"It's like stripping, right?"

[eden eyes]

How many times have you heard that or something similar to that when talking about belly dance to other people? I actually wrote a paper for my Comp 1 class about belly dance.

Personally, I've heard too many times and I actually get tired from educating people all the time, and yet if I don't...well, we all know what happens.

I'm just curious to know how often other dancers hear that phrase or get people making assumptions like that of belly dance.

 

[shiradotnet]

I don't hear it as often as I used to, but I do still hear it now and then, and I'm tired of it. I'm glad the public is better educated than they used to be, but we still have a long road ahead of us.

It doesn't help matters when certain belly dancers think it would be appropriate to include burlesque workshops as part of belly dance festivals, or to do fusions of belly dance and burlesque in their performances, or to feature burlesque performances in what are otherwise entirely belly dance shows.

(I don't have a problem with belly dance and burlesque being on the same stage when that stage features a diverse collection of acts such as fire-eating, comedy skits, clowns, etc. I'm not hating on burlesque, just want people to treat it as being separate from belly dance in the same way you would treat the polka as separate from belly dance.)

 

[eden eyes]

or how about when strippers dress in coins and a scarf and "belly dance" for their male spectators?

i just hope that when we take the time to explain to the misinformed that the next time they hear a poor assumption made on belly dance that they will pass on the knowledge we instilled on them.

 

[Aisha Azar]

Stripping

How many times have you heard that or something similar to that when talking about belly dance to other people? I actually wrote a paper for my Comp 1 class about belly dance.

Personally, I've heard too many times and I actually get tired from educating people all the time, and yet if I don't...well, we all know what happens.

I'm just curious to know how often other dancers hear that phrase or get people making assumptions like that of belly dance.

Dear Eden,
I have heard it once from an American. I have been approached many times when I worked in clubs, by Arab guys who think that belly dancer and prostitute are synonyms for each other. This is a prevalent attitude within the culture, in my own experience, more than in the West.
Regards,
A'isha

 

[Sita]

How many times have you heard that or something similar to that when talking about belly dance to other people? I actually wrote a paper for my Comp 1 class about belly dance.

Personally, I've heard too many times and I actually get tired from educating people all the time, and yet if I don't...well, we all know what happens.

I'm just curious to know how often other dancers hear that phrase or get people making assumptions like that of belly dance.

I've never had the dance connected with 'stripping' when talking to other people. The most I've encountered is 'oriental sterotypes'.. harem women dancing it for the Sultans attention etc. The biggest issue is that people don't view it as a 'repectable/ proper' dance in the same way as they do ballet, Irish dancing, Kathak, Flamenco etc. It definitly has a lower status to those art forms and people do assosiate it with something daring or slightly erotic. I've had the odd comment like: 'ohh.. you dark hourse..' :think: from people which is just stupid.
Sita

 

[Sita]

I don't hear it as often as I used to, but I do still hear it now and then, and I'm tired of it. I'm glad the public is better educated than they used to be, but we still have a long road ahead of us.

It doesn't help matters when certain belly dancers think it would be appropriate to include burlesque workshops as part of belly dance festivals, or to do fusions of belly dance and burlesque in their performances, or to feature burlesque performances in what are otherwise entirely belly dance shows.

(I don't have a problem with belly dance and burlesque being on the same stage when that stage features a diverse collection of acts such as fire-eating, comedy skits, clowns, etc. I'm not hating on burlesque, just want people to treat it as being separate from belly dance in the same way you would treat the polka as separate from belly dance.)

:clap:I agree I personally like Burlesque but I have the same issue when mixing it with belly dance.
Sita

 

[alosha]

i get tired of the 'i bet your husband really likes that you bellydance *wink *wink'

i just wanna say well, actually, he's quite sick of it.

 

[Aniseteph]

i get tired of the 'i bet your husband really likes that you bellydance *wink *wink'

i just wanna say well, actually, he's quite sick of it.

:lol: LMAO! I will treasure that one...

Maybe they should have a support group for belly dance widowers, a sadly misunderstood group...

 

[Salome]

I've had a VERY small handful of overt inferences from various sorts that Oriental dance is smutty and low class. It’s been years though. Oriental dance has been happening in the Willamette Valley for a long time - from Portland to Ashland - the public has seen plenty of dancing so it isn‘t an unknown so much with the imagination taking over.

 

[Maria_Aya]

From time to time, various people try to make silly jokes and say:
Bellydance is just before stripping.
And I reply very serious:
No, its just before jogging !!

 

[Mya]

From time to time, various people try to make silly jokes and say:
Bellydance is just before stripping.
And I reply very serious:
No, its just before jogging !!

Maria you're the best! :dance: :lol:


I still hear that comment frequently - usually from older folks though like my parents' friends - i did a performance for christmas for their company and when i got there they were like "i hear you're gonna strip *wink wink".

On occasion, morons are known to follow it up with "you must be really good in bed!"
That really gets my goat!! :naghty:

 

[kayshier]

morons are known to follow it up with "you must be really good in bed!"

that's the most frequent comment I get....plenty morons about it seems.

but i commonly get disdainful comments from older women asking why I am engaging in 'bedroom stuff'.
i ignore it.

 

[Mya]

My most enthusiastic student is 69 years old! i guess there is hope that not that entire generation is judgemental and closed-minded.

 

[Aisha Azar]

Strip

I still hear that commen

On occasion, morons are known to follow it up with "you must be really good in bed!"
That really gets my goat!! :naghty:

Dear Mya,

The few times I have gotten such commnets, I usually handle it in one of two ways, depending on the temperament of the offender:

* Stare them down without saying a word. ( they usually apologize.)

* Strike a very physically assertive pose and say something along the lines of " You will never, ever find that out".



Regards,
A'isha

 

[shiradotnet]

A little over a year ago, my 90-year-old mother-in-law (a retired doctor and medical school professor) really wanted me to dance at the retirement community where she lives, and I agreed to do it. Many of her friends (also retired university professors, lawyers, and other highly-educated professionals) live at this home, and she wanted to show me off to her friends. So she went to the guy who organizes such things to see what would be involved in putting me on the schedule. (He was probably in his 40's.) His response: "No, someone might be offended."

Well, whenever I went there to dine with my in-laws in their communal dining room, their friends kept coming over to our table and asking me when I was going to dance for them. I simply said, "Apparently the management here doesn't want me to."

Well, someone was offended all right. The senior citizens were offended that the management guy had assumed them all to be narrow-minded, uneducated, unable-to-appreciate-art idiots. So someone created and circulated a petition, and presented it to the guy. A number of individuals went to him in person to demand that he schedule me to dance. The next day, he called me and said, "Would you like to come dance for our residents? We've had a lot of requests for you, there seems to be a lot of interest."

So we arranged a day/time, and I wrote a blurb for him to put in the newsletter. The day after the newsletter came out, he called me to ask if we could make my start time 30 minutes later than what we had originally discussed. Reason: in just the 24 hours after the newsletter came out, he received so much positive feedback about my upcoming performance that he didn't think the usual recreation room would hold everybody. So he wanted to move the performance to the dining room, which is twice as big, but needed the later start time to avoid conflict with the dinner hour. I agreed to the change.

The day of the performance, the dining hall was full. I started with a 15-minute introductory lecture, then a performance, then a mini-lesson of some moves people could do seated (head slides, snake arms, hand ripples), and then a Q&A session. The management guy was there, with a camera, and took lots of photos. Afterward, he congratulated me on a fascinating program.

Nobody was offended.

And people are starting to ask me when I'm going to do it again.

People who missed it keep asking me whether they could get a copy of the video that my sister-in-law made of it.

And just last week one of the men who lives there asked me what I would charge to teach a class for the senior citizen "community education" program offered by the local university - it seems he is on the program committee.

 

[alosha]

that is so wonderful! my first performance with my troupe was at a retirement home here. they all LOVED it. cant wait to do it again.

 

[Aniseteph]

Good for them, Shira - what a great story! :clap:

but i commonly get disdainful comments from older women asking why I am engaging in 'bedroom stuff'.

Wow Kayshier, just think what must their bedroom lives must be like! (don't you just hate it when your Isis wings get tangled in the sheets? I know I do..... )

 

[Andrea Deagon]

I once had someone at a street-festival venue pass by my dance troupe as we were warming up behind the stage and comment disgustedly, "Just look at those ho's." The irony was that we were wearing twice the clothes and half the makeup that she was. :lol:

 

[teela]

The only issue I've had was last year when my superintendent made a comment asking me if "My pole was broken" I informed him that was totally inappropriate and not to do it again. Other than that, no one has made a stripping comment.

 

[Aniseteph]

The only dodgy comment I had was someone at work saying "I hear you are an exotic dancer now". . I said "yeah, that's right" and he never mentioned it again. :lol: