Belly dance performance shatters stereotypes

Published 5:50 pm Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Forget striptease, the skin they showed and anything else having to do with girls performing for men. These were serious minded women dancing for women. What an eye opener.

The event was “The Totally Tribal Dance Festival and Grand Bazaar” last Saturday at Country Village in Bothell. Fortune tellers, psychic healers and peddlers of jewelry and dress for decorating the female body were featured. But at the vortex of festivities was the whirl and swirl of belly dance, a respected art form about which the male ego has little understanding and less appreciation of, mine included; that is, until now. These goings on changed my mind.

Basic Belly Dance is relevant. Pride in, and expression of self is what it is about. It originates in tribal behavior dated back primitive times in the Middle and Far East and Africa. Dance worldwide has influenced it since. Also, it is art form accelerating with our shrinking world in this information age. It is global. It is here to stay.

The fundamentals: hips and hands; hips for child-bearing, hands for work. The rest of the body figures in, but women still have kids and work. Also, belly dance is about women empowering themselves. The use of hands and hips in belly dance have sophisticated into a celebration of birthing, deeds and feelings about womanhood; more power to them, say I.

So how’d it look at Country Village?

The event headliner, Gypsy Caravan, contributed Tribal style, updated and with a heavy Mideastern influence; meaning: bracelets, beads, tattoos and baggy pants for body decoration; scimitars for props; and jazz and cha-cha to modernize the dominating Arabian sound. The flow was fluid, advancing and retreating, stepping into the spotlight to assert self and stepping back for others to assert themselves. In body line, form and motion, it was a society-enabling act of cooperative behavior without self-compromise. Not a bad way to get along, don’t you think?

Think veiled Arab women in Kasbahs; you’re thinking the showy Cabaret style. Think flamenco with sass; you’re thinking Gypsy style.

Essence Dance Company featured the hypnotically entrancing North African drumbeat. Banshee’s headdress of red feathers featured sauciness. Improvisation came to the fore with Troupe Hipnotica. Twilight accented Rap. There was an Amazon influence and the prayerfulness hands and poses representative of an East Indian mudra. The sheer variety of sensibilities was awesome.

Brishen, however, was the shocker.

Here was a guy who belly danced. Just the thought did things to my head. The wake-up call was the sight of a man, muscled like a weight lifter, moving rhythmically with the grace and poise of what I would have characterized as feminine. So delicate, so in-tune, so perfectly brave with self-belief was Banshee that the light bulb went on. Make of it what you will; this guy knows who he is. Tell you what. This guy’s got me thinking about Yoga.

Thanks to Ottoman Trading Co. for the eye opener. They are a dance school and place to shop at Country Village. Terrific event. Had a great time.

Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entopinion@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.