classes.....

New York Times Obituary: Kazuo Ohno

2010-06-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

The legacy of this dance legend will continue. Jennifer Dunning's obituary in the New York Times considers briefly his artistry and the ephemeral nature of the butoh form.

King Tut in Times Square

2010-05-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

King Tut in Times Square? Totally Orientalish. This recent review in the New York Times talks more about the show as spectacle and commodity in addition to its undeniable grandeur. It is a money making venture for the Egyptian Department of Antiquities and rightfully so. It's in Times Square because the Met couldn't afford it. The review in the New York Times is an educational first read for this event,"Mystique of Tut, Increasing with Age". But for a better exploration of the political and historical and comical profile of Hawass, the New Yorker's December article, "Letter from Cairo: The Pharoah".

PEN World Voices: Writers from Lebanon

2010-05-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

Today PEN America is sponsoring three panels of Lebanese writers. At 1 p.m., the formidable Elias Khoury; 3 p.m., Rawi Hague; and at 5 p.m., Alexandre Najjar
Event specifics: Le Skyroom, French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), 22 East 60th Street, between Madison and Park, New York City
Free.

Performance: Mezzo Mezzo on May Day

2010-04-30T06:05:00.001-07:00

May 1, 9:30 p.m.
Mezzo Mezzo
31-29 Ditmars Blvd (at 33rd)
Astoria, NY 11105
Reservations: (718) 278-0444.
Musicians: Elias Sakar, Chris Marashlian, Robert Boghosian, and Amir Noum
Table minimum: $25

Photo: Aristo

Hoopoe from The Conference of the Birds

2010-04-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend's Venus Uprising show, "The Zoo" is going beautifully with many great dancers in a thoughtfully planned show. Because many people have asked, "What is a hoopoe?," I'm offering the following description. The bird appears in Farid Ud-din Attar's 12th century Sufi text "The Conference of the Birds." In that text, the hoopoe leads a band of birds in search of the mythical Simorgh. After discipline and travail, each bird learns the Simorgh must be found within her own yearning and within the yearning of those traveling alongside her. In the picture, taken from Wikipedia, the hoopoe is center right, a small bird with a blackish wing and a dotted crown.

Sisters of Bast at Je'Bon, Part 2

2010-03-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

Sisters of Bast at Je'Bon, Part 1

2010-03-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you who performed and who came to support us. We had a great turnout and a great time!

Venus Uprising: The Zoo

2010-03-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

Venus Uprising is presenting one of their fantasy belly dance events this April and I'm very happy to be part of it. I'll be the hoopoe, the guide in Attar's 13th c. work: The Conference of the Birds. Other dancers are choosing other animals to embody for the night.
Show: April 16-17th pm
www.venusuprising.com