Belly Dance East and West

Midterm Study Guide

The Midterm will consist of a series of multiple choice questions (50%) and an essay (50%).  You will have a choice of four essay topics.  The essays will offer statements and interpretations for you to comment on, illustrate, and/or argue against; they will give you a chance to show the breadth of your knowledge as you argue your points.  I will be looking for a strong grounding in the interpretive ideas we have examined, as well as the use of examples to support your points.

Areas of Knowledge:

The regions and ethnic dance styles of the SIDTA area.  You should know where “belly dance” is found, and what some of its local variations are; you should be aware of its extent as a folk dance and as a performance art, including the manifestations it has as a performance art (as raqs sharqi in Egypt, as done by the shickatt of Morocco, as done by male and female professional dancers in other parts of the SIDTA area).  You should be aware of the dance styles of these areas that are not specifically “belly dance” such as the guedra and the dabke.

History:  You should be aware of the prehistoric evidence for SIDTA, and the difficulties of interpreting this evidence; including the Naqada II depictions of dancing women and the depictions of dancers on Egyptian monuments.

Gender: You should be aware of the complexities of the construction of gender in different societies; cultural differences in the perception of sexuality; the differing attitudes toward male dancers in recent history and today, and in different parts of the Arab world.

Dance and Film/Other Visuals: You should be aware of the ways in which film angles, cuts, and camera movement can be used to create an effect in the viewer, and you should also be able to apply these ideas about perspective to static visual art.  You should be aware of some of the ways in which feminist critics have interpreted filmed treatments of female subjects, and be able to apply those ideas (either to illustrate them or to argue against them) in both filmed segments and in static visual art.

Orientalism in Art:  You should be familiar with the ideas of Orientalism as it is understood in post-colonial theory, and with art that may tend to illustrate or contradict these ideas; you should be familiar with the sorts of depictions of Eastern women common in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries in painting and photography.

Terms, Names and Ideas

What is Belly Dance

• raqs sharqi
• SIDTA

Orientalism

• orientalism
• Other (serving as mirror to self)
• post-colonial studies
• odalisque
• harem
• colonization (notably of Egypt beginning around 1800 and Algeria beginning around 1830)
• realism (technique for conveying quality of the orient)
• Ingres (“keyhole” bath scene, Grande Odalisque)
• Gerome (realistic bath scenes etc.)
• Delacroix (visited Algeria several times beginning in 1832)

Ethnic Styles of Dance

• Khaleej / Khaleegy
• Raqs Nasha’at
• Saidi
• Raks al Assaya
• Ghawazee
• Guedra
• Zar
• Levant
• Dabke
• Maghreb
• Ouled Nail

History

• primary source
• secondary source
• tomb painting (perspective of …)
• Ghawazee
• Almeh

Film Techniques

• Pan; Tilt; Zoom
• Long, Medium shot; Close-up; extreme close-up
• eye-level, high angle, low angle
• hand-held camera; dolly
• establishing shot
• cut, jump cut
• montage

Feminist film criticism

• liberal feminism
• radical feminism
• narcisistic identification
• voyeuristic identification

Gypsies/Romany Issues

• Rom/Roma
• Domali
• Banat Maazin
• diaspora
• essentialism
• archetype
• stereotype