Zorba, you know I'm going to have mixed feelings on "it ALL." I agree that many of those old-school dancers like Cory, Aida, Rocky, Jamila, Amaya, Yasmin and Artemis (not a complete list, obviously) amassed a staggering breadth of knowledge. But there were also dancers who were "jack of all trades and master of none," because the sheer amount of material couldn't all be learned equally well under the constraints of their lives. Even today, most working dancers have some things they do well, a few more they do passably, then the skills start getting shallower as they spread out.
Besides, I don't think I would say AmCab is "it ALL." It's usually the common elements of Turkish, Egyptian, and Lebanese (basic movement vocabulary and finger cymbals), veil, and sometimes floorwork, cane, basic Khaleeji, and maybe your local clientele's folk dances. That still leaves out most west-of-Egypt North African dances (Moroccan, Tunisian, Algerian, Berber, etc.), shamadan and Egyptian folk dances, Ghawazee, Nubian, Iraqi (Kawliya, Chobi, etc.), a million flavors of dabke, other Khaleeji and Bedouin dances, Turkish non-karsilama folk dances, Turkish Roma, and so on.
The information you need to do a simple three- or five-part AmCab set is core knowledge, and I don't think you should be presenting yourself as any kind of professional "traditional" belly dancer if you haven't reached that proficiency, but there's still so much more out there. You could be considered high proficiency at a single ethnic substyle and do a classic nightclub routine, too. Hadia could do a solid Egyptian set and a solid Turkish set and a solid "generic AmCab" set, but a lot of AmCab dancers couldn't/can't "code switch" between variations like she did.
And I don't mean "generic" as an insult. Most dancers start out learning "generic" style, and it still takes a lot of talent and work to be good at it. But if you want to be the cream that rises to the top, even in the AmCab-verse, at some point, you need to develop the awareness that "This is 'just' a hip circle, but if I do it this way, it's more Egyptian and if I do it that way, it's more Turkish."
"Generic" used to be enough, and it's still enough for what most students need, but there are very few dancers who can specialize in it today and still be considered world-class if they hadn't built their reputations before the internet. (I'm sure there are others but Aziza is the only one I can think of at the moment.) Is it a double standard that you can be good at "only Egyptian" or "only Turkish," but not usually "only AmCab"? Yes, but it's also the nature of how the dance and the identity politics of culture have evolved. It's difficult to earn respect when you are carrying baggage labeled "People didn't know better back then. Unless they were exposed to people who were invested in ethnic nuances, they might not have even known it was important to care about the details back then."
There is just more cultural sensitivity now and more awareness that the skills the average nightclub dancer mastered fifty years ago isn't all there is to learn.
Besides, I don't think I would say AmCab is "it ALL." It's usually the common elements of Turkish, Egyptian, and Lebanese (basic movement vocabulary and finger cymbals), veil, and sometimes floorwork, cane, basic Khaleeji, and maybe your local clientele's folk dances. That still leaves out most west-of-Egypt North African dances (Moroccan, Tunisian, Algerian, Berber, etc.), shamadan and Egyptian folk dances, Ghawazee, Nubian, Iraqi (Kawliya, Chobi, etc.), a million flavors of dabke, other Khaleeji and Bedouin dances, Turkish non-karsilama folk dances, Turkish Roma, and so on.
The information you need to do a simple three- or five-part AmCab set is core knowledge, and I don't think you should be presenting yourself as any kind of professional "traditional" belly dancer if you haven't reached that proficiency, but there's still so much more out there. You could be considered high proficiency at a single ethnic substyle and do a classic nightclub routine, too. Hadia could do a solid Egyptian set and a solid Turkish set and a solid "generic AmCab" set, but a lot of AmCab dancers couldn't/can't "code switch" between variations like she did.
And I don't mean "generic" as an insult. Most dancers start out learning "generic" style, and it still takes a lot of talent and work to be good at it. But if you want to be the cream that rises to the top, even in the AmCab-verse, at some point, you need to develop the awareness that "This is 'just' a hip circle, but if I do it this way, it's more Egyptian and if I do it that way, it's more Turkish."
"Generic" used to be enough, and it's still enough for what most students need, but there are very few dancers who can specialize in it today and still be considered world-class if they hadn't built their reputations before the internet. (I'm sure there are others but Aziza is the only one I can think of at the moment.) Is it a double standard that you can be good at "only Egyptian" or "only Turkish," but not usually "only AmCab"? Yes, but it's also the nature of how the dance and the identity politics of culture have evolved. It's difficult to earn respect when you are carrying baggage labeled "People didn't know better back then. Unless they were exposed to people who were invested in ethnic nuances, they might not have even known it was important to care about the details back then."
There is just more cultural sensitivity now and more awareness that the skills the average nightclub dancer mastered fifty years ago isn't all there is to learn.
