Perry Women’s Institute
October Meeting
By Liz Dive
Well, here we are again, dear friends. A new platform (get me with the techy jargon) and a new month’s shenanigans to dish the dirt on!
We met as usual at the Sailability Hut on the second Monday of the month – if you want to visit, go to the Residential Centre and down the concrete slipway to the water, if you get your feet wet, you’ve gone too far, give a yell and we’ll come and rescue you because we’re just next to you in the hut.
Our Jo reminded us of: the Food Bank collection at our November meeting – something Christmassy please but not Advent Calendars as it may be into December when the parcels are distributed; Remembrance Day on 9th November at the Perry Remembrance Garden opposite the pub, repair of the poppy net is at Dot’s on October 21st at 10am; the Macmillan Coffee Morning raised £830 – WOW; Sylvia and Pauline’s Christmas Craft evening next month, please bring scissors, wire cutters and strong glue (I know, right! They never disappoint so watch this space!); and the last note I wrote in by notebook says ‘wear a thermal vest’ but I can’t remember why! Hey ho, it’s getting chilly so wear one anyway – who knows … if you do know please remind me because I honestly can’t remember but who doesn’t love a bit of M&S thermal!
And so, to our speaker. Sue Baker sat through the notes and opening chat wearing a top-to-toe, long-sleeved kaftan. When she was introduced, she unveiled to reveal the wearing of a magnificent turquoise belly-dancing outfit. Fabulous. She then proceeded to give us a whistle-stop history of belly-dancing along with showing us various costumes from throughout that history.
Belly dancing as a term is an umbrella description of many styles of dance from Azerbaijan, Greece and Turkey to Tunisia and Morocco. One of the oldest dance styles in the world, with many ‘dialects’, it is a social dance performed by women for women, by men for men and by women for men. There is evidence of belly dancing in the tomb paintings of the steward of the wife of Pharoah Thutmose III in the 18th dynasty (that’s 1350BCE). These dancers were shown naked but Sue reckoned that it may be a wish for the Afterlife and not reality (let’s hope so, I mean, all that sand!). There is a 2nd Century CE mosaic panel in the Vatican Museum illustrating a belly dancer who had finger cymbals (Sue pinged hers – a pleasing noise, I have to say) although the dancer in the Vatican was shown only from the back! The Roman wrier Juvenal described the ‘itching and stimulating’ movements of the slaves and Martial explained that the top belly dancers could earn a lot of money (mainly livestock and corn).
Belly dancing was thought to be a key part of religious rituals involving ecstatic communication with the gods which can still be seen today in the whirling dervish dances of the Sufi Muslim community.
The influence of the Roma community mustn’t be overlooked as their migrations carried many new strains of belly dancing across the miles and during the Ottoman Empire, groups of women (Awalim) would travel from harem to harem, being in great demand as they taught arts, culture and etiquette to the harems. Unfortunately, their reputation diminished – women with too much power. Hmmm.
The Egyptian Roma were considered a lower class and would perform in the streets, often being associated with prostitutes – in fact Napoleon banned them and had 400 thrown in the Nile tied in sacks. This genocide forced the remaining dancers to flee south to continue the dance. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, western travellers described the dancers as undulating and showing off their bodies – this only when they were paid to do as but remember that western women back home were fully covered and still wearing corsets!
They were widely introduced to the world at the World Fair in Paris in 1889 when a poor New Yorker called Sol Bloom saw a belly dancer, took her to the Chicago World Trade Fair in 1893, renamed her Little Egypt, and took America by storm.
Egyptian belly-dancing was influenced by the west with the introduction of the Nightclub scene in the 1920s, when the dancers introduced the veil, the two-piece costume, group dancers and choreography (until then it had been best clothes and make it up as they went along). But from 1952-4 after independence from British colonialism, belly dancing was banned and only allowed back under certain conditions (eg no showing the naval, no short or indecent costumes and no shuddering movements).
During the ban, one group continued to perform onstage with a cleaned-up version of the folkloric dances and regional dances. So, belly dancing is back under several different forms including, Folkloric, Oriental, Baladi, Shaabi, American tribal style and tribal fusion.
Fascinating stuff … then a bag was passed round and the shameless exhibitionists (to be fair, that’s practically all of us) chose a fancy scarf (I’m talking jingly bits, twinkly bits and gorgeous bright colours) to tie around our hips (big hips are feminine so a scarf around them shows them off beautifully). We had a go walking in a circle doing (more attempting really) some of the core movements which Sue had taught us while trying to keep the scarf in the right place – much giggling ensued when hips were insufficient to keep the scarf around the hips and it ended up on the floor! But we had a go: a drop and raise of the hip with one toe pointed on the floor gives a lovely movement of the lower body; reaching up and wiggling (there is a proper name for it but wiggling is definitely what we were doing); and a wonderful tummy roll where you continuously contract the muscles from high up above your belly right down to your thighs in an undulating movement.
It was great fun and Sue was a lovely teacher. I asked a few of our ladies for a word to describe the evening and we came up with ‘sequins’, ‘rhythmic’, ‘fun’, ‘bounce’ and ‘wobble’. Can’t say fairer than that. Spot on ladies, spot on. What great fun. Thanks, Sue.
If you want to get in touch: www.buckletonbellydance.co.uk or susi-bee@hotmail.co.uk
So, please once you’ve read this, pass on the word that we are now on-line and the reports continue!