May 2004 Archives

[First Written 11/9/2003 -- Commentary at the end.] Again with the unwritten rules. A well-known dancer, and personal friend, told me another sad tale of lowballing from so-called “dancers” and cheap restaurant owners. And this one happened to her. Everyone should be working to grow new venues, not slicing into old ones. To those who are: stop eating off the bodies of our elders, those who opened these doors for you. All the successful dancers had to hack the system to make it work for them. And no, backstabbing people is not making the system work. Just ask the guys at Enron how well backstabbing works in the end. Or ask guys like Michael Milikan. You might get that short-term gig, but when word gets around, as it always does, you can forget having a set of big classes, or being shipped around the US for seminars (sic), because no one will want to deal with your crap. Close the Ranks, people. So long as we all [allow] this to occur, we sell ourselves more cheaply than is printable in this family publication. ======================== The horror of my grammar...! Still happening, sadly. Perhaps as bad is the "eating of the young". The anti-BellyDance Superstars commentary I've been hearing strikes me as sour grapes, yes, but also as many other things. Confronted with some of the aspects of the ghettoization of raqs, too many people appear to cower behind a rationale of purity which...worries me. There's a strong point that's made by those who look to the Middle East as the source of all things good in this dance. Losing that connection, especially in these times, would be a major blunder. At the same time, it's important to realize that this dance has already had massive changes to it, in the 20th century. Not allowing Westerners, especially Americans, to continue to evolve it flies in the face of 1000+ years of history. You can, and will, have both. If you want it, and are willing to accept that evolution is NOT "survival of the fittest", in and of itself. Boy. I could write an essay on this, alone...