Is Belly Dancing considered risque??

[LadyFatima]

I can honesty consider myself a tomboy. I wear jeans, t-shirts, sweats, and I practically LIVE in hoodies.

I never wear clothes that reveal "more than necessary" as I put it. I don't wear things like halter tops or tank tops in public. Nothing that reveals too much cleavage (trust me, they stick out more than enough on their own:lol And I don't wear skirts that go above the knee, and I don't wear shorts in public at all. Oh, and I've never been into wearing bikini's or other tiny bathing suits either.

For personal reasons (and not religious reasons because I don't consider myself religious at all), I recently took it upon myself to practice a sense of modesty while in public. Similar to what some Muslim women do, only I don't cover my hair and I'll wear short sleeves.

I refuse to participate in anything that would degrade myself or bring unnecessary attention to myself or my body. There's enough women out there who make complete idiots out of themselves and sell themselves out just for a bit of attention, money, etc.

So this is basically my point. . . .I consider myself a die-hard belly dancer, it has became a major part of my life. It is a beautiful art form that deserves to be shared with the world and passed on.

If a girl like me says something like belly dancing isn't risque. . .you can take that to the bank, folks!!:clap:

 

[walladah]

In support of Starmouth's point

There is an urban myth which says: When the western visitors presented for the first time the dance of valse (you know valse, isn't it? no-one would ever think of it, in the West, as risque) in front of the Japanese emperor and his court, the Japanese aristocracy was mostly offended by the performance, because they thought that this dance "replicates" intimate moments of a couple.

I am not sure whether this story is true and how we can verify it, but it definitely reminds that what seems conservative and high class in our eyes (valse is a traditional dance in German countries, but it has been adopted by elites throughout centuries) might seem risque and offending in the eyes of a person who has a different culture.

Of course, i do not consider risque a dance that all women in my home village dance. But i know that in other communities, where women have not this art as an everyday quality, the same dance might seem "exotic". Of course, i keep dancing whenever i feel so and this is so funny at the end, seeing women who might have never tried to dance this "risky" dance, stand up and dance with me ("she is one of us, then why not?").

 

[LadyLoba]

I think...as a lot of these posts show...whether belly dance is considered risque depends on the culture and attitudes of the people involved. In some places, yes I suppose it would be. In others, not at all.

 

[kanariya]

I tend to take this controversy to heart, especially because of my current predicament. I am very much a conservative person in daily life and am currently networking with doctors and studying in preparation for my application to veterinary school (which begins next month). I am a very serious dancer and am also planning to take myself to a professional level with belly dancing as well. While I am very proud of being a dancer and what it represents to me, I'm afraid I have to keep my dancing a secret from the admissions committee as well as the colleagues I've made so as not to damage my chances of acceptance due to an incorrect assumption made by uninformed individuals. I even asked a young doctor what his thoughts were and he told me that I should keep it to myself, at least until I am accepted. It is incredibly unfortunate that it has to be this way, it is as though I am cutting out a piece of my own body.

On a happy note, I do intend to exposed myself as a dancer after it is a done deal and I am accepted. I have just never felt so torn over something so important to me.

 

[Shanazel]

If you've been teaching the program on and off since 1980 the school board must have been aware of it. I'm rather surprised no one thought to bring up the fact that it's been taught over the last thirty years without problem. Amazing the havoc one narrow-minded idiot can wreak.

Well, yeah, school board members were aware of it. Some of them took lessons from me. The district and the sponsoring organization are just so scared of controversy and the spectre of litigious parents that the Highly Educated Authorities roll over and pee on themselves any time someone snarks.

 

[Erik]

Well, yeah, school board members were aware of it. Some of them took lessons from me. The district and the sponsoring organization are just so scared of controversy and the spectre of litigious parents that the Highly Educated Authorities roll over and pee on themselves any time someone snarks.

Yes, Shanazel, but is it the dance itself, or the traditional baring of the midriff, or media stereotypes, or perhaps the association with a competing religion that forces them to involuntary urination? Or is it a subtle combination of these? [Not rhetorical, but one of the questions I am still struggling with in an effort to understand.]

 

[Shanazel]

Involuntary urination was caused by fear of litigation. No problem existed until some uneducated doofas equated belly dance with (shudder) unrestrained sensuality and the possibility that it would render the nerve endings of his or her minor child morbidly sensitive.

 

[Erik]

Horrors! In the 1990's I actually signed a petition to have Joycelyn Elders removed as US Surgeon General because she proposed teaching kids how to masturbate, and she was quickly removed. [Sorry, but I think there are some joys which kids should be allowed to discover for themselves outside of an antiseptic classroom environment.] Compared to that, belly dancing seems a rather tame endeavor to my simple mind.

 

[Sirène]

There's no doubt in my mind that it's an erroneous equation of belly dancers with strippers that's causing the problem. I also suspect racism towards things of middle eastern origin, because sadly it's de rigueur for young girls to dance with bare midriffs while shaking their hips and glutes in a highly suggestive manner. It won a (US) national dancing competition for a group of seven-year-olds a few years ago:

Little girls' provocative dance routine to 'Single Ladies' sparks fears of growing up too fast - New York Daily News

Single Ladies (modern dance/hip-hop) is ok, but belly dance isn't? :wall: Seriously?

It's sad that people will allow misconceptions and intolerance to cloud their judgement. What bothers me most about this situation is that the school won't allow Shanazel to defend the belly dance classes for fear of the doofas filing suit. I find it amazing the power and control people will concede to one big-mouthed pseudo intellectual. rotest:

 

[Buttercup]

BD Risky

I am a very sensuous belly dancer. Not only are my moves natural and smooth but my facial expressions match the moves because I go into something like a trance where I am completely, fully engaged in what I am doing (whether moving fast or slow)...because I have been able to know that there is a beyond to classroom technique.

I have made belly dancing a personal experience that is why. The effect however is that I am REALLY SEXY and I have been told by good friends that it is not for public consumption because of it. I tried toning it down and dance to quaint music rather than music that lends itself to sensuosity too much...but guys could really cream themselves still.

 

[NewDancer]

Alas, Fotia, my dear, such erroneous notions can have remarkable and deleterious effects.

I've been teaching BD in local public schools off and on since 1980. Classes have been enthusiastically received by everyone from teachers to students and classroom moms. Last month a single protest by one uneducated and blindly prejudiced parent who assumed BD is risque led to BD being banned from being taught in our local school district. I was not allowed to present the program to the school board nor any other group to demonstrate the wholesomeness of the dance. My employer was told if she persisted in protesting the ban that it might result in her company not being asked to present any programs in the schools at all and that would destroy her business.

In thirty-four years of performing and teaching I have never experienced such complete stupidity about belly dance. Never. Now, because of a single person, I am effectively prevented from teaching a very beautiful dance to what would be the third generation of public school students to pass through my workshops.

It sucks.

It just takes one narrow-minded idiot to ruin it for everyone else!! Just like these clowns that get offended when you say MERRY CHRISTMAS!! You cant say that in school now or the ACLU is ready to sue at the drop of a hat!! I'm sorry that happened!

Geoff

 

[NewDancer]

Horrors! In the 1990's I actually signed a petition to have Jocelyn Elders removed as US Surgeon General because she proposed teaching kids how to masturbate, and she was quickly removed. [Sorry, but I think there are some joys which kids should be allowed to discover for themselves outside of an antiseptic classroom environment.] Compared to that, belly dancing seems a rather tame endeavor to my simple mind.

I remember that!! I remember seeing the fottage on the Rush Limbaugh TV show!!

 

[Buttercup]

This attitude waters BD down

THis same bad attitude that belly dancing is dirty, is why there are better Belly dancers in North America than in Egypt.

 

[Sirène]

Horrors! In the 1990's I actually signed a petition to have Jocelyn Elders removed as US Surgeon General because she proposed teaching kids how to masturbate, and she was quickly removed. [Sorry, but I think there are some joys which kids should be allowed to discover for themselves outside of an antiseptic classroom environment.] Compared to that, belly dancing seems a rather tame endeavor to my simple mind.

The problem I have with this comment is that it's comparing apples and oranges: belly dance and masturbation are not remotely related. Or at worst, belly dance is no more related to masturbation than ballet or modern dance.

I think your intention was to defend teaching belly dance in schools, but calling it tame in comparison to such a hot-button issue of human sexuality doesn't help. It also reinforces the idea that belly dance is automatically tied to sex.

 

[Erik]

I think your intention was to defend teaching belly dance in schools, but calling it tame in comparison to such a hot-button issue of human sexuality doesn't help. It also reinforces the idea that belly dance is automatically tied to sex.

Yes, that was my intention. Very well, Sirene. I won't argue it with you.

EDIT --- Many hours later, and I still don't understand why a belly dancer on this same thread can brag that even a toned-down version of her dance has the potential to make a guy cream himself (involuntary ejaculation), and yet I am scolded for contrasting school-sponsored belly dance with a ridiculous proposal to teach masturbation in school.

Sorry, Sirene, but this inequity keeps coming back to bug me and will do so until I write about it. As a non-dancer I do not expect equal treatment, and the very last thing I want is preferential treatment, but fair treatment would be nice.

 

[Aniseteph]

Involuntary urination was caused by fear of litigation. No problem existed until some uneducated doofas equated belly dance with (shudder) unrestrained sensuality and the possibility that it would render the nerve endings of his or her minor child morbidly sensitive.

Sheesh, someone on the board responsible for the mass pee-out should just grow a pair.

What is it with uneducated doofuses (or is that doofi?) that they always want to a) keep their own children in the same state of ignorance that they are in, and b) think they are so smart that their dumb views should apply to everyone else's kids?

 

[walladah]

They are so "smart"

that they think their children will not have any idea about bellydance and this at the era of TV and internet! and they think that if their children want to play bellydance (esp. the one they watch on TV and youtube), will need their parents' approval!

while they could have an excellent teacher instead...

However, i am thinking that prohibition is the best way to make something desirable and make a child to long for it... I wonder Shanazel, how long it will take that the children of those silly people come to you for lessons!

 

[Shanazel]

Yes, that was my intention. Very well, Sirene. I won't argue it with you.

EDIT --- Many hours later, and I still don't understand why a belly dancer on this same thread can brag that even a toned-down version of her dance has the potential to make a guy cream himself (involuntary ejaculation), and yet I am scolded for contrasting school-sponsored belly dance with a ridiculous proposal to teach masturbation in school.

Sorry, Sirene, but this inequity keeps coming back to bug me and will do so until I write about it. As a non-dancer I do not expect equal treatment, and the very last thing I want is preferential treatment, but fair treatment would be nice.

Don't get so pushed out of shape about lack of equality so early in the discussion, kiddo. One of us is sitting here rolling her eyes over Buttercup's statement.

Buttercup: dancing that is so overtly sexual that guys come unglued during a program is a big part of the problem we are talking about here. If you can't control what you are expressing during a performance then you aren't far enough along as a dancer to be performing in public.

 

[Starmouth]

I have to say, my version of belly dancing is about as sexual as morris dancing. :lol:

 

[Darshiva]

Agreed Starmouth - anyone who finds my dancing sexual isn't watching me dance!