Thread: Belly dance skits and story telling?

Hi ladies,
I've been thinking about story telling though belly dance. I often see 'skits' (for lack of a better word) at haflas but don't often see dancers tell a story through dance for the general public.
Got me wondering why. Obviously restaurants and nightclubs may not be the venue of choice for this but have you ever done a belly dance skit for the general public? How did it go over? Just curious!

I haven't because belly dance isn't a narrative form, and I like to stay true to the roots of the dance -- especially when I'm presenting it to the general public who are often already confused about the dance.

I would do it as a novelty piece, for fun, for other dancers though!

What Lauren said.

Also, I always remember my teacher talking about how much she hated shows wherein "a little boy falls asleep and dreams his mother is a belly dancer..."

I did see a narrative show once that worked quite well - a sort of Celtic/Arabian Nights fantasy where the main character was running away and got captured by slave traders (of course) and sold (of course) and ended up being the favourite of the harem (of course). I don't really like glueing random fantasy Celts into Alf Leyla BUT overall it was quite entertaining.

Originally Posted by Ting_Ting

Hi ladies,
I've been thinking about story telling though belly dance. I often see 'skits' (for lack of a better word) at haflas but don't often see dancers tell a story through dance for the general public.
Got me wondering why. Obviously restaurants and nightclubs may not be the venue of choice for this but have you ever done a belly dance skit for the general public? How did it go over? Just curious!

To tell a good story, you'd need the strong back up good stage management, lighting, sets etc, as with a ballet production. You may be able to to better 'story tell' with the use of other dance forms as well...but belly dance on it's own would be harder.

I once helped produce a, shall we say, BD-inspired dance theater show that had an overarching storyline based on the ballet the Rite of Spring.

I'm not sure it was "storytelling" or had "skits" in the same way that you mean them. We had very limited staging and props. We picked our music, movements, costumes and so forth to reflect the emotional progression in each "act" and for each dancer's "character".

While we were choreographing it all (this was a group effort and didn't have a single director) we went by some guidelines. We didn't spell these out to each other exactly, it was more of a mutually understood unspoken thing. (we are sort of a group of anarchists.)

Each individual dance had to be compelling and well-presented enough to stand on its own outside the overall storyline. The progression of the story had to be very broad and easy to follow. Each dance told a facet of the story that could be summed up in a sentence. (If you try to make each dance a short story, no one is going to understand what the f is going on.) We avoided using mime/gesture to convey things if at all possible.

I think the final result was pretty successful. Even little kids I talked to after the show understood the story and were engaged the entire time.

It is 100% true that raqs sharki is not traditionally a storytelling form, unlike other dances which have a symbolic storytelling component, like Kathak. It's an "abstract art" in the sense that the movements themselves generally don't have connotations assigned to them. So, you should be aware that when you use BD for storytelling, you're moving outside of that baileywick- hence my clumsy "BD-inspired dance theater" disclaimer.

p.s. This show is on Youtube, although a lot of it gets lost in translation since we are the size of ants in the online videos. If you're interested in seeing it, I can send you the address in a PM.

I've seen 2 examples of these that were done really well (not going to talk about the ones that were done not so well..).

1... small skits - there is a dancer in Middletown, Ohio named Jennifer Rose who has done small little skits during some of her dancing. She went through the motions of a story (putting on makeup, etc.) while dancing to a offbeat piece. It was very entertaining and something different than the traditional fare usually seen at shows. The audience was mostly bellydance enthusiasts.

2...a narrative story. Nataj of Habeebas Cincinnati, Ohio produced a show called Behind the Veil back in 2008 that told the story of bellydance from the early days up through its evolution through the folkloric dances, to the hollywood-esque era, to the nightclubs, to the tribal, to the fusion, etc. It was a very well put together show in a theater-style setting with great lights, a full audience and the narration was exquisite. It was truly breathtaking and she pulled from talent all over Ohio to take part in the show and portray one portion of the era she was working on. The DVD is fabulous -- I've watched it a few times.

We just did a production number for the finale of an International Festival here in Louisville. It was sort of a "war" story between two fighting tribes. You'll have to cut us a little slack, though, because this was the first performance of the piece and the stage ended up being about 12 feet shorter than what we thought. Some mistakes, but all in all, when this is perfected, it's going to be pretty fabulous! And the audience seemed to like it as well.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPoHGOrFAiE]YouTube - Ruric Amari & Troupe Samovar - Bellydance - Delusion to Truth - UofL International Banquet 2009[/ame]

Originally Posted by zumarrad

What Lauren said.
I did see a narrative show once that worked quite well - a sort of Celtic/Arabian Nights fantasy where the main character was running away and got captured by slave traders (of course) and sold (of course) and ended up being the favourite of the harem (of course). I don't really like glueing random fantasy Celts into Alf Leyla BUT overall it was quite entertaining.

Oh god, I was that main character in a similar skit, only I took over the harem by stealing the sultan's sword and threatening him into submission along with the other women (yes, it was in a goth club, why do you ask? ,r:;)

Johara of Boston put together a really nice show (featuring a miscellany of Bhuzzers) called A Gypsy in Cairo that used a loose narrative of a young girl in the Turkish countryside being forced into a marriage she didn't want, so she ran off to Cairo and became a movie star. It was set in the 1930s or 40s, classic film era. The lead character's journey from Turkey to Egypt provided a really neat way to present a variety of dance styles yet still maintain some coherence.

Oh, also Bellyqueen are doing some neat stuff with story telling in their recent productions.

Originally Posted by Zyzzyva

We just did a production number for the finale of an International Festival here in Louisville. It was sort of a "war" story between two fighting tribes. You'll have to cut us a little slack, though, because this was the first performance of the piece and the stage ended up being about 12 feet shorter than what we thought. Some mistakes, but all in all, when this is perfected, it's going to be pretty fabulous! And the audience seemed to like it as well.

YouTube - Ruric Amari & Troupe Samovar - Bellydance - Delusion to Truth - UofL International Banquet 2009

Wow! very cool and I really liked the music, thanks for posting that. I didn't catch any mistakes.

Well thanks for the responses everyone. I am doing a variety show soon and the organizer asked me to do something different. Suggested telling a story- but as most of you mentioned and I tried to explain belly dance doesn't usually tell a story.
Most of the skits I've seen are at halfas and the dancers liked the skits but the non-dancers usually said "I don't get it"
I though maybe I was being too inflexible (or uncreative) so thought I'd look into it a little more.

Originally Posted by Bellydancing_Lissa

She went through the motions of a story (putting on makeup, etc.) while dancing to a offbeat piece.

hmm, I wonder if she was inspired by Tunisian and North African folkloric dances, like Raks Fezzani, that sometimes include miming putting makeup on? Along with various cooking gestures.

told the story of bellydance from the early days up through its evolution through the folkloric dances, to the hollywood-esque era, to the nightclubs, to the tribal, to the fusion, etc.

Oh, that sounds like a great way to organize a show that would include a lot of variety!!

Originally Posted by Zyzzyva

We just did a production number for the finale of an International Festival here in Louisville. It was sort of a "war" story between two fighting tribes...

HOLY CRAP! .w.:

That was extremely ambitious, and I think y'all did an awesome job there - who has the stage fighting experience (nice double sticks too)?

What was the music - it sounded like Trans-Siberian Orchestra does Street Fighter in Egypt... (I liked it, very dramatic).

Wow.

[quote=Zyzzyva;371698]We just did a production number for the finale of an International Festival here in Louisville. ....

That was like 'Middle East Side' Story. Superb. I'm tempted to go rip the head off my swiffer to try some of those moves.

Originally Posted by yaalini

HOLY CRAP! .w.:

That was extremely ambitious, and I think y'all did an awesome job there - who has the stage fighting experience (nice double sticks too)?

What was the music - it sounded like Trans-Siberian Orchestra does Street Fighter in Egypt... (I liked it, very dramatic).

Wow.

The choreographer and lead dancer, Ruric-Amari, took a stick-dancing workshop from Karim Nagi last November that included mock fighting with double sticks. The music is a theme song from 'the Matrix' movie. It IS very ambitious and Ruric is already working on the revisions needed to make the presentation reflect the vision. Karim teaches traditional stick dancing but he has modern tastes and interests so I think he'll be intrigued by this when he eventually sees it.

A skit does not have to be a 'story' per se. Ruric choregraphed something we now call the Pooka dance, which consists of nothing but 'character development ' - the entire dance is just three pooka fairies being themselves and hanging out with each other. But many people saw it as telling a story.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucsqj694byw]YouTube - Ruric-Amari & Samovar Bellydance - Med Echoes - Pooka Dance[/ame]

Or you can do half-and-half: Zyzzyva, who posted the stick fight dance, created a piece that started off with several ladies in top hats and garters dancing to music; then suddenly two of them turned into vampires and the rest into vampire prey; then everyone turned into ladies in top hats 'just dancing.' We don't have a video online for it though.

Originally Posted by Ting_Ting

Hi ladies,
I've been thinking about story telling though belly dance. I often see 'skits' (for lack of a better word) at haflas but don't often see dancers tell a story through dance for the general public.

One big difference between Reda Troupe's folkloric dance portrayals and belly dancing is the fact that most Reda Troupe choreographies contain either story-telling or character development, or both.

Who was it who put on a major theatrical show about Ancient Egyptian mythology? I can almost remember, but it's driving me mad. It was about 3-4 years ago. Big thing, grant funded - I think.

Originally Posted by BELLA_BELLA

Who was it who put on a major theatrical show about Ancient Egyptian mythology? I can almost remember, but it's driving me mad. It was about 3-4 years ago. Big thing, grant funded - I think.

Ha! I found it. Kennedy Center - Laurel Gray. Kennedy Center: Millennium Stage Artist Details: Silk Road Dance Company

You can watch it online.

Ancient Egypt*Repertoire - Silk Road Dance

Arabesque does concept type stuff, take a peek at Descent of Ishtar, I think there's some short clips on Youtube

Well, there's a thing in Oriental dance called the "tableau".
I once did a tableau called "in the coffehouse". There's a little story in it.
Melaya pieces are a good way of telling a story.

MEISSOUN

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF0xULJeR3A]YouTube - Tableau "In the Coffe House" by MEISSOUN[/ame]

Originally Posted by meissoun

Well, there's a thing in Oriental dance called the "tableau".
I once did a tableau called "in the coffehouse". There's a little story in it.
Melaya pieces are a good way of telling a story.

MEISSOUN

I dance with El Asaab, a San Francisco based troupe, and we always do tableaux similar to yours, but involving up to 8 or 9 people. We've done acts which were set as if in various venues. The troupe has been doing this for many years, long before I joined about 6 years ago. Two examples out of the many we've done:

"At an Arab-American club" In an Arabic club in San Francisco, involving a resident troupe of dancers and various types of customers from a tourist couple (the wife decides to be a belly dancer) to Khaleejy princes (I got to play one of the princes!)

"In a Greek club" In a nightclub in Greece, complete with Greek statues (me and another troupe member on pedestals) who come alive dance and otherwise try to help a male tourist with a big camera who falls in love with a Roma flower seller, lots of Greek dancing and lots of melodrama.

The tableaux usually involve varying amounts and types of humor, from subtle to the broad humor seen in a lot of Egyptian tv series or movie comedies. We perform these at dance festivals or haflas for dance knowledgable audiences. If we perform for non-dancers, (only a couple of times) we make sure we have an introduction that indicates that the tableau is "tongue in cheek". We usually get a lot of positive feedback from audience members. And we have a lot of fun doing them.

We don't have any videos online - but that could change.

I love tableaux. We don't really have them here much, though perhaps that might change. It's the lack of boys.

Originally Posted by maurazebra

A skit does not have to be a 'story' per se. Ruric choregraphed something we now call the Pooka dance, which consists of nothing but 'character development ' - the entire dance is just three pooka fairies being themselves and hanging out with each other. But many people saw it as telling a story.
YouTube - Ruric-Amari & Samovar Bellydance - Med Echoes - Pooka Dance

Love the pooka dance, AND the battle scene dance. Very creative choreography and very well done!

Originally Posted by meissoun

Well, there's a thing in Oriental dance called the "tableau".

Oh. Very good point! *cue Fifi and her shisha*

Hello,

I call it "story dancing", obviously.

The standard in MED is to express a content of lyrics. It is done in Lebanon I think and the dance form has its own name ... some kind of Raqs ... (can´t remember at the moment).

Skit as for a kind of theatrical act is sometimes done for a western GP. I´ve seen a dancer from Germany ended her school performance with having one of the students playing a cleaning woman with a broomstick who comes to clean after their performance. In the begining she wonders why there are still so many people in the hall and waves them goodbye to make them leave seats. Then sweeps the floor (actually on the stage) a little and slips into her bellydance daydreaming... and dances hesitantly and then more wildly, takes off some clothes, and there costume appears underneath. In the end she notices the show was not over yet and audience is actually clapping so she IS the real star of the show... how funny ... and sometimes SURPRISE*SURPRISE the cleaning lady might be a MALE bellydancer. Muuuaaaaahhhhhwwwww, ..l;,

Narrative stories are interesting. I`ve seen many performances where those with story line are far better to digest for general public.

I am working on creating such performance now. I have a core story written by my teacher, I am reworking it, streamlining the story little bit, looking for different music to fit the development of the story, choreographing it, ..., you know.