Raqs Nerd: how is bellydance is like a clownfish? 🐠

This week's newsletter is inspired by a question I received from one of my lovely readers earlier this year, and have been meaning to address for some time - about feeling "allowed" (or not allowed...) to dance to music that doesn't have a cultural connection to raqs sharqi.

And also, by recent posts by Eszter-Maura, whose new "In-between notes" newsletter I have been enjoying (she and I have similar interests, but each with our own unique angles on them 😊)

The question of "can I dance raqs sharqi to non-traditional music?" has always been a very hot topic in the (Western) bellydance community, for the whole time I've been doing this.

But I'm not really sure that "can I?" (or even "should I?") is necessarily the right question - by which I mean, the most helpful or enlightening question - to ask.

So, what are some more informative questions we can ask ourselves instead?

I think we can learn more, and deepen our understanding more, by thinking about questions like...

What is the relationship between this dance, its music, and their shared cultural origins?

And,

How do our musical choices affect that relationship? What does our dance and our ability for artistic expression gain, or lose, by each musical choice? To what extent does each choice serve our goals?

And these are not questions to just ask ourselves once and then move on - but something to continuously reflect upon, and be guided by, throughout our lives as dancers.

Dance, music, and culture: an inseparable connection

Within the cultures where this dance has a long history, two things are widely understood, and generally accepted as obvious:

Firstly, that the word bellydance is an English-language term referring to their local social dance / solo performance dance, known in Arabic as raqs sharqi (oriental dance / Eastern dance), raqs baladi (local dance), or just plain raqs (just "dance"!)...

And secondly, that as far as people within the cultures are concerned, this is generally understood to be a dance which goes with its own specific music - a dance which makes sense with its own music.

The dance is associated with specific genres, styles and musical conventions, within the wider musical traditions and trends of the region.

I therefore feel that when we're referring to the dance we perform as bellydance, raqs sharqi, oryantal, or any of the other terms used and understood to mean this specific cultural dance in the cultures of origin - it is important that we also use music that's both connected to the culture, and culturally appropriate for the dance form.

This part, for me, is just a matter of respectful and accurate representation and doing right by the source cultures - that when we present cultural dances to the public, we present them in a way that the majority of people within that culture will be able to recognise and relate to.

If the music falls outside of what's usually considered "dance music" within the original cultures, that's not necessarily to say that you can't or shouldn't ever dance to it (and at home in private, we can all do weird mashed-up dancing to random music to our heart's content - have I ever hip dropped to psychedelic folk music in the privacy of my own kitchen? Absolutely).

But it does definitely mean that extra care is needed, to maintain a healthy and respectful relationship.

In these cases, it's extra important to reflect and consider why you've made the musical choice you have, how you will present and describe the piece clearly and accurately when you perform it, and how you feel it relates to the original cultural dance and music.

I think a helpful guiding question here is: can you imagine feeling relaxed and comfortable chatting about your choice of music, dance, and introduction, and what you intended to express, with an Arab audience member whose reference point for "bellydance" came from family weddings, from dancing at home with her sisters, from growing up watching Egyptian films on TV?

And would you feel comfortable and confident performing the piece, in its current form, for an audience of mainly Egyptians, or of Shami or Turkish people?

If you notice any discomfort, however slight, when you imagine those scenarios - allow yourself to feel and experience it, and let it guide you. Even if you live somewhere very monocultural, and don't think these situations would ever happen in real life.

If there's discomfort or anxiety, where is it coming from, for you? And what could you change to feel more aligned and coherent in your choices, and more at ease in your relationship to the culture and people? Maybe it's the music choice, maybe it is something else - but there is no substitute for working your way through it.

Dance and music within culture: a symbiotic relationship

OK, now THIS is where the clownfish comes in.

A symbiotic relationship happens in the natural world when two species evolve together, in the same ecosystem, in a way where each depends upon the other to succeed - and each has helped to shape the other's development over time.

Neither would exist, in their current form, without the other.

One example of this is the partnership between plants and mycorrhizal fungi - where the plants provide their fungi with energy, and the fungi provide their plant partners with water and nutrients. Both partners need the other, to survive and thrive.

Another is the relationship between clownfish and sea anemones. The anemones provide a safe home for their fish, which are immune to the anemone's sting - unlike their predators. The fish help to keep their anemones clean, defend them, and bring them food. They work together, they've evolved like this together. They can survive🐠 apart, in an aquarium without their natural predators, but in a real ecosystem they would struggle.

Raqs sharqi and the genres of music associated with it, have also evolved together - as a symbiotic relationship within the "ecosystem" of the wider culture they belong to.

Like the fish and the sea anemone, or the tree and its specific mycorrhizal fungus, they have moulded to each other and become a team; been shaped by each other; adapted to fit perfectly with each other, through growing side by side.

For millennia, music has inspired dance, and dance has inspired music - back and forth.

The cadence and texture of traditional raqs sharqi steps has evolved alongside the rhythmic cycles (iqa') and ornamentations of traditional percussion, and the phrasing of traditional melodies.

The intersecting layers of the music have evolved alongside the layers of the dance.

And the flowing and finely detailed movements of a dancer's torso have evolved alongside the free-flowing, richly ornamented melodic lines of singers and instrumentalists.

(I wrote a little more about this here)

Personally, I feel that working to embody the intricacies of this relationship (there's that word again...) is truly the most interesting, fulfilling, and artistically satisfying part of my lifelong development as a raqs sharqi dancer.

It's not that the movements and steps of this dance can't exist with other music - they can, of course. The little clownfish, too, can survive in an aquarium, without its anemone and its teeming coral reef. But in both cases, something is also lost.

From this angle, the relevant question becomes: Does what you may gain artistically by choosing a piece of music that hasn't evolved that very specific deep, complex, symbiotic relationship to the dance, outweigh what you will lose by not having that relationship to support you - for you, in that moment?

The answer will likely change at different times in your life, for different pieces of music, and for different situations.

And if you haven't yet had a lot of opportunities to explore the relationship between traditional music and dance in depth, you may find that really digging into it causes your feelings to shift quite radically, as the full richness of the connection begins to reveal itself - this certainly has been the case for me, in between my first few years as a dancer, and where I am today.

Digging into these relationships is precisely what a lot of my teaching is about, these days - and the next thing coming up will be my class series on Ashra Baladi starting in September (online or in person, with a 10% discount before the end of July with the code AUTUMNEARLYBIRD)

With Love,

PS - since we all love music here... I have two new releases to share with you this week!

The first is from my friend and colleague, singer/dancer/composer Yasmine Latkowski (who I've mentioned before in Raqs Nerd), and her band Panedeni. Their debut EP "Atamanaa" brings together Arabic music with Welsh folk influences, to create a unique and hauntingly beautiful cross-cultural sound - listen here on bandcamp​

And secondly, have you checked out the latest album from Cairo superstar Zara Dance yet? Zara really puts her heart and soul into recording her albums for dancers, and I especially appreciate how she always provides us with detailed background information and lyrics for all of the tracks, and shares the stories all of the musicians who contributed - hear samples and get your copy at Zara's Zouk​

PPS - every part of this newsletter is written by me, a flesh and blood human being, using my own thoughts, feelings, opinions, and writing style - now and always. This is a generative AI free zone 🚫🤖