Sobering Snapshot of Present Day Egypt

Frequently, I get the sense that belly dancers think of Egypt as the "motherland"; a romanticized and revered locale where it all started. But is this rose-colored Western lens really accurate? For belly dancers outside of Egypt, how much do we actually know about current day Egypt?

I recently attended a panelist discussion hosted by Humanities Washington on the topic Unveiled: Feminism, Orientalism, and Perceptions of the Middle East. The panelist speakers were Yussef El Guindi, award-winning playwright of Threesome; and Sarah Eltantawi, professor Middle Eastern Studies and Comparative Religion at The Evergreen State College, with moderation by Zaki Barak Hamid, program director at Humanities Washington and Middle Eastern film instructor at Edmonds Community College.

From the discussion, with question and answer interaction from the audience, I was reminded of some sobering facts about Egypt today. Let's begin by painting a picture of what Egypt is currently looking like.

I think we are all aware that in 2011, Egypt had a revolution, lead primary by its young people, that resulting in the ousting of the dictator Mubarak, and the election of Muhammad Morsi, Morsi became Egypt's first ever democratically elected leader. However, Morsi was also a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which lead to him promoting an agenda that did not correlate back to the original ideals of the revolution.  Instead, Morsi's actions involved granting himself almost unlimited power and silencing journalists and protesters, frequently with violence and prosecution. This unpopular agenda lead to the 2013 military coup lead by the Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi that removed President Morsi from power and suspended the Egyptian constitution. Leaving us where we find Egypt today.

What has all of this meant to Egyptians and in particular, Egyptian women?

All of the unrest has dealt a staggering blow to Egypt's main industry: tourism. With tourists opting out of visiting Egypt in record numbers, a $5 billion hole has been left in the economy, leading to widespread unemployment and poverty, and what many are calling the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Many Egyptians are now financially and socially worse off than before the revolution. Some even turning to criminal acts to provide for their families, as documented in the Vice segment, Egyptian Tomb Raiders, which explores how the black market for plundering Egyptian antiquities has turned into a $3 billion-dollar industry.

Also up in record numbers, is sexual harassment and violence toward women. A recent study reported that 99.3% of Egyptian women report being sexually harassed.  Almost every single woman in the country. Which begs the question, why is the sheer fact of being in public space such an issue for so many Egyptian women? Many theories suggest a link between the frustration and anger felt toward the Egyptian government and economy, With no other outlets, this anger and frustration is being taken out on women. Many also hold the belief that this anger is further inflamed by Egyptians' unprecedented access to TV and social media which allows  them to see what the rest of the developing world has, but they themselves cannot attain. The stark contrast of the haves, and the have nots.

Oddly enough, this backlash against women comes at a time when Egypt is much more conservative than it was in the 1970s and 1980s. Twenty to 30 years ago, women who wore the hijab in Egypt were the minority, whereas in the current day, they vastly comprise the majority. This conservatism can also be seen in the realm of belly dance, as there have been increasing restrictions on dancers, such as having to cover the abdomen, as well as increased judgment and scorn of dancers.

Where did this increased conservatism come from? Much of it can be attributed to Egyptian men leaving the country for jobs in Iraq, and upon returning, carrying with them the strict conservative values and religion of that country and people.

So where does this leave Westerners who are outside looking in? Reading and hearing about the present day plight of the Egyptian people can elicit a wide range of responses as a Westerner. However, the panel discussion highlighted and questioned some of the common responses that occur when Westerners judge Eastern societies through an often distorted lens.

One of these common misconceptions that the panelist highlighted is the idea of cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism is the idea that the West is "right" and the East is "wrong", and that the West has a duty as a more "advanced" culture to "fix" these other societies. That as Westerners, we somehow have the right to say what is correct and incorrect for another country or culture; that we get to be the judges and police of what is cultural authenticity and what needs to be rejected. One very common area where this attitude comes up is in the realm of women's attire. Westerners frequently assume that a woman wearing a hijab or niqab, or otherwise forced to dress conservatively, directly correlates to a lack of rights or equality for women, and thus that it's the West's imperative to change this. An example of this can be seen in France's fairly recent decision to outlaw the any sort of face covering in public.

The panelists proposed the idea that there is no direct correlation between a woman's attire and her rights. Instead, they argued that Westerners have a misconception that a women's dress equates directly to her freedom. The idea was proposed that a Western woman's right to wear reveling clothes does not make her equal or ensure that she has equal rights. And I would say this is a valid point, as even in the United States today where women can dress as revealing as they want, women are still not paid equal wages, and in recent years there has been a constant chipping away at a women's right to choose when and how she reproduces. Some would argue that the inverse is actually true, in that wearing a hijab or otherwise being more conservatively dressed, forces men to interact with women on a level that is not about physical aesthetic or attraction, but instead is about mutual humanity and respect. However, a further counterpoint has been made that a person's humanity and individuality disappear behind the hijab or niqab, allowing acts like sexual harassment and assault to proliferate because the woman has been de-personalized.

Overall, it's a highly complex situation. One that I certainly won't claim to have the answers to. During the panel discussion, Elantanwi gave her opinion that Egypt's current economic and gender issues cannot be resolved by external forces, that they have to be dealt with from the inside. Whatever the solution is, I hope that for the sake of not only Egyptian women, but women worldwide, that as a collective global race, we can move toward a place of equality, respect, stability, and opportunity for all.

Photo Credit: www.i24news.tv

Styles of Belly Dance

For students new to belly dance, it can be confusing to understand the differences and distinctions between the various styles of belly dance. I know in my own personal dance journey, it took me many years to be able to understand and recognize the different styles.

Depending on who you ask, you'll most certainly receive different responses on what the main categorical styles of belly dance are. For example, some dancers may include Lebanese as its own belly dance style. While there have been particular Lebanese dancers, like Nadia Gamal, who embody their own distinct style, as a collective group, I personally don't see enough distinction in Lebanese belly dance to formally recognize it as its own style of belly dance. For me, the classifications below are the six main belly dance styles.

Modern Egyptian: Modern Egyptian belly dance, is a style of belly dance originating, as the name denotes, from Egypt from about the 1970s onward. Modern Egyptian is basically an evolved and polished up version of raqs beledi.  Raqs Beledi is a traditional folkloric dance of Egyptian sharing much of the same basic dance vocabulary as belly dance. (Stay tuned for a future post on raqs beledi which will clarify and delve into this dance in more detail). Raqs Beledi first paved the way for the creation of Vintage Egyptian style belly dance (see below), and later unfolded into what is known as Modern Egyptian.  Modern Egyptian belly dance was shaped in large part by the influence of Mahmoud Reda, who incorporated ballet into traditional Egyptian folkloric dances, and also trained belly dancers. This transfer of influence is seen in the Modern Egyptian style in the elevated carriage of the dancer, frequency of isolations and traveling steps performed on the balls of the feet, and the graceful arm and hand positioning. Other distinctions of Modern Egyptian style include powerful hip shimmies performed with a "straight leg", intricate hip articulations, quick changes of weight, and an absence of floorwork, due to it being frowned upon by current day Egyptian culture. Dancers who perform this style of belly dance include Dina, Lucy, and Randa Kamel.

Vintage Egyptian: Vintage Egyptian has many similarities to Modern Egyptian, but the main difference is that there is less ballet influence and more beledi influence, since this style was closer to the beledi source and a precursor for Modern Egyptian. Vintage Egyptian is distinguished by isolations made predominately in the hips, minimal upper body isolations, and deeper grounding through the feet. This style of dance is also typically distinguished by soft, rounded movements, rather than the sharp, staccato isolations seen more frequently in current styles of belly dance. This style of belly dance had its heyday in the 1920s to 1960s, and was made popular first by the influence of Badia Masabni and the dancers she trained for her nightclubs, including Tayhia Karoka and Samia Gamal, and then by the inclusion of these dancers and others, like Naima Akef, in popular Egyptian movies. In my opinion, it was Badia Masabni and her nightclub, Casino Opera, who can be credited with taking traditional raqs beledi, a folkloric dance, and changing it to create modern day belly dance.

Turkish: Turkish style belly dance is lively and dramatic, due to influences from traditional Romany folk dance, which also embodies that same spirited nature. Distinctions of Turkish style belly dance include small hops, kicks with the feet, spins, and prominent use of floorwork. Turkish dancers are also more likely to play zills, then Egyptian dancers who are more likely to be backed by a full orchestra, thus negating the need to play a musical instrument themselves. In terms of costuming, Turkish costuming originally included heavy use of long fringe, which has in more recent years given way to more risque trends marked by reveling splits in chiffon skirts and sultry cutouts, which is likely due in large part to the influence of the costume designers Bella and Sim Moda Evi. Dancers who perform this style include Didem Kenali and Ruby Beh.

American Cabaret: As the name implies, American Cabaret is a style developed in the U.S. Dating back to approximately the 1950s and 1960s, this style of dance, drew from vintage Egyptian dancing, but also drew a good deal from fantasy and artistic license to bring to life American ideas of exotic orientalism. This style of dance was also influenced by necessity. Dance sets in the U.S. used to be much longer than they are today, with dancers frequently performing for up to 45 minutes at a time and thus needing more elements to incorporate into their performances to maintain variety and keep audience attention. Thus, American Cabaret utilizes props much more heavily than its Middle Eastern style counterparts. Veil work and draping became a prominent feature of American Cabaret. Whereas in Egyptian belly dance, the dancer typically only enters with the veil, swirls it around a few times, and then discards it; American Cabaret frequently features elaborate veil wraps and technically advanced veil work. Sword dancing was also an American Cabaret invention, and in more recent years, this style has also added other props like Isis wings and fan veils. Belly rolls and flutters, and even coin tricks, also became a prominent feature of this style. Early American Cabaret also set the precedent for the standard five part belly dance set: upbeat intro with finger cymbals, a slow taqsim potentially including use of veil or floorwork, another upbeat or possibly folkloric song, a drum solo, and an exit piece.  Dancers who perform this style in include Delilah of Seattle and Suhaila Salimpour.

Tribal: Tribal belly dance is also an American invention. The key distinction of tribal style belly dance is the use of group improvisation as created by Carolena Nericcio of FatChanceBellyDance, using inspiration from Jamila Salimpour and her troupe, Bal Anat, as well as Jamila's student, Masha Archer. Carolena's creation became known as American Tribal Style. Group improvization involves one dancer using predertermined cues to signal to the rest of the group the combination of movements that they should perform, with the lead dancer rotating throughout the group during the performance. Offshoots were developed later by other dancers, such as Improvisational Tribal Style (ITS) created by Amy Sigil of Unmata. Tribal style belly dance has very unique and distinct costuming, which includes voluminous skirts and pantaloons and heavy ethnic jewelry, frequently reminiscent of Kuchi tribal jewelry (nomadic Pashtoon tribes near the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan), and often also includes decorative hairpieces and dark, smoky makeup.

Fusion: Fusion belly dance is a melting pot category for what's left over, and as the name implies, typically involves fusing belly dance with some other type of dance. Fusion belly dance could easily be broken down into further sub-categories, such as tribal fusion, goth belly dance, steampunk belly dance, hula hoop belly dance, and on and on. Examples of this include former Bellydance Superstar member, Sabah, who fuses belly dance with ballet on pointe. Or another former Bellydance Superstar, Rachel Brice, who performs her own unique style of tribal fusion, complete with amazing Turkish drops.

Folkloric: Folkloric dance is not actually belly dance.  In my opinion, folkloric dance is its own genre of dance, and thus a miscategorization to list it here. However, I wanted to include it to make that important distinction. Folkloric dancing refers to the simple dances performed by and for the people in any given country of origin. The dances are typically simple in nature so that they can be executed by people who are not trained professional dancers. They are also typically dances that date back many years and originally involved traditional styles of dress. Examples of these styles of dances are the Moroccan guedra, Egyptian fellaheen, and the Lebanese debke. I would also put Egyptian beledi in this category and not under the umbrella of belly dance. Folkloric dances can also be turned into theatrical folkloric dance, which is taking the basic components of a folkloric dance and adding additional non-traditional embellishes and choreography to make it really capture and hold the attention of an audience. Mahmoud Reda and the Reda Troupe were a prime example of this. You can read about Reda and his world-famous troupe here.

Whether you agree with my classifications or not, I think one fact is undebatable: belly dancers are a creative bunch. New fusions styles and influences are created all the time. In recent years, there has been considerable influence coming from Russia, with the formidable Dariya Mistskevich leading the way. Maybe someday Russian will be recognized as its own style of belly dance. Only time will tell.

Photo Credit: Ruby Beh