Raqs Sharqi is an Arabic term, it means "Oriental Dance". When I was in the middle-east it was easy to tell which of the Raqs Sharqi dances were improvised and which were choreographed.
Unfortunately, in the middle-east it has really become not much more than a way for a woman to get some attention and turn on some horny men. There's no art to it anymore. Now, belly dancing consists of a hot woman, traditional attire, moving around randomly (I swear, once I sat through a 10 minute dance where the woman was just spinning in circles)
I lost my train of thought and I can't remember what point I was getting at.
I looked @ this video to try to find something relevant to what I was talking about. What the hell does the camera man do @ 4:25
India is a pretty big place. What is American music. I think Bolly dancing would have to be considered Indian music, maybe not this tradition or that tradition, but Indian music.
You're so right Nacoran. Filmi music, as indians would say (Bollywood is only the Bombay part of it) is not only indian, it's THE music indians listen to. If you go there, that will be your soundtrack.
Raqs sharqi whatever it is in the middle-east, is a highly valued art in Cairo, which can be considered the capital of belly dance today. There are other, more traditional dancing styles that would be considered belly dance of course. While raqs sharqi is a kind of show dance that has strong american influences there are also Raqs al-Beledi or Saidi or Mizmar...
My wife is a decent belly dancer, i guess i better won't show the video to her ;)
EDIT: Well, decent by middle european standards. I Cairo nobody would care about her dancing ;)
Last Edited by on Jan 29, 2010 10:39 AM
As an honest to goodness south asian deshi, and as some one who works a lot in arab countries too (as an anthropologist)... I didn't much like that.... Belly dance has nothing to do with India or Bollywood dancing, and both have nothing to do with traditional Indian dancing styles... Belly dancing is basically "stripper dancing" (in a different cultural context than ours) and Bollywood dancing is basically pop dancing (a la Nsync, but in a different cultural context). Classical Indian dance styles are like Ballet. All "high culture" and shit. You can see all of these styles and more on "So you Think You Can Dance", a show that I really like to watch, Personally, my favorite is contemporary dance. ---------- ------------------ The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
Pimpinella, we're gonna need to see some video of your wife's belly-dancing techniques. You know, for strictly educational purposes and such. ---------- Todd L. Greene, V.P.
Last Edited by on Jan 29, 2010 10:52 AM
isaacullah wrote: "Belly dancing is basically "stripper dancing" (in a different cultural context than ours)"
I would agree if we're strictly takling about Raqs sharqi AND specific cultural contexts like middle eastern. That "stripper dancing" is generally not true for traditional dancing styles, especially when danced within the family or among women. It's not neccessarily (dancers are mostly considered artists, but you probably wouldn't marry one of them;) ) true either for the maghreb countries and egypt.
toddlgreene, when i feel suicidal tendencies some day i might upload a video of my wife dancing to youtube. Until then it might be safe not even to think about that ;)
Diggsblues, belly dancing is some kind of western synonym for oriental dancing. Beledi is a specific oriental dancing style (it means something like rural or country IIRC, not 100% sure though) with more cloth, less coins and less suggestive movements than the kind of dancing most people have in mind when talking about belly dancing. It's associated with traditional drum rhythms and such.
Last Edited by on Jan 29, 2010 11:24 AM
Well, belly dancing is not stripper dancing, although it may have become such in certain occasion. It's just an elaborate form of art.
What it was, and is, speaks about the place of the female body in societies. Belly dancers, just like ghazal singers and dancers in India, performed mainly for a male audience, and were dubbed as courtesans (rightly so), because there was no other place for a female artist to perform, and it was inconceivable, from a male point of view, that a performing female artist should not throw at them her body in the process.
That doesn't mean that their artistry is low level, quite contrary. Yet, some decades ago, even accompanying musicians (like tabla players and sarangi players) were still despised (and paid accordingly) by sitar players and the like, because they used to accompany ghazal singers. It's actually the exposure to the West (where tabla players raised crazy applause after their solos) that changed that perception.
It's almost a rule that popular musics comes from people neglected by society (think blues) and from bad places, specially port towns and brothels, like tango in Buenos Aires, fado in Lisbon, rebetika in Piraeus, jazz in New-Orleans.
And, IMO, it has much to do with the place affected to the expression of a freer body (and not only female body). That doesn't make the expression second class or contemptible. The reverse might be true.
