Apostate

Yet Another Dina Fashion Victim Attack.

2008-04-26T02:22:43Z

Yes, this is much like shooting fish in a barrel. For those unaware, Dina, the raqs sharqi artist from Egypt, is possibly the most famous dancer there performing today. She's also a regular walking fashion victim of the worst order.
Usually, her sins are of a sexual nature -- Dina's costumes tend to show off enough skin to make the Sahar Okasha stuff look downright prudish (ironic, given the origins of that line...). But here I am, watching a Dina video, and, well, she pulls off both "sexy", "coqettish", "fairy", and "painful", all in the same look.
And you can look, if you DARE:

And I confess, what really shook me up was the back. As painful as the front was, I could take it...goodness knows, she's done worse...but this:

takes "WTF, Dina?" to new levels, in my opinion.

No, your eyes have not failed you. Those are, indeed, Gold Lamé Fairy Wings, Ladies and Gentlemen.
The horror...the horror...

Raqs: One Possible Future.

2008-04-10T12:22:33Z

A friend of mine asked a question, elsewhere, about the Term "Cabaret Fusion". and in the process of answering, something occurred to me about the potential future of what we so inadequately label as "bellydance".
I don't know if this is the future. I don't even know if the two friends I mention are, or ever will be, interested in making the future I mention happen. Yet I do think there is a way to make ATS, and all it's offshoots, more than just the "other side" of Raqs Shaqri, and that both are enriched when that occurs.

Anyway, what I wrote:

]]> OK. First came American Tribal. Then came Jill Parker, who's attempts to rework the ATS aesthetic with other dance styles via ultra Gypsy begat Tribal Fusion. We got some interesting experiments and branch-offs, like Urban Tribal, which kept this idea of fusing ATS going along pretty understandable lines.

It's the Rachel B. et al explosion where things get confusing. they got the tag Tribal Fusion, I think because Rachel was purported to fuse Yoga and ATS, and she wore the Tribal Fusion-y outfits, so....Yet she doesn't, in no small part because Tribal fusion is a unifying aesthetic far more than it it a unifying dance style, and also because she's not dancing Yoga, dammit, she's using the flexibility from Yoga to extend and expand the Raqs Sharqi repertoire.

So now you have Tribal Fusion as this catch all for a lot of concepts that aren't really fusions with anything. And while all this is going on, Ansuya's BDSS appearances starts to (inadvertently) popularize the concept of "Tribaret", which is basically doing American Raqs Sharqi in costuming that's usually bedlah with some ATS/Tribal Fusion elements, like the jewelry, and maybe some moves.

From there, it's a short jump to figuring out how to work ATS, or Tribal Fusion, into various types of Raqs Sharqi; with similar movement vocab, it's easy, but they've grown and evolved enough that they're difference branches off the same tree, branches now growing back into each other, just a little. Hell, I'm doing it, one can argue (and I do argue for it's usefulness). what I think is going to occur is more and more dancers like Lisa Zahiya and Madja Anwar -- younger dancers with solid ATS/Tribal Fusion and Raqs Sharqi training -- will be the building blocks for bringing the two forms together in a ethical and artistically viable way.

So, yeah, it's all Fusion, but it's also how evolution works. And, interestingly enough, it's really not eating our own young. And I say this as a HATER of the term "Tribal Fusion"...

How cool is my other "hobby"?

2008-04-04T12:29:44Z

Herewith some video of musicians and dancers at the last Society for Creative Anachronism event I attended, A Day in the Middle East in Maryland:

Yes, my focus was to video the musicians -- they rarely get anything specific to them, and it's grand to have all that music available to dance to! Also, I was quite tuckered out by that point, so not only did I not dance, but many others were tuckered out by that point as well. In fact, you can hear many of them in the background...sorry about that. :(

The Price of Free

2008-03-11T11:55:09Z

It's going around now that I'm contemplating teaching raqs, again. This is, in no small part, due to a number of SCA members asking me to teach, again.

And I'm going to disappoint them, by charging for classes. Understand -- as someone who's run classes at Pennsic for years now, there's few people who are a stronger booster of the ideals of SCA teaching. The tradition of giving selflessly to others so they might learn your trade is a powerful concept.

The issue I take with it, is simply that I wish to teach for a cadre of folks who want to be deeply, and passionately, involved in the dance. And to ensure this occurs, this takes charging a fee.

Seth Godin has the right of it, indeed:

My friend Joel dropped me a note and asked why I was asking people to post a deposit (to be returned at the end of the summer). It felt wrong to him. I wrote back,
When I do a non profit seminar (they're always free), the number of people who say, "yes I'm coming" and the number of people who come is not the same.

So, if I have room for ten, do I do a seminar for eight, or do I book 12 seats and play airline seat manager for the day?

I have no doubt, none, that if it were free, at least one person wouldn't show.
That got me thinking about free music, free samples and other free interactions. They're different. Paying a dollar for a song isn't expensive to anyone who pays $3 for a cup of coffee. The dollar isn't about expense, it's about selection and choice and commitment.

There is no commitment, one way or the other, for free. If applying to college were free, the number of schools people would apply to would approach infinity--yet the cost of the application is trivial compared to the cost of tuition.

Free costs. If people aren't committing something -- energy, time, money -- they tend to stray. I can't ask for a deposit (not giving it back would do even more damage to my rep), so I'm simply going to charge a fair, non-undercutting fee. The nay-sayers will balk, yet I'll get the students, and the class, that will be awesome!

What say you? I know "don't teach for free" is the Conventional Wisdom, but do you find it to be true? Is there another approach you think might work better for me?

Awesome!

2008-02-12T17:20:03Z

Continuing my ongoing facination with 1920's-style "Orentalist" bedlah...and with Catherine Zeta-Jones*...
Looks like her exotic looks have put her in a "bellydance" outfit again:

Obviously, Mrs. Douglas is doomed to a lifetime of being typecast as "that bellydancer-looking chick". I have no clue how she'll break out of that shell.

* Tall, strong, cute, smart. Mike D is a damned lucky man.

Thriller on the Tube

2008-02-01T21:26:44Z

I found this via someone on my LJ that I can't locate, but it's so much fun I'm surprised it's not spread more wildly. It's a piece of a viral campaign for the Thriller musical in London, where they do a spontaneous-appearing 2 minute bit of kick-ass dancing from the song:

More on the campaign at UTalkMarketing.com.

FYI on previous post

2008-01-31T13:17:33Z

I stupidly posted "Using Audacity to kick ass with your choreographies!" in pre-draft form. The new version not only has more explanations, but also is in both normal and extended forms. If you don't see an image in whatever email you're sent, or in the feed you're getting, come over to the entry. There's text after "as I'm about to..", I promise!

Sorry for the mix-up!

Using Audacity to kick ass with your choreographies!

2008-01-31T04:42:44Z

I've been playing with the free sound & music editor Audacity for awhile. This idea came to me in a flash while I was working with a new tune; it's Electronica, and not new stuff, but it's got a lot of the complex layering and shifts in tone that I like about Arabic Classical, as well.
But those shifts also mean it's a hard one to count. And I've heard enough dancers, on all levels, complain about counts that I've had, in the back of my mind, pondering on how to help dancers with counts. A dancer needs to know how to count music, true, and how to interpret music -- esp. for Improv work. At the same time, it's a hard job form someone not musically trained, and also a challenge for some pieces -- Taxsims come to mind.
So, then, I was using Audacity to play this song, so I could watch the waveforms, and sort out when my changes were coming that could not be counted. And then I discovered the Label function, where you apply another "virtual track" of text; labels that bookmark a timestamp. With that, you can literally write your choreography on the music, just as if it was sheet music!
If this works out, it will open up a whole new level of flexibility and complexity for dancers. You still need the ear,a nd the training to use this properly, but instead of having to start off remembering the changes, you can simply focus on building the music you want, and layering the changes ad-hoc. Then, you can print out the labels, and there's your choreography to remember and work with, to pass to the troupe or post online...as I'm about to.]]>
WARNING: The below is incomplete and incorrect. I will post the final, but I wanted to give a quick example of where I'm going with this. The choreography is actually just the sagat(zill) portion of a larger piece I'm slowly working on...

So, the idea in the editor'll look a little something like this, when zoomed to fill the window fully:

You can see how the labels bookmark a moment in time; that's where you know your next change is coming, and it will describe what to change to. If you zoom in, it's like a rolling timeline, where you can watch not only the waveform of the music, but also see what the next change'll be as you go.
And this is how it looks when you Export the Sagat label:

0.054898    0.054898    (8 count) 4x alt. 1 - 1.2.3.4.5 pattern
8.344533    8.344533    (8 count) 3.5x Heavy11.1.2.3.4 - 1.2.3
22.810221    22.810221    Fast 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10
23.935635    23.935635    (8 count) ?x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
63.386886    63.386886    (4 count) 16x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
79.465209    79.465209    (8 count) 4x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
102.659717    102.659717    (8 count) 2x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
110.379783    110.379783    (4 count) ?xHeavy11.1.2.3.4
118.507386    118.507386    Slience
122.410773    122.410773    (4 count) 8x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
130.197076    130.197076    Slience
132.244307    132.244307    (4 count) 8x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
140.190476    140.190476    (8 count) 4x Scrape1.2.3.4 - Heavy 1
147.957551    147.957551    (4 count) 4x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
151.916553    151.916553    Slience
157.988571    157.988571    (8 count) 2x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
165.703401    165.703401    Slience
177.499138    177.499138    Rattle sagats
185.359093    185.359093    (4 count) 8x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
201.084807    201.084807    (8 count) 2x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
208.817052    208.817052    (4 count) ?x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
216.746667    216.746667    (8 count) ?x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
220.755011    220.755011    (8 count) 4x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4Heavy11
228.635283    228.635283    Slience
230.101043    230.101043    (8 count) 3x Heavy11.1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4
236.248526    236.248526    (4 count) 8x 1.2.3
240.425215    240.425215    Slience
248.308390    248.308390    (8 count) 2x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
256.181406    256.181406    (4 count) 16x Heavy11.1.2.3.4

So now, we're out of beat-based mode, where you're having to keep track of how many measures you just did, and into a "stopwatch" mode, where you track your movements via the seconds and minutes it takes. This is exactly what you need for some musical types, and can be transforms into "counts", or a hybrid if necessary.

Comments?

Re-Fuse-nicks

2008-01-28T02:28:10Z

     The saddest part about "bellydance fusion" -- a name that I personally am coming to despise -- is how limited it is. With rare excpetions, it's all based on jumping off other archetypes, from ATS to Goth* to Hula. Which is great, as borrowing is how Raqs Sharqi got kick-started, yet I'm not certain if there' s much future in looking like a rebuilt version of other people's pasts.
    One of the things I've been slowly (glacially, or perhaps even continental-drift-ly) working on is trying to find a Raqs Sharqi that not only fits my personal needs as a performer, but also brings the form with some solid 21-st entry cred, without losing the elements that make Raqs Sharqi, esp. the Egyptian form, beloved and almost unique among dance styles. I refuse to think that this dance can't be brought, wholesale, into the new century, and even evolved in ways that don't lose the core conceptions and conceits.
    And maybe it's just that I'm conceited, as one of my focal points on this is the core statement by Morocco and Tarik Sultan, that Raqs sharqi can only be preformed to the appropriate, Arabic, music. I do not feel that a dance loses it's essence merely by being preformed with music that's not of it's host genre, and that dance, in most cases (and certainly this one) is not separate from music, but should not be enslaved to it either.
    To that end, I've been working on one aspect of this, in an attempt to kick-start the rest -- sagat work to Western tunes. And moreover, sgat work to Big Beat Electronica, with it's complex layering and high BPMs. Not only is it a challenge, it's something that is, on one level, far, far away from Classical Arabic Orchestrations. As much as I love that music, it's structure is well-known, even if it's challenges (esp. for Western dancers) nigh-infinite.
    Electronica, however, esp. the kinds of songs I'm planning to work with, have so many different, and varied, and complex layers to play with, that a dancer could work for days just slicing apart the basics of just one song, much less trying to work movements into the various levels. And the speed is such that one must truly play sagat at a very skilled level simply to keep up, much less to actually play, as opposed to just clack. And when the dancer does, s/he becomes their own musician, bringing an Arabic feel to Western tunes, transforming a song into a new, more powerful and truly different fusion of cultures, honoring both in ways that other fusions struggle to meet.
    And if I can do that with simply playing the sagats, imagine what could be done with other pieces of the dance? Imagine growing a fusion organically, from the ground up? So far, we can only imagine.
    But I intent to make it real. Wouldn't that be cool?

[Sekrit message to Lynette: New articles coming soon. Got crazy, then traveled, then very sick. Sorry!]

* Yes, I've heard the "Goth isn't Fusion" arguments. No offense to those artists, yet I'm currently unswayed. Feel free to take it up with me in the comments. :)

Checkin' out my dance style...

2007-12-05T11:38:37Z

I was just re-directed to an intriguing article on Gilded Serpent (not mine, of which more later), where the dancer Leila tries to lay out what she feels Middle Eastern audiences expect from a dancer. What I wanted to do, for once, is talk about me, in relation to this article. Obviously, the article's not perfect, but she does hit some key points that I do find missing in much of the Western offshoots of Raqs Sharqi, and hope to bring to audiences myself. :)

She makes 7 points, and I'll interleave my thoughts with those points:

1. Middle Eastern audiences expect the dancer’s appearance to represent an archetype of feminine beauty.

Well, I'm a zero in that regard. :)
I think this is true, and is part of why men are rejected as professional dancers. The older architypes of dancers got replaced with "all female, all the time"; A'isha Azar gives this as a primary reason for raqs sharqi being a female focused (I think she uses the term "essence") dance form, a point I disagree with. But there is a strong expectation, among both Arab and western audiences, that the dancer will be female, and should appear "feminine". Even in tribal, it's rare to find a dancer who emphasizes "traditionally masculine" aspects. This is, of course, with the caveat that people differ on what's masculine...

2. A dancer is expected to have a certain amount of sex appeal, or dela.

I'm told I can be quite sexy when I dance. I don't mean to be, and I point out to those folks that if I'm so sexy, why am I still single?
But I think "sexy" is true of the dancers I've seen from "over there". At the same time, I think her point about there being multiple forms of "sexy" is really an aspect of the audience's reaction to Point 6. Raqs sharqi is a very emotive dance, and it's easy, in my experience, to conflate that kind of connection with the audience with flirting, with sexuality. Dancers have often heard tales of being called "sexy", when there was nothing in what they did or said that was meant as such -- that happens to me a lot.

3. A dancer must know generally what the song she is performing to is about.

Which is a major factor for why many dancers perform to Western music, somewhere below, but connected to, "familiarity". We tend, in my experience, to want to dance to the songs we know, and a lot of raqs sharqi's movement vocab springs from the way music is expressed in "Classical" Arabic Orchestrated modes. Not only is it tough to emulate that in Western music, it's hard to bridge that gap between what the music "says" to a Egyptian raqasa, and an American bellydancer
For myself, I tend to be a "bigger" dancer than I want, both in terms of sheer physical moves, and in terms of how I interpret my music -- which itself tends to be more bombastic than most ol skool Arabic music. I like it, but I'm investing time and energy into breaking all that back down, and seeing what "small" can give me once again. I think part of the issue is that I grew up singing gospel, a very enthusiastic musical form (at least, the way we did it), and that carries over into my dancing.

4. An emotional connection to the music is key.

So damn true it's not funny. So missed by many dancers -- including myself, sometime. A lot of the quibbles with "fusion" (what a horrid word for such an outpouring of creative energy!) is predicated, in my mind, on not just "look and feel", but this. A disconnect between the dancer and the music isn't western, but there is a...void between the dancer and the audience and the music that's very much of the Ballet mode, and hard for me to put my finger in. Ah -- it's the intimacy thing, the same thing that makes staging raqs so damned hard.
I'd also say that it's no coincidence that the first unique Western offshoot of raqs sharqi, American Tribal, succeeds in keeping a certain level of intimacy with the audience, while also pulling back into the fellow dancers, and in establishing a one-step-removed connection with the music, with concepts like arrhythmic slow movements. Instead of "feeling the music", the music is a jumping-off point for working with your fellow dancers, and (to a limited extent) the audience.
(look at me, doing the ramble thing!)

5. A dancer must be relaxed and confident on stage.

...and it's hard. I know dancers with 20+ years experience who still get the woobiles before they go on. I'm lucky that I had lots of early experience on stages, performing, and the like. But it is critical if you're going to pull off Points 4 and 6, to be relaxed enough to flow into the music, especially if you're improving.

6. A dancer is expected to communicate with her audience—there is no invisible wall at the edge of the stage.

This is my single biggest quibble with many dancers. Flowing back to Point 5, many dancers act scared of their audience, and thus don't open themselves up to the joy of being in front of the audience. To me, that's a great part of being spontaneous...but I also understand the importance, and joy, of building a great dance edifice
all I can think, is that such a edifice should not be a crutch for not being able to dance on the spot, in the moment, with joy and fierce pride, or whatever emotions you like to bring. That is the true power of improv, and what improv brings to the dancer is the ability to generate new dance on the fly. Much in the same way as many of the best rappers can freestyle like mad, dancers who can improv have more, and easier, access to the main tools of dance-building.
And, of course, dancers who can connect to the audience make much more in tips -- not to mention tend to get better recommendations for more gigs. It's worth the work.

7. Personality and style.

A little too vague, but the point I think she's trying to make -- that dancers need to pay attention to how they look, and have a game plan on a unique feel -- is true, and something I subconsciously did. I'm larger-than-life, with loud music and powerful moves. And that, plus the gender thing, has gotten me a lot of recognition and word-of-mouth.
I'm not sure how to do it deliberately, yet I'd say that it's critical to being any kind of dancer. It was her unique POV that led Carolena to create Fat Chance, and that led to much in the way of sales, and a franchise that'll last well past her passing.
If you want the same, keep it in mind as you grow as a dancer.

...wow. Well, I didn't talk about myself a lot, but I sure did talk. *smirk*

Raqs History Lead

2007-10-31T11:17:24Z

I'm so excited!

I finally got around to dropping a line to Professor Amnon Shiloah, writer of Music in the World of Islam, a critical work in doing my period raqs research. In question was a reference to period works that detailed dance steps on page 27. To sum up, it wasn't the response I expected; the reference I recalled was off, but he did give me references to two works:

His article 'Reflexions sur la danse artistique musulmane au moyen age' -- or, loosely translated, "Thoughts on Islamic Dance in the (European) Middle Ages. Yes, this promises to be about as cool as you'd might imagine. :) The full citation is:
'Reflexions sur la danse artistique musulmane au moyen age'
Cahiers de civilisation medievale, vol 5, 1962, pp 463-474
David Wulstan's article 'Bring on the Dancing Girls', found in al-Masaq, Vol. 17, No. 2. This article is, with a bit of work, available online; go to the Informaworld page for this article, register, and when you return to the page, you'll see you have 30 days of access for free!

So I have the latter work; it's not quite SCA-period, but it is interesting, including a unique attempt to reconstruct dance based primarily on music. It's really more of a music article than a dance one...and it's also somewhat "oh la la". There's some comments, some parts, that strike me as a little too much of the scholar going "ohhh, look at the hot chicks wiggling their hips!" But I want to do another, deeper read of the work before I condemn it completely.

Anyway. I'm doing an ILL for the first work today; it's also in the upcoming work Music and Its Virtues in Islamic and Judaic Writings, but it's not out yet, and it's over $100 smackers. I, along with other dance researchers, should support such works -- I'll be damned if we don't need more, and more expansive, research -- yet that's a good bit of money, sadly.

Decisions, decisions...

Teaching raqs: a few observations.

2007-07-24T13:31:02Z

Swiped ruthlessly from a post I made on Tribe on this subject. I made some minor edits, and re-post for posterity (or, at least as long as I pay the bills).

Notes on developing into a Raqs teacher:

Focus, for now, on becoming the best dancer you can. Practice Practice Practice, and then Drill Some More.

Prepare to Wait. I tell people that you'll know you're supposed to teach when people who watch you dance are astonished you're not. That's as good a metric as any I've ever heard.

Network. I know it sounds odd, but really, you want to have a solid cadre of people to pull information and opinions from. Be sure to include people from outside your particular dance interest -- for example, having Egyptian Style dance friends if you do Tribal Fusion ala Rachel Brice.

Learn how people learn. This is a tough subject -- there's a reason teachers go to school for this stuff! But there's lots of interesting information on the 'Net for this; a blog that's sadly on-hiatus that's GREAT for ideas on teaching is Creating Passionate Users.

Learn the history of this dance. There's a lot of myth, a lot of pablum, out there. Morocco's site is a good starting point, and I posted a list on Amazon with a bunch of resources that I consider very solid for learning about the form.

Learn about the human body. At the very least, bone up on some anatomy, and a good book on how dancers move (even if it's ballet-focused). Carolena of Fat Chance has an ACE Physical Trainer certification, and I've heard it's highly regarded in those circles. I'd recommend it over any sort of "belly dancer certification" at this juncture.

Do deep studies of the form(s) you want to teach. There's a lot to know, from weight-shifting to the variety and (re)combinations of movements to the details of where hands go as you move. You don't need to know it all to start teaching, but you need to know enough to not make severe mistakes. That takes lots of study and practice.

Develop a good sense of humor, and solid presentation skills (check out Presentation Zen for lots of wisdom in this arena), even when you're exhausted and drained. Too many teachers forget that humor is an amazing teacher in itself, and many of the teachers we recall best are the ones who taught tough, but also allowed for fun!

Notice how little of what I say has to do with dance itself? Good teaching, the kind that gets you lots of gigs and students, takes far, far more than just sharing moves.

Fear of a Bedlah Planet, Part III: It Begins In Lies That Are Wrapped in Mystery.

2007-07-23T16:29:32Z

This'll be brief. Years ago, I got a wonderful little dance mag out of Florida, that was amazingly full of excellent and well-researched articles on the dance; sort of a thinned-down and refocused ARABESQUE, for those who recall that mag. One article I recall well was on the Mata Hari costume:

Which always sort of impressed me, even though I'm not overmuch a fan of Art Deco, or that style. The book even had patterns for the author's interpretation of the hip wrap Hari wears, which was impressive.
And, of course, I've often hear the idea that the Hari outfit is the primary source for the look of bedlah. I personally don't know how true that is, but it's a thought that, to my angry "History First!" mind, makes some sense. Of course the clothing de jour of "belly dance" is swiped from someone who dealt in lies and secrecy...
But like many a dancer I know, I can't help but admire the style, while declaiming the circumstances and underlying perceptions that live with us to this day. So when I see this latest revision of the Hari outfit by Sarah Skinner:

(h/t to The ShanMonster )

I'm IMPRESSED. Active exploration of our antecedents, digging into the past of the form, bringing those ideas and styles forward -- that's amazing work, and if you're looking for a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd (and you shoudl be!), that's one ill-traveled path. It's something few are doing, and yet has so many points that can and would appeal to a modern audience.
And there's points where it could even be melded into more modern interpretations. I mean, imagine melding that outfit's structure and glamor with Tribal-style NeoRaqs's* strength and boldness of color!

There are always more ideas. :)

* I'm playing around with a new set of terms for our form, 'cause I have not having a solid, useful umbrella term. I'm leaning towards everything from Casino Opera forward being NeoRaqs, and that makes writing something like "Tribal" much less like a lead weight on my conscious, when it's got it's own context.

Watch, Hear, Read.

2007-07-16T11:00:56Z

I promise to get back to Bedlah soon, FYI. In the meantime, from recent doings at Bhuz.com, two online services of dubious legality, and one article:

Mazikana : Downloadable MP3s of current Arabic music
Karima.ru : Some of the galleries have WMPs of Arabic dancers. They look like stuff taken from Hollywood Video or Peko DVDs...
"The Tribal Streak" : It's a misleading title from an American POV, 'cause there's little about Tribal there. But what is there is pretty cool, and worthy of discussion on it's own -- al-Ahram has done some kick-ass articles on our dance form.

Why?

2007-07-16T10:34:21Z

Something I think I've not done, is really, deeply, talk about what's going on here. My dreams for this site, if you will. After reading Greenwald, I think I need to explain a bit further what's going on with APOSTATE, deep down.
I mean, right now, I have damn few readers here. Some of that's simply because I don't promote enough...and some of it's because of the content. Politics isn't sexy. Calls to arms aren't really sexy. Dance history is traditionally boring. And I can be downright dialectic.
In short, I bore the shit out of anyone just dropping in.

So why continue? In part, because of the basic remit -- I'm trying to poke into the nooks and crannies of this dance form, to see what we've left behind, or are unwilling to explore. The very things that make the Internet such a perfect medium for talking about the dance -- the extension of the "us vs. them" mentality, the "casual sisterhood" connection that's a mile long and a inch deep, the discussions about music and clothing and gigs and makeup that have gone 'round in circles -- all these are the pits I'm trying to avoid. Sure, some of it's because I don't wear makeup, and I'll never put on bedlah, and I still can't get a hold of Melodia or her team to make me a pair of The Damned Pants --
But in the end? We have to find ways of Doing Better. We have to stop siting in the corners of virtual coffeehouses, bitching about Hillary Duff. I feel, in my bones, that we, as dancers, are the ones responsible for the form, for the presentation of the form. That we are the ones who have to write the stars and the music video people and the journalists, and explain, over and again, why they are wrong. That if they fail, it's in part because we ourselves still cling to too many fantasies, too many myths, and not just because the myth makes what little money we can, and props up egos with promises of ancient ways.
History is written by the people on the ground. Right now, take a look at the history we dancers have left behind in the media, and shudder at the many origins, few of which are backed by anything like scholarship. How can you demand respect when you pass off myth without a critical eye? Look at the undercutters, at the people eager to sell themselves short for "just another gig". You can retrain some of them, but you have to reach them, first and foremost. And disdainful whispers and screaming posts online send the wrong message.
What if we joined together, like a union, and demanded not just honest wages, but honest treatment? What if we dancers finally, as a group, took responsibility for the next generation, be they raqs sharqi, ATS, Tribal, or the next big thing? What if we organized ourselves to present a strong face to the media, and a strong back for beginning dancers? What if we started to actually write down the collected wisdom, and shared it openly and honestly? What if we made it easier for a dancer to move from student to performer to professional to businesswoman?
Imagine, just for a second, the difference all that would make in your life as a dancer. imagine being part of a truly healthy and vibrant dancer ecosystem. Wouldn't it be nice?

That's the core of APOSTATE, when I talk about raqs. It's not just about me bitching, it's about one man finding a way out of no way. It's about my undying love of this dance form, and trying to stop being catty, and starting to be angry. And then taking that anger, and, like and Old Testament Prophet, spreading the word that the world can be better, must be better. And then trying like mad to have others talk about these issues, to try to bring us together.

It's one day at a time, one post at a time, one fight at a time.