Bring on the bellies Bring on the bellies (January 07, 2005)

Belly dance show will showcase genre's complexity and popularity

By Molly Tanenbaum

Princess Farhana wears a tiara in her driver's license photo.

Though she may not be a true blue-blood, Farhana is a self-proclaimed diva who relishes the "royal" title. The Hollywood belly-dance star, who has appeared in music videos for Madonna and Ricky Martin, and at private parties for celebrities, will make her Palo Alto debut on Saturday at the largest belly-dance show ever held in the Bay Area.

The title of the show, "Dimensions in Dance," is fitting: performances will include belly-dancing styles such as American Cabaret, American Tribal, Egyptian, Turkish, Folkloric, Raks Gothique and Fusion.

Onlookers can expect to see a wide variety of costumes and movements and leave with a more complex understanding of belly dance, rather than thinking of it as a "scandalous, burlesque, stripper phenomenon," according to Dawn Devine Brown, president-elect of the Bay Area chapter of MECDA (Middle Eastern Culture and Dance Association).

Farhana agrees.

"A lot of Americans have completely the wrong idea of belly dancing. They think it's all racy and vulgar and don't realize its complexities or its beauty or that in the Arab world, it's mainly by and for women," she explained.

Some performances will present Middle Eastern dances with an Egyptian influence, others will highlight American styles, and still others will display a fusion of music and dance styles, such as Middle Eastern mixed with hip-hop or Bollywood. Each style has its own unique influences, music and costumes.

American Tribal style, for example, is a group dance that was invented in the Bay Area, with heavy influences from the Burning Man festival. Dancers wear old-fashioned costumes and integrate fire, modern music, juggling, balancing and magic into the act. Performers Ultra Gypsy and Lotus will demonstrate different versions of this style.

Tempest will perform the Raks Gothique, or Goth style of belly dance. Goth is a new, dark form of belly dance inspired by Theda Bara and other vintage influences from the 1920s and '30s, as well as modern industrial influences: "Victorian meets 'The Matrix,'" as Tempest put it.

"It tends to be a lot more slow and fluid. I like to say it's dramatic, embodied storytelling," she explained.

Her piece, entitled "Homage," will be a tribute to Ruth St. Denis, who "always told a story with her dance," according to Tempest. "She's pretty much responsible for the entire modern dance movement."

Another highlight, according to Brown, will be "the act that gets the tongues waggling," the male belly dancer, Jim Boz, a six-foot-two, bald body-builder from San Diego.

While male belly dancers are rare, they are becoming increasingly more common, according to Boz, who began dancing as a "tongue-in-cheek way to get into shape." Now, Boz organizes all-male belly dance shows to promote awareness of male belly dance. Male belly dance movements do not differ greatly from those of female dancers.

"I prefer to oversimplify and describe belly dance as 'a different culture's way [of] expressing themselves physically to the music.' Men move their hips and sway and use arm movements to dance," Boz explained. "The biggest differences are usually interpreted as 'what looks better on your body.' Women do that already with the dance."

Other performers, many of whom are award-winning dancers, scholars and experts, include Amina and the Aswan Dancers; Setareh; Sirens In Sanity; Monica; Rose, Ghanima Gadjitana and Jordan Dancer; Lu Lu; Shoshanna; Lotus; and former Palo Alto Adult School belly-dance instructor, Izora.

Information

What:
"Dimensions in Dance," a day of belly dance workshops and an evening gala show. Space in the workshops is limited; register early.

Where:
Cubberley Community Center Theater, 4000 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto

When:
Saturday, Jan. 8. Workshops will be held from noon to 5 p.m.; the gala show will take place from 8 until 10 p.m.

Cost:
Tickets to the show are $20. The cost of both workshops and the show is $80. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Next Door: Community Solutions for Domestic Violence, a non-profit organization in Santa Clara County.

Visit:
www.sfbamecda.com or e-mail info@sfbamecda.org

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