Tribal thoughts #2: traditional and "pure" art

Ouled nail dancer

Hahbi 'Ru Dance Ensemble

I was just thinking about that: so many "traditional" dancers don't like Tribal & Fusion dance, since it is not considered a "pure" art form.
The most frequent criticism that I have heard is something like "Tribal/Fusion is more like a western/american fad that will soon go out of fashion".

Bal-Anat (early 70's)

What about considering dance history and all its contaminations? And above all, what is "pure art"?
I would like to quote an old interview with Rachel Brice (2005):

"Yeah, a lot of people don't feel that it's bellydance. But that's OK. If people need to fiercely defend the tradition of the art form, that's OK. People like to talk about what's Tribal and what's not, what's bellydance and what's not. But when you study dance ethnology, and you see where the intersections are, they're fuzzy. Everything is influenced by everything else, especially when you follow the Gypsies that start in one place and travel around, just picking things up and throwing things out. There is no "pure dance," really. So it's given me a lot of tolerance."

Ultra Gypsy members: Jill Parker, Rose Harden, Rachel Brice

Fat Chance Bellydance

Thoughts wanderings

Today is such a strange day.
Outside the sky is grey and cold, inside the house is warm and sleepy.
Like every time I need to change something in my life, I feel this sense of calmness and expectation, "like a star flashing from the deep"... The weather is changing so fast, we're moving into the chill embrace of the winter, the sun is going to be colder everyday and cats renew their soft fur (that's my favourite part).
Change. Stop, rest, breath. Close with something old, fasten seat belt and jump into the new.

- 

Last weekend one of the tribal bellydance legends passed away: John "The Sheik" Compton, co-founder of Hahbi' Ru Dance Ensemble and Bal-Anat former soloist. I never had the chance to know him personally and I feel so sad I won't never have.
Still, this is one of my favourite video ever...



From Hahbi ' Ru's website:


"Hahbi'Ru: an early term for the Bedouin tribes who wandered the Arabian deserts enriching themselves by taking what they pleased from the many countries they traversed. Like these Bedouins, the Hahbi'Ru Dance Ensemble's performance style has been influenced by the folkloric dances and music of many regions of North Africa and the Middle East.
[...]
In 1991, John and Rita reunited and brought together the group of seasoned dancers and musicians that became Hahbi'Ru, including Paula Oxman, Hahbi'Ru's costume designer. Their goal was to recreate the tribal ensemble style of performance begun by Jamila Salimpour, and to utilize the skills they acquired over the last 30 years as professional entertainers. Under their direction, the group built a repertoire based on Arabian folkloric music, dances, songs, and customs. These traditional dances have been fused with modern day technique and performance skills thereby creating a style which is unique to Hahbi'Ru.
Hahbi'Ru captures the tribal spirit of a bye-gone era while entertaining audiences with polished performance pieces that combine humor with precision ensemble dancing, and dazzling costumes."

Tribal thoughts #1: where are we going?

Woke up this morning with this question in my head.
I just have to quote Colleena Shakti's blog to express my before-breakfast concerns...

"What happened to Middle Eastern music?  I remember that was what initially drew me into this dance… the heart wrenching and uplifted feeling I would get when I heard it.   That is why many of us choose to dedicate ourselves to a 'marginal dance form' - an Oriental dance and not go with a Western dance style.... culture inspires community rather than isolation.

When compared,  Western/Occidental art seeks to satisfy individual expression, Eastern/Oriental art, (or what I have learned in India from my masters I should say), has 2 functions - to celebrate divine union (the heightened state of the dancer when she 'forgets' herself and transcends the individual self) and uplift the spectator to a similarly ecstatic state (what we commonly call 'to behold beauty').    Though not all dance has to be a prayer or follow a tradition, values are what subconsciously manifest as aesthetic choices.  

What are the values of the Tribal community that you saw?  Do you think there is a change of values inside the change of aesthetic choices made by dancers?

[...]  I hope I don't sound too negative, I did see some awesome  technique and innovation and I saw a TON of love and support.  I just want to see us evolve and take it higher in every way or it will just be another fad that passed like disco.

I love belly dance because it is an expression of femininity, oriental thought and I love tribal for the remembrance it offers of women dancing for women basking in their divine sensuality.  It's not an opposition to change, evolution or self expression that I feel... rather a sadness for the loss of Oriental beauty in belly dance."

I will take these thoughts with me to the market: today it's new fabrics day!

Sardinia: friends, sun, thoughts

After the workshop

Last may I was lucky enough to visit Cagliari. Even if my mom was born there I never had the chance to visit it...

It is amazing to see how Sicily and Sardinia are two sister islands, not only in the color of the sea or the trees - those that remind me so much of "my" land - but also in people... Maybe it is because of my half-sardines origins, but it really was as if I were with close friends, with a not-so-far part of my family.
So, between a visit to the city and a few hours of hard training, I had time to think about an hot topic that I drag behind for a bit of time: improvisation and dancing.
Too often I found myself on stage immersed in the most chaotic thoughts. What is Art? Where the creative act can take place except on a blank page, "the order that comes from the chaos" ... So I finally found the piece I needed to finish the puzzle: improvisation can be a creative act fully and deeply engaging, we only have to "turn off our brain".

As in meditation, when thoughts move no longer unaware but conveyed in a continuously calm stream , so the dance can turn into a "vacuum that fills", a practical meditation, a movement that creates.
The only difficulty lies in trying to curb fears, anxieties and concerns that are transformed into thoughts and chaos ...

A goal complicated, I admit it, but certainly it is worth to devote oneself!

As I continue to work on this idea, here's what came out during Cagliari's Hafla (thanks to Stefania for the video!)

It's been a while...

I'ts time to update this blog. Pics, thoughts, moments of transition between one trip and the other. Please note: I'm messy, so I know for sure this won't be an ordered exposure of topics. By the way, with a cultured quote:

"Hope you enjoy getting inside my brain. It's pretty interesting in here" (cit.)