In this Chapter, I explore a contemporary venue for belly dance in America, the Arizona Renaissance Festival. I examine how belly dance functions at the festival and how the festival uses the past as an exotic entity. The Arizona Renaissance Festival creates a fantasy culture for entertainment and reinforces America’s ties to a European heritage. Contemporary representations of belly dance are examined, illustrating how this multifaceted dance simultaneously connects to and denies its Orientalist roots in America. I also examine how images of belly dance from the nineteenth century impact contemporary dance through costume inspiration. Due to the numerous styles of belly dance in America today, I focus on only two different forms of belly dance, American tribal style belly dance or as it referred to ATS and Egyptian cabaret.
Culture of the Renaissance Festival
Displaying a constructed view of predominately historical European culture, the Arizona Renaissance Festival loosely follows the format of nineteenth-century World’s fair’s midways. The festival is a fair that spreads over thirty acres with booths that sell goods, food and hold games of skill. The festival has eight stages which are the central focus for entertainment. The Arizona Renaissance Festival’s re-production of Europe’s culture and society of the past imparts nominal educational benefits. The festival’s central goal is entertainment and revenue. The participant is removed from the everyday and is placed in an alternate culture where knights, pirates, fairies and belly dancers exist together, generating a fantasy world. The Arizona Renaissance Festival does not have a specific area dedicated to Middle Eastern culture. The entire festival is a journe...
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...ese questions may not have complete or satisfactory answers.
The concept that belly dance is a constantly evolving dance might surprise most people, as the static Orientalist image of the belly dancer is the one that pervades American popular culture. I and other scholars attempt to remove belly dance from the ridged framework of Orientalism and the harem fantasy. By the following how belly dance arrived in America, and how images of belly dancers and harems became part of the visual culture of the West I have attempted to demonstrate that there are aspects of power and a different reading of images of belly dance is possible. Through continued scholarly inquiry and research I look forward to the emergence of a new image of belly dance, one that represents the power and beauty of this dance, an image that is respectful of the many cultures that it represents.
Haskins, James. "Geoffrey Holder and Carmen De Lavallade." Black Dance in America. N.p.: n.p., 1990. 130-37. Print.
Tap dancing, an art grounded in African American culture, has moved from an upbeat style with its collection of steps that characterize the Jazz Age, such as the Charleston and the Stomp Time Step, to a style that better mirrors rap’s explosive rhythms and tendency towards synchronization. Much like African American music, tap- dancing’s evolution has been closely aligned with social progress and the slow breaking-down of stereotypes developed in the minstrel shows of the late 1800’s. The direct effects of racist stereotyping on tap-dancing are best observed in pre- 1960’s Hollywood films because these films reached a wide, mostly white, audience and were financed and directed by Whites. Tap legend, Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, the star of Stormy Weather (1943), was forced to funnel his talent through a colander of social prejudices set to White Hollywood’s liking, and these social confines are visible in his dancing in this film. It was not until the 1980’s that modern tap emerged in Hollywood as an energetic battle cry from young African American dancers who demanded respect for their art form by refusing to conform to stereotypes. The film Bamboozled (2000), directed by Spike Lee, contrasts modern-day tap to the old-school style. In it, Savion Glover performs both the funky, urban style in street scenes and the smiley, traditional style in modern-day minstrel shows recreated for the film. In order to demonstrate how early conformity with and later break away from stereotypes have fueled the formation of two different generations of tap dancing, I will discuss historical context, and specifically the influence of minstrel shows on Stormy Weather and the 80’s tap revival on Bamboozled, before isolating and analyzing a scene from each film as representative of the two styles of tap-dancing.
University of Northern Iowa Dance Marathon is an organization that raises money for the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Miracle Network. The organization aims to provide emotional and financial support for families with children facing life threatening illnesses by raising money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and organizing events that increase student and community awareness. This money then is put towards things like research, education, equipment and pediatric ward enhancements so the children and families can feel a little more comfortable during their stay at the hospital. The big event was on March 1, 2014, but the organization completes events throughout the year to fundraise as much money as possible for the Miracle Network kiddos, like a 5k color run on campus, trick-or-treating for kids who can’t, and selling grilled cheese at midnight during homecoming celebrations.
Jensen, Jill Nunes. "Transcending Gender in Ballet’s LINES." When Men Dance: Choreographing Masculinities Across Borders (2009): 118.
Peña, Manuel H. "Ritual Structure in a Chicano Dance." University of Texas Press: Latin American Music Review Spring- Summer 1980 1.1 (1980): 47-73. Print.
In 1938, she choreographed and produced “L’Ag’Ya” in the federal theater in Chicago. In 1939, the Katherine Dunham dance company performed for the Quadres Society. In 1941, her first film was released, “Carnival of Rhythm”. In 1942, she was a featured dancer in the patriotic film Star Spangled Rhythm and staged dances for the film, “Pardon My Sarong”. In 1947, One of Katherine Dunham Groups were able to present her choreography of “The Caribbean Backgrounds” at Howard University in Washington D.C. Something that Dunham can be remembered by is the title of an advisor, in 1966 Dunham was appointed by the president to be an adviser for the World Festival of Negro Arts held in Dakar. (Katherine Dunham Centers, pg. 1). In conclusion, the amazing life of Katherine Dunham and career can be seen as a miraculous one, and although she was not alone Dunham is perhaps one of the best and most influential pioneer of black dance in the world. To this day and age one can say that Katherine Dunham has done her job correctly, because all she wanted was to she wanted to do was make a statement that African-American and African-Caribbean dance styles are related and can be put together to form powerful choreography which she taught here in
Through her cultural influence on dance, as well as her impact on reinventing dance itself, Anna Sokolow has gone down in history as one of the great modern dancers. Her Jewish roots were a huge basis for the dances she would perform and the messages that she would try to get across, which is significant to me and my own similar religious views. It was important for dancers and choreographers to speak up for what they believe in and disseminate their message throughout the world of the arts, and Sokolow was one of those who did this with great success. Through her unique style of movement, her eye-opening piece Rooms, and her own personal connection to Judaism, Anna Sokolow’s inspirations and works come together to address a powerful issue in Jewish society and culture during her time.
Legendary jazz artist, Nina Simone, once said, “To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that 's not what I play. I play black classical music.” This quote perfectly embodies how the Cakewalk dance was treated during its dawning in the late 19th century. The dance was both praised and criticized by its observers. The Cakewalk started out as a way for African-American slaves to mock their masters and live in autonomy. But, quickly enough, the Cakewalk gained popularity and began to evolve into formal dance competitions where the winning couple would be awarded a large and ornate cake. The Cakewalk’s popularity was also a result of minstrel shows where white actors in blackface and poor black actors and actresses would
Kelso, P. T. (2003). Behind the curtain: The body, control, and ballet. Edwardsville Journal of Sociology, 3(2). Retrieved from http://www.siue.edu/sociology/EJS/v32kelso.htm
Hispanic American community are rooted from their origins in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and other Spanish speaking countries that have come together and form a culture in the United State of America. The culture is built in different categories; for instance, religion, social custom, health practices their privacy, and birth. They come from a comprehensive familiar culture that has been called the second in America. Because of their pride and affection they feel unsafe to give up their past. Their notoriety in the United State has been their resistance to assimilate; their guarded image of Hispanic-American culture has been the tongue of flame. However, their remarkable legacy, Hispanics carry from Latin America is not their language, an inflatable skin, but breathe itself, capacity of soul, an inclination to live. The genius of Latin America is the habit synthesis. Their dance is colorful and beautiful. The dance is to keep in touch with their culture, pass down their culture heritage, and to unite people from different ethnicity who share their passion for dance. Through dancing, help in meditation, to promote health, and spiritual well being.
[2] Chazin-Bennahum, Judith. "Unmasking the Body: From Lully to the Revolution." Dance Chronicle 33.2 (2010): 310-19. Print.
Ballet has been an art form since the late fifteenth century, but society did not truly see the impact of ballet until the nineteenth century. Modern day thinkers possess the idea that ballet began with tutus and pointe shoes, but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that this opinion was observed. Ballet has come a long way. It has survived the turmoil of many wars and has changed itself by accepting new ideas and impressing the audience with its unique stylistic views.
This mentality of the Japanese towards dancing and open display of affection was constantly reflected in this movie. The scenes of where Sugiyama had to hesitate before enrolling into dancing class, had to look around before going upstairs to make sure that no one sees him, had to keep this a total secret from family and co-workers all convey Sugiyama’s attitude, which here represents the Japanese culture’s attitude as a whole, on dancing. Apparently, he felt that his association with the art of dancing was deemed shameful, and he had a good reason to believe that. Not only did he hear from Donny, a close friend and co-worker of Sugiyama who had practiced the art of dancing for 5 years, that dancing is a “Dirty lecher”, he also saw the banter reactions of his co-workers when they f...
I recently tried to see a live belly dance at Aladdin Mediterranean Restaurant in West Reading. Growing up, I always thought about belly dancing as the stereotypical Eyptian woman dancing sexually in front of a group of men. Even in class when I first found out that we were going to learn about Egypt, one thing came to mind, and that was belly dancing. I was surprised by the fact that belly dancing is not anything like what I thought it was. It was quite different and astonishing of the differences there was between the real thing and what I thought it was. One of the things that really got to me is that in the western hemisphere, we call all of Egyptian dances as belly dancing, when in reality, there are multiple types of dances. This is
2017). The female gaze is used as an attempt to subvert the image of the man being “the bearer of the look” and the “woman as the image” (Mulvey, 1975: 19). Yes, in that specific scene, the belly dancer was the “image” to be looked as we would expect from traditional cinema, however, she was not sexualized in the way a masculine point of view would present her (Mulvey, 1975: 20). What this does is that it feminizes both the spectators and the camera’s point of view from the very beginning, indicating a sign that we will be introduced to events and relationships from a female perspective that would otherwise be unknown to us in the male dominated world of Bent Familia (Mulvey, 1975: 25). This scene is also very important because it tells the