A couple of years ago Anderson Beckmann flew to Miami to audition for the first international professional belly dancing ensemble. Standing 5-feet-9 inch tall and having years of experience, she had the look and the talent the group wanted in its dancers.
But after the first audition, she received a callback with a condition she knew she had to refuse.
“They asked me to come out, but they said ‘grow your hair out and wear a skimpier costume,'” she said.
The group embodied a stereotype Beckmann, a junior in religious studies and dance in the sacred, has been fighting for the past few years: belly dancing as a glamorous but degrading tradition.
“A lot of people don’t take it seriously — they think it’s just this type of seductive dance,” she said. “But it’s not.”
And so Beckmann is on a mission to educate herself and others about the history and meaning behind the group of dances that is now classified as “belly dancing.”
She began a belly dancing group on campus called Fayroozat, which is the evil eye that casts away evil. Fayroozat is a part of the Mid-eastern and African Student Association, and Beckmann will perform at the organization’s Arabian Night tomorrow on Harris Field.
MENASA is a cultural organization that promotes Arab culture, with no emphasis on religion or politics.
Layal Nasrallah, a sophomore in communication, is a member of MENASA helping to promote Arabian night and will also dance a traditional Lebanse folk dance called dabkeh. In dabkeh the dancers perform in groups, often holding hands, and focuses on stomping movements with the feet. She knows Beckmann and respects her style of dancing.
“The way Andy does it is very respectfully and artfully,” Nasrallah said. “A lot of people go up there and move their bodies, but belly dancing is much more then that — it is an expression of culture.”
That culture is rich in history, something Beckmann expresses when she teaches free classes for Fayroozat.
During the Chicago’s World Fair in the 1890s a group of women from Egypt performed dances to a type of drumbeat called “beledi,” and one of the dancers had the top of her stomach showing. In order to create publicity and draw crowds, a fair offical came up with the scandelous term “belly dancing” for the dancers, Beckmann said.
And since that time people have grouped Arabian, Turkish, Egyptian, Spanish, Egyptian and Indian dances on the costuming, rather then the style or meaning of the dances.
But in actuality, the term belly dancing is an entire lineage of dances derived from different drumbeats, according to Beckmann. Those drumbeats gave rhythm to a theatrical performance based on the culture.
“Long ago in the early part of this tradition there were ways to tell about the world — you could read a book or hear a story, but most of the people couldn’t read,” she said.
Instead these people relied on dance to keep oral traditions alive. She compared Indian and Turkish style and movements.
“In Hindu tradition song and dance became really important. The way that it flows I compare it to yoga — like in yoga you hold a position and then go to the next — but it flows,” she said.
“There are hand gestures that mean something, like opening the lotus flower,” she said as she made a V-like shape with her hands.
“Or putting on charcoal for their lover.” She moved her hand over her as though putting on make-up.
“They are interesting stories — they are tragic love stores between two deities, and much more,” she said.
But in Turkish style the gestures refer more to daily life, Beckmann explained.
The dances themselves can be sexually charged because some are meant to demonstrate stories about love and seduction — but Beckmann doesn’t think that those roles should automatically make the dances exploitive. She emphasizes that the dances are made for a specific audience and that a dancer should be respectful of the values of that culture.
One of the ways to show respect is the costuming because not all of the styles are the same.
“When I’m doing Turkish I wear a very skimpy costume because it is very acrobaic and you need to be able to move,” she said. “But If I’m doing more Arabic I don’t wear a skimpy costume because its not appropriate — but I don’t think people think about that.”
She added that if someone wears the costume inappropriately it just reinforces negative stereotypes and people aren’t going to respect the dance, which is one of the most important aspects for her. After she graduates she wants to get her doctorate in belly dance and help legitimize its art form.
“I want to do this and get a PhD because there is no understanding of the language,” she said. “In Ballet class everybody knows what a plie is, but for belly dance there is no vocabulary, and when you go across so many traditions there needs to be a higher level of sophistication.”
