~BAKLAVA~

"Dancing, Fear, and Desire: Race, Sexuality, & Imperial Politics in Middle Eastern Dance" by Stavros Stavrou Karayanni

2011-02-10T23:13:00.000-08:00

Its been a busy day of blogging for me. Its coming along slowly, but its coming nonetheless. Although I am extremely interested in belly dancing as an aesthetic art, and I enjoy the music immensely, Ive also been thinking a lot about it lately in terms of how it has come to be perceived primarily as an erotic and sexual activity and an activity almost wholly exclusive to women. This brings me to a book review I found online concerning the book:

Dancing Fear and Desire: Race, Sexuality, & Imperial Politics in Middle Eastern Dance by Stavros Stavrou Karayanni.

I haven't read the book yet, but the review is interesting for the light it shines on these topics and others, and it is the first academic writing Ive discovered that discusses the phenomenon of belly dancing from a gender and political perspective. Since I do not have the time to summarize this reviewers ideas, I'm going to reproduce his book review in full, and use it to develop a couple of themes I want to come back to at a later time.

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Fear-Desire-Sexuality-Imperial/dp/0889204543

Amani Jabril's Moroccan "Dance of the Horse" by Baklava Bellydance at the Renaissance Festival in Mobile Alabama 2010

2011-02-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

Baklava In Action!

2011-02-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

Belly Dancing and Health!

2011-02-10T14:01:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that dancing is a healthy physical activity, but not everyone knows that specific kinds of dancing have unique kinds of health benefits. Such is the case with belly dancing. As this blog is a chronicle of belly dancing information, I thought this would be a good place to begin:

* Belly dancing stimulates weight loss. It

has been known to burn up to 300 calories an hour depending on the intensity of the movements. If coupled with additional cardiovascular exercise, it can be a very effective way to shed pounds and tone muscles of the entire body.

* Aids proper digestion. The wave-like movements and contractions of the torso create an internal massage, and stimulate the body to effectively digest food. In addition, regular dancing improves circulation, which in turn improves the body’s digestive process.

* Prepares for childbirth. The hip tucks learned in belly dancing are similar to the “pelvic rocking” movements expectant women learn prior to pregnancy. Women learn to move their pelvis while muscles of the pelvis and hips are strengthened.

* Tones Muscles.In addition to the muscles of the torso and back, the shoulders and arms also receive a workout in belly dancing because they are held aloft throughout the dance and moved gracefully.

* Improves coordination and balance. Belly dancing exercises the muscles surrounding the hips during moves such as hip drops, and figure eights. These movements enhance flexibility and can lead to improved balance when the dancer resumes normal every day walking.

* Improves posture and strengthens bones. As a weight bearing exercise, belly dancing can strengthen bones and joints, prevent osteoporosis and facilitate gentle recovery from joint injuries. When muscle groups are weak, the spine unnaturally curves forward. The muscles groups of the back that are normally under-exercised are used and strengthened while dancing help to improve posture and prevent back pain.

So, if you need to get yourself in shape or are just feeling a little aimless, precocious about your body, or don't know where to begin, belly dancing is a good activity to help you work out some of the kinks. Don't be shy get off of your butt, find a class, and give it a try.

P.S. For anyone wanting a chiseled stomach. No other human activity could come close to giving it to you like this!

A Short Introduction To Belly Dancing!

2011-02-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

Middle Eastern Dance and Ghawazee

Oriental dance as an umbrella term groups a large number of regional folk traditions throughout the Middle East.

The ghawazee of were travelling female dancers of Dom (Gypsy) ethnicity in Egypt during the 18th to 19th centuries. They were banished from Cairo to Upper Egypt by Muhammad Ali in the 1830s. [1] The dance style of the ghawazee was popularized in Europe under the term "belly-dance" in 19th-century Orientalism. Around this time, dancers from the Middle East also began to perform at various World's Fairs, often drawing crowds in numbers that rivaled those for the science and technology exhibits. It was during this period that the term "oriental" or "eastern" dancing is first used. Several dancers, including the French author Colette, engaged in "oriental" dancing, sometimes passing off their own interpretations as authentic. Also the pseudo-Javanese dancer Mata Hari, convicted in 1917 by the French for being a German spy, danced in a style similar to belly dance.

The ghawazee were made famous in Europe by writers such as Gerard de Nerval (1808-1855) and Gustav Flaubert (1821-1880). The French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) executed a series of paintings depicting them, the best known among these was L'Almée or which caused considerable scandal at the Salon of 1864 in Paris,[2] and sent other painters to Egypt in the search of "belly-dance". In 1881, the Austrian painter Leopold Carl Müller was given an audience with Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria in Girga in Upper Egypt. Müller in a letter to his friend August von Pettenkofen expressed his intrigue, saying "...and in the evening we saw Egyptian dancers. One should use Gérôme for an example! I am so curious to know what Gérôme would do if he were here."[3] Müller and Gérôme shared the same dealer in London, Henry Wallis, and had exhibited paintings at his French Gallery in the Pall Mall. Müller's depiction of an Egyptian dancer, titled An Almée's Admirers, was exhibited there in 1882.

In the early 20th century, the urban Egyptian raqs sharqi style developed, based on ghawazi and other folk styles and formed by western influences such as marching bands, the Russian ballet, Latin dance, etc. This hybrid style was performed in the cabarets of interbellum period Egypt and in early Egyptian cinema.

When belly dance became popular in the 1960s to 1970s United States, there arose a desire to recover "ancient origins" of the dance, preferably explanations that emphasize a woman-centered background, ideally associated with Goddess worship, popular in feminism at the time, or childbirth,[4] and de-emphasizing traditions associated with erotic entertainment and prostitution.[5] The supposed connection of bellydance with motherhood and childbirth is based on an account in the autobiographical The Dancer of Shamahka (1918, trans. 1922), by Armenian dancer Armen Ohanian. Ohanian presents a romaniticized vision of the Orient and takes an antimodernist and anticolonialist stance, berating the "desctructive breath of the Occident" for ruining the "primitive purity" of "olden Asia".[6]