Thread: Societies views of dancers in other countries?

Maybe I am just forgetting... but it occurred to me that when society's views of BDers is discussed Egypt is often specified. (The "My daughter better not become a dancer but I'll hire the best dancer I can to dance at her wedding" kind of thing.)

Are dancers viewed with the same respected/detested duality in other countries? Turkey? Lebanon?

Long posts welcome here as are referrals to reading materials.

Yes, they love their dancers but if a family member was to dance it's a whole other thing. It wasn't always like this, however due to the large extreme Muslim conservatism lashback this is sadly getting worse. I highly suggest the documentary "Belly Dancers of Cairo" and there are many great resources online and in books.

Bellydancers of Cairo is wonderful, but of course that's about Egypt again. My favorite part of that film, though, is where the interviewer turns the camera on her own father and brother here in the states and we realize that the whole 'study, dance for fun, but please don't become a professional performer' dynamic is alive and well in the USA.

I'm curious, too, about other countries. I remember Suha Azar, in Lebanon, won't perform in public because of the stigma, but does teach. Same thing for Reyhan Tuzusz (sp?) in Turkey, which seems doubly odd because she's Roma.

So my initial guess is that it's a similar attitude to what we see in Egypt, but I'm not certain.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Bellydancers of Cairo is wonderful, but of course that's about Egypt again. My favorite part of that film, though, is where the interviewer turns the camera on her own father and brother here in the states and we realize that the whole 'study, dance for fun, but please don't become a professional performer' dynamic is alive and well in the USA.

DITO! Lol my boy toy was sitting next too me and he was like "see!" But again it made him understand the reasons on the other side as well.

You might want to get your hands on the documentary Rakasa, which features 3 dancers from Israel and Palestine. One of the three is Orit.

Short version: there is a stigma against being a working dancer in Israel and Palestine, too.

There's a review of the documentary on this page: Feminist Review: May 2007

This is the web site you can buy it from: Go2Films

The prices given are for institutions (libraries, universities, etc.) If you want to buy a copy for personal use, send them email and ask for pricing for individual copies. I've been meaning to order it, but haven't done so yet. I DID see it - it was shown at the 2008 Int'l Bellydance Conference of Canada last April.

Thank you for your replies. I have Bellydancers of Cairo on my Netflix Queue already.

I'll have to check into Rakasa. Thank you for the suggestion Shira!

There are many countries where dancers are or have been in the past looked down upon.
Including Western countries. 100 years ago a ballett dancer was little more than a prostitute... The girls were poorly paid and had to look out for a "sponsor".

In India, when the Brits arrived they didn't understand the concept of dancers in temples. All they saw where women who were in a temple (like nuns) but had children anyway (so they conculded there must be "temple prostitution").
Thanks to them dancers were thrown out of the temples and had to earn their living out in the streets.
It took a lot of time and hard work to make classical Indian dances accepted as art again.
And still, it's mostly for unmarried girls. A married woman is supposed to look after her family.

And of course there also low class dancers in Indian night clubs who are mostly prostitutes... (watch the film Chandni Bar - NOT your regular Bollywood crowd pleaser...)

Group folk dances are accepted everywhere, as far as I can see.

Somebody with more knowledge about Hula or Flamenco will be able to tell us here how these dances went through different phases of being respectable or nearly forbidden...

MEISSOUN

A second to Meissoun about attitudes in the West in(not so long ago) history.
Actresses,singers,dancers wre frequently the mistresses of rich and noble men and not suitable marriage material until very recently. We started enobling our actors and by the twentieth cetury dancers and singers too were admired for their art as well as the successful getting rich.
Companies of entertainers were often travellers and therefore much on a par with gypsies. Nell Gwynn might have caught the eye of a king but she sure didn't end up rich.
And let's face it is took awhile for our nobility to accept that American gels were suitable marriage material and that was usually 'cos daddy was terribly well-heeled don't you know!