Belly Dance East and West

Exam Review

Overview

• The exam will consist of a multiple choice section worth 30% and an essay worth 70%. 
• The multiple choice section must be taken during the scheduled exam period, Thursday, Dec. 14 at 3:00 pm. 
• The essay may be completed beforehand, but is due by 6:00 pm on Dec. 14th.  F
• or the essay, you may prepare as much as you like, and you may use yoru books and other resources (as long as you cite them) in writing your essay. 
• BUT you may only spend 3 hours from when you first look at the essay questions and when you turn in the exam. 
• So DON'T OPEN IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO WRITE

Terms, Names and Ideas 

What is Belly Dance?

• SIDTA
• solo-improvisation
• SIDTA area
• raqs sharqi
• social dance vs. court dance

• Morocco

• Algeria

• Tunisia

• Egypt

• Israel

• Lebanon

• Syria

• Turkey

• Kuwait

• Saudi Arabia

•  Iraq

• Iran

North African Dance

• maghreb

• Ouled Nail

• shickatt

• Guedra

• emic

• etic

Saudi and Levantine Dance

• orientalism

• ghawazee

• saidi

• khaleegi

• khalij

• levant

• debke

• shickatt

Ancient Belly Dance

• primary sources

• secondary sources

• Naqada II

• Ancient Egypt (issues of artistic representation; funerary paintings; evidence of music and dance)

• Hathor (goddess of dance)

• Bes (dwarf dancing god)

• castanet dancers (Isidora of Asrinoe)

• dancers of Gades

Filming Belly Dance

• "cinema as constructing a particular, ideological, view of reality"
• "scopophilia, the desire to see, which is a fundamental drive"
• "the male character as active and powerful: he is the agent ... The female character is passive and powerless: she is the object of desire..."
• the voyeuristic-scopophilic gaze
• narcissistic identification
• fetishizing the woman
• female subjectivity
• female desire

Orientalism in Art

• Edward Said
• Eugene Delacroix
• Jean Leon Gerome
• Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
• Odalisque
• Etienne Dinet
• colonial powers: Algeria, Egypt

Western Travelers

• Lady Mary Wortley Montague

• Gustave Flaubert

• Napoleon's invasion of Egypt

• colonization of Egypt and North Africa

• Eurocentrism

• Islamic and Muslim views of women's sexuality

• hijab

• harem

• fitna

• tarab

• taqsim

Development of the Female Solo

• Muhammad Ali's banishment of the ghawazee, 1834

• mulid (saint's day festival)(pl. mawalid)

• khawal

• Kuchuk Hanem

• significance of urbanization

• coffeehouse/cafe chantant

• khalbus (buffoon)

• zaffit al'arousa (bridal procession)

Belly Dance in the Islamic World

• danse du ventre

• nightclubs (salas) and urbanization in Cairo

• fath

• Badi'a Masabni

• Muhammad Ali Street

• almeh (awalim)

• "artistes"

• sharaf (honor)

• hasham (modesty)

• 'eb (shame)

• haram ("forbidden")

Belly Dance in the West

• Cultural expositions: when they began (1850's), where they took place (Paris, London, Chicago, other major cities; sorts of exhibits they had (cultural, scientific, entertainment, etc.)

• World's Columbian Exhibition, Chicago 1893 (AKA Chicago World's Fair): role of the Middle East in its entertainment exhibits; number of different Middle Eastern exhibitions on the Midway; role of the Midway Plaissance in promoting Middle Eastern entertainment in America

• Venues for belly dance: expositions, lesser fairs, midways (like Fatima in Coney Island), dime museums; also Vaudeville and private performances for Western women portraying Eastern dance

• Little Egypt: as the name for the quintessential belly dancer

• Sol Bloom's role in bringing the Algerian village to Chicago

• La Goulou and the dancers of the Moulin Rouge; cancan as solo-improvised art

• the role of dancers like Feridjee (A real Algerian) and La Goulou (not) in maintainting Middle Eastern dance presence in Paris

• Maud Allan (the vision of Salome) and Ruth St Denis as Western portrayers of the East

• Oscar Wilde as author of the influential play and Richard Strauss as the author of the opera of Salome; the various scandals involved in the productions of both

• Salome and the head of John the Baptist

• the femme fatale and the relevance of this figure to political and social change

• jeweled nakedness and the orientalist portrayal of Salome; the work of Gustave Moreau

Review Questions

What is Belly Dance?

• what are the key elements of what we know as belly dance today?  (solo-improvisation, hip articulation, geographic area)
• what are some of the other defining aspects of SIDTA in the Middle East? (aesthetics; social dance; gender issues, musical interpretation, etc.)

North African Dance

• What are the dynamics of the performances of the Ouled Nail in the societies they serve?  How can two very different ideas about what is suitable for unmarried women, continue to coexist?
• What role do the shickatt play for Moroccan society, in their function as dancers at weddings and other events?

Levantine and Saudi Dance

• What are the characteristics of Saudi women's celebrations? 

• What role does dance play in an average woman's life? 

• Is there a connection between the style of celebratory dancing and the day to day experience of life? 

• From what you see here, how well does our image of veiled and oppressed women express Saudi women's feelings about themselves and their lifestyles?

• What is the movement vocabulary of the debke?  How does it relate to the "belly dance" social dancing also done by the Lebanese dance community?

• From your internet readings, try to form a perspective on what Saidi dance is and expresses.  Are there major disagreements between sources?  Is there agreement about the intrinsic qualities of the dance (or the people)?  What are they?  Are they describing a folkloric phenomenon, or a theatricalized dance?

Ancient History of Belly Dance

• What are some of the issues between us and a solid knowledge of the earliest practice of belly dance?

• In what elements of ancient dance do you see parallels for the modern practice?  Think in terms of musical accompaniment, costume, performance situation, professional performers' roles, occasions for performances, social dance, and so on. 

• Where do we have the most information?  Where do we have the least?

• What questions form in your own mind about the ancient history of belly dance, as you read the available discussions?  (And incidentally, feel free to do mroe Web research on your own, just bring your salt shaker with you.)

• What evidence do the Naqada II pvase paintings and sculptures give about the roles of female dancers in that culture?

• What evidence do the Roman references to the dancers of Gades give about the role of "belly dance" in the ancient world?  Can you draw conclusions abotu SIDTA from this evidence? 

• What was the social position and daily life of ancient "belly dancers" like in Rome?

• Think about the practicalities you would have to deal with if you were a performer like Isidora doing a six-day festival out of town.  What information does the contract give us about these practicalities?  Consider elements like food, lodging, transport, music, details of performance, venue, and so on.  What do we learn about these things from other papyrus sources?

• What did a dancer earn relative to other workers of the time?  Relative to other "artists" of the time?

• What do we learn about women's position in Greco-Roman Egypt from the contract?

Gender in Belly Dance. 

• What are the roles of men and women in the history and modern practice of belly dancing?

• What is "masculine" or :"feminine" about belly dance?

• How is homosexuality and homosexual acts viewed in Arab culture, in contrast to the West?  What are some of the sexual beliefs and practices that underlie the role of the male dancer in that culture?

• How do these dancers relate to the female belly dancers you have seen in terms of their expertise? 

• Do they use the same range of movements, or a different range?  Are there movements they use more or not as much?

• Is there a particularly masculine dance aesthetic?

• What about their dancing is particularly masculine?  What strikes you as feminine?  (Focus on one or two dancers and note your comments so you can bring them to class discussion.)

• Do these dancers make more or less use of sexuality/sensuality, or about the same, as the female dancers you have seen?  (If you feel you have not seen a representative sample, try Youtube, though I have to say the results for "belly dancer" (female) searches are very, very uneven.)

• Some of the comments by Youtube viewers are about how gay the dancers are.  Do you get that impression?  If so, what are the thoughts or observations you make that support that opinion?  And what does it mean to dance in a "gay" way?

The Gypsy Phenomenon

• From the information you have read, discuss and agree on a brief overview of the history of the Rom since their exodus from India until the present.  Include point of origin, key moments in their interaction with the people of their host countries, and the extent of their settlement today.  Include an overview of some of the social problems the Rom face now or have faced in the past.

• What are the images of the gypsies that exist in our popular culture?  What are the positive aspects of these images?  What are the negative elements?

• Stereotype to archetype:  A stereotype reduces the complexity of something to a simplified, easily processed idea.  An archetype is an image, character, or story pattern that recurs in different forms in different cultures, and provides grounds for thinking about or imagining aspects of our own culture.  What elements of our views of gypsies are stereotypical?  What elements of our views reflect an archetype (of travelers, of non-conformists, of outcasts …)

• From the images you have seen of gypsy dance from American performers, what is gypsy dancing like?  Think in terms of style, movement vocabulary, attitude, and relationship with audience.

• (After class videos)  From the dance clips you have seen of Rom performers in Turkey and Egypt, are there characteristics the dances of the different groups share?  What explains the similarity or difference?

FIlming Belly Dance

• How do the various belly dance videos that we see construct the viewer?  What variations of subject position do they encourage or allow? 
• What filming techniques are used in these videos?  What do they contribute to how the viewer and the dancer are defined relative to one another?

Orientalism

• What are the main tenets of Said's theory of orientalism?

• How is the Orient seen by the West?

• What is the stereotype of the Eastern man?  The eastern woman?

• How does art and literature reflect the West's misconception?

• In your view, is there a positive side to the Western view of the East?  How do positive images fit into the ideas of orientalism in Said and others?

• Do the images of belly dancers we have seen fit in with the West's stereotypical ideas about the East?  In what ways do they or do they not?

Western Travelers on Eastern Dance.

• What are the predominant terms in which the authors describe the dance as performed in the East?  Are there typical descriptive words or comparisons?
• What are the assumptions about the dancers?  How are the dancers assessed (on the basis of skill, morals, looks, social class ...)?
• What sorts of relationships between travellers and dancers appear in these accounts?  What sorts of relationships are possible?
• What attitude toward the East emerges in the accounts of its dancers?

Development of the Female Solo Dance.

• What were the forces that led to the development of the modern art of belly dance, with its focus on the solo female performer?

• What were the driving forces in the lives of the women who lived by this art during this transitional period in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries?

• What were the common venues for dancing in the 19th century?  (Use your readings from last time to supplement what van Nieuwkerk says.) 

• Was there a change in the types of venues during this period?  Describe ...

• What was (were) the social standing(s) possible for dancers and singers of varying abilities?

• Was there a change in the social standings or social possibilities for dancers during this period?  What do the sources from last class offer about this issue?

Satin Rouge: A Muslim Woman Filmmaker’s use of Belly Dance

• What symbolic or thematic role does belly dance play in this film?

• What ideas about belly dance underlie the film, in terms of such issues as its social role, the status of dancers, its acceptability, its difficulty, its effects on men, its audience, etc ...

Belly Dance in the Islamic World.  

• What is the role of professional dance in the Islamic world?   

• What aspects of Islamic society  lead to these interpretations of public dancers?

• What strategies do dancers employ in dealing with these interpretations of their art?

• What sorts of things are typically regarded as shameful behavior in our society?  Do any of them involve professional performing?  What makes them shameful?

• What exactly is "shame" in modern America?  How is it like or different from shame in Egyptian (and other circum-Mediterranean) society?

• What cultural elements led to the association of prostitution and dancing in Egypt?

• What role did Western ideas and artistic preferences play in the development of raqs sharqi in the 20th century?

• What roles did female entrepreneurs and / or dancers play in the development of raqs sharqi?

• What are the objections of Islamic fundamentalism to belly dance?  (i.e. both what do fundamentalists object to, and why?)

Belly Dance in the West I

• What were the factors that led to the adoption of a revealing costume for the presentation of oriental dance in the West?
• What were the circumstances in which the first dancers from the Middle East came to the US (and Europe)?
• How did "belly dance" gain a foothold in the Western performing traditions?
• What were some of the differences between "oriental dance" as performed by artists like Ruth St Denis and Maud Allan, and the "real thing" available at fairs and midways?
• What was the popular response to belly dance like at the Chicago Columbian Exposition?
• What role did Salome play in the way Western culture imagined the belly dancer?
• Why was the femme fatale such a compelling figure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

Belly Dance in the West II

• What motivated dancers in the 1960's and '70's in their pursuit of dance as a career?  What did they find fulfilling and exciting about it?
• What were their relationships like with other dancers?
• How did they fit in with the Arab community?  Was their dance essentially Arab or essentially American?
• What were the performing venues?  (And how do these compare with the venues we see in the Middle East?) 
• What were the working conditions like?  Crazy? Rigid? Positive? Lucrative? Enjoyable? Dismal?  Note representative details.
• What key events do dancers describe, and what central wisdom (or whatever) do they take from these experiences?
• What was the life of a dancer in San Francisco in the 60's-70's like?  How would it compare to the life of a dancer in Egypt, either now or in the 1980's (when A Trade Like Any Other was researched)?
• Come prepared with several observations you want to share about your dancers' experiences, and with some questions to raise about whether specific experiences or perspectives were shared, for your group discussion.

Power Points

• What is Belly Dance Power Point

• Power Point (Notes)

• North African Dance Power Point

• Khaleegy and Debke Power Point

• Ancient History Power Point

• Gender Power Point

• Gypsy Power Point

• Orientalist Paintings (Odalisques and Baths)

• Dancers in Painting

• Photographs

• Salomes Power Point

FINAL EXAM ESSAY

DIRECTIONS

• Write an esasy on ONE of the questions given. 

• You may spend as much time as you like preparing, but spend no more than 3 hours from when you first open the link to when you complete the exam. 

• You may use whatever books or notes you like. 

• If you use outside sources, cite them -- especially quotes!

• email your exam to me as a word attachment or in the body of an email.  If you do not receive a confirmation that I got it within 24 hours, bring hard copy to my office.

• exams must be completed by Thursday, Dec. 14, 6 pm. 

• You may take the exam at the scheduled exam period if you prefer.

DO NOT CONTUNUE UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO TAKE THE EXAM!!

link to essay questions