Dancing on Doumbeks

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
I love to watch dancers dance on doumbeks. I was also planning on performing dancing on one when I was told that dancing on drums is disrespectful to drummers. Has anyone else heard this?
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
I've never heard that - but until they make a doumbek that can hold 250 pounds, it ain't happenin' here!
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Snort! He can have it, I don't think it would end well for me...

I *have* danced on goblets though.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Never heard that dancing on drums was disrespectful to drummers but I see how a drummer might object to the odd uninvited dancer hopping up on his prized instrument. One could make an argument that it is disrespectful to dancers to tell them they can't dance on their own bought-for-dance drums because such a performance would be disrespectful to drummers who are being disrespectful to dancers who are...

:rolleyes:

I'm tired of people looking for reasons to be offended. It offends me.

Zorba. You danced on little bitty goblets but don't want to climb onto a drum? It's the height thing, right? ;)
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Probably. I should try it - with a flaming shemadan on my head. I could end it with some kind of "drop", Turkish or otherwise... :lol:
 

Duvet

Member
I know drummers who would find it disrespectful. However most just sigh and let the dancer get on with it. I guess as they put a lot of time and passion into their music, the idea of someone using their musical instrument as just a gimmicky prop would imply a disrespect towards their professional art form.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
I always saw it as some kind of inclusion, like the drum is an integral part of drum solo dancing. I was pretty surprised to find they could be offended. People have sat on pianos for decades and I never heard of anyone being offended by that.
 

Ariadne

Well-known member
I know a few people who find sitting on pianos to be dis-respectable and for pretty much the same reason. It's not a constant though. I think it pretty much comes down to check whether they will mind before you do it or bring your own.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
I have my own. Others I know who have done this also have their own. I heard the symbolism offends some but now I'm going to ask around in the local community.
 

Duvet

Member
Sitting on a piano isn't usually offensive to a pianist, but standing on the keys might be a different matter!

With a drum I am sure it will depend on the drummer, their attitude to dancing and music, and the respect that the dancer already possesses. Some newbie grabbing a drum and dancing on it might well offend the drummer who has to use that drum later to make music with. A well respected and trusted performer with a prearranged agreement with the musicians would be a different matter.

Standing on a drum and dancing/moving it around the stage could obviously damage the skin and the drum frame. Promoting the attitude that a professional musician's instrument is just a toy will cause offense. But if its your drum, then you can do what you like with it.
 
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Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
A lot of dancers have more respect for the drum than to destroy it. They do have more respect than that. And I agree that a dancer should always bring her own drum and never take one from a musician.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
My husband has played hand drums (as well as a dozen or so other instruments) for many years (my fault- bought him his first, second, third, and fourth drums). He respects instruments that get hit as well as the ones that get blown into but doesn't regard someone else's use or misuse of an instrument as a reflection on him. In my dim dark past, I played guitar and cello. Waltzing on a cello would seem a little strange to me but I wouldn't feel personally insulted when the dancers crashed through the wood.

Of course, there was that James Bond movie in which James and the leading lady escaped the bad guys by riding downhill in her cello case using the Strad as a rudder...
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Of course, there was that James Bond movie in which James and the leading lady escaped the bad guys by riding downhill in her cello case using the Strad as a rudder...

.. and tossed the cello over the guard gate at whatever border they were crossing while James said "Nothing to declare"...
 

Shanazel

Moderator
As a feminist, I deplore the way women were presented in the Bond films. As a connoisseur of campy films, I adore James Bond movies. :D
 
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