Belly Dancing

Recently I attended the Cairo Caravan ’10, a belly dancing convention in Long Beach, California. I was offered the option to go and I rarely turn down new experiences. The event was three days long held inside the RMS Queen Mary, a decommissioned historical passenger ship from the 30′s that was converted into a hotel and convention center. It’s a large ship! Even though it would have been fun to explore the ship more, I was here to watch belly dancing. In total, I watched thirteen hours of belly dances on five stages including a few hours of outdoor improv drum and dance session near the hotel entrance. I was one of the few males at the convention which comprised maybe 10% of the attendee’s. I did not buy a single item even though there were countless vendors inside selling lots of handmade clothes and items. Most of the items for sale targeted woman, but I am sure I could have found something for myself if I tried. Before this trip, I knew very little first hand about this middle eastern dance. Now I know quite a bit more and there are a few elements about the dance and dance culture I picked up that I will share.

Sexuality

I have hear people say that belly dancing is “hot” and is a highly erotic dance. Frankly, I’ve heard people say belly dancing is a turn on and a sex dance. As absurd as this sounds, from these opinions I formed a picture of belly dancing as a overt sexual display where the proposition for sex to the dancer will not result in refusal. This belief is wildly inaccurate. Personally, I was under the belief belly dancing is a prostitutes dance. Thus, the dance is demeaning to a woman as it objectifies them as sexual objects. Again, inaccurate. Going further with my belief that belly dancing used by prostitutes, the poor and uneducated are more likely to turn to prostitution and thus belly dancing singles one out to possibly be uneducated and low income. I know that belly dancing is a popular trend right now among all income brackets but I considered that just a trend.

I am sharing my false opinions because it’s easy to use myself as an example. You must understand that I formed these beliefs with data and opinions gather from other humans. I did not just magically form these beliefs on my own. I heard them from other people in various bits and forms. With these various pieces of data I was able to construct a complete, though false image. I had no direct experience to draw from so I painted a picture using other peoples paint. Going to the belly dancing convention allowed me to form my own opinions first hand. It allowed me to use direct, first-hand experience to replace false data.

My new view of bellydance

After 13 hours of watching bellydancing, I walked away viewing bellydance as not erotic or sexual. Hip hop dance is far more sexual than bellydance. Hip hop dance, which I saw some of that at the convention integrated into some dancers performances, has the intention of creating sexual arousal and advertising sexual power where as belly dance displays femininity and invokes personal power. A big difference. In hop hop dance, booty-clapping is done which is blatantly sexual while in belly dancing, hip popping is done which is a feminine move rather than being strictly sexual.  Based on popular music videos I’ve seen, belly dancing techniques have been incorporated into modern dance, but they have been perverted to serve a new agenda of sexual advertisement.

Now I see bellydance as largely a woman’s dance for other woman. Keep in mind there were far more women than male attendee’s. The dance can tell a story. It embraces female strength. And of course, it’s healthy from a fitness perspective. Belly dancing is pleasing to watch, but not from an erotic standpoint. It’s pleasing to watch if you like watching a woman express her feminine nature.

Hula is a dance form that is divided into a female style, which is the popular form we see on television and the like, and a male form which I’ve seen only two minutes of in a Hawaii documentary a few years back. After watching hundreds of woman embrace their feminine core through movement at the bellydance convention, it made me wonder if there are similar activities for men that build male confidence (besides male hula because I cannot find any instructors for that). This led me to join an Iaido class, Japanese swordsmanship, which I will discuss in another blog.

Till then, shimmy away!