Gilded
Serpent presents...
Judging in Germany
The Summer Festival and the International Raks Sharqi Contest 2006
in Berlin, Germany
by Dondi
Simone Dahlin
photos
by Klaus Rabien
On June 24th,
2006, Berlin, Germany, was an explosion of excitement as the country’s
soccer team had just defeated Sweden in the race to the 2006 World
Cup. Police barricaded the streets as ecstatic drivers stopped
in the middle of the thoroughfares and poured out of their cars
to hug, cheer, shout and revel with anyone standing near. The
German flag was flying everywhere; something that had not been
witnessed this heavily in over 50 years due to the embarrassment
of Hitler’s reign decades before. I sat at an outdoor café
in the midst of the explosive celebration with Horacio
and Beata Cifuentes who own the
largest Oriental Dance school in Germany. With us was Tito,
dancer extraordinaire from Cairo, Egypt. Tito and I, along
with Malika of France, had been invited to teach
and perform as part of Beata and Horacio’s summer festival.
The
five of us also made up the judging panel of the Raks Sharqui
competition that brought together competitors from Russia, Belgium,
Denmark, Norway, France, Cuba, UK, Czech Republic and Poland.
The weekend
was a huge success due to Horacio and Beata’s fastidious attention
to quality in all aspects of planning the event. Along with
organizing the workshops, competition, vendors, public performance
stage and gala show, they also hosted and organized a children’s
program with over 30 dances for tiny tots and pre-teens including
ballet, lyrical, modern and Middle Eastern dances to the participants’
parents’ delight. The event was held at the opulent Russisches
Haus – a magnificent theatre with a vast lobby, winding staircases
and plenty of room for all vendors to maintain their large booths
of Middle Eastern wears. And, just so the kids would feel
even more comfortable on the large stage in the regal Russisches
Haus, their teacher Horacio Cifuentes used the concept of taking
on the persona of a worm, wolf and other characters to subtly
coach the dancers along during their performances.
When
the little ones didn’t make their queues on time, Beata held
their hands, and led them from the wings as they tearfully and
shyly walked to center stage. Instead of yelling at them back
stage because they missed their queue, she told them, “If you
are courageous and go out on stage now, you will be rewarded
with big points!”
There was
no doubt in my mind that these “points” were made up of love,
support and compassion that all young performers need. This
nurture rather than tear-down-and-build-up attitude is rare in
a dance company and so beautifully typifies all that Horacio and
Beata strive to be.
The long journey
to Berlin from the West Coast of the United States is not an easy
one, especially in these tenuous days of travel. But the
most difficult part of the weekend for me was to be a judge at
Horacio and Beata’s 2006 Raqs Sharqui Contest.
Even
though Horacio and Beata gave us excellent guidelines to build
our opinions on, I felt conflicted.
There were
many criteria to rate the dancers with the ballots being categorized
into three different areas including technique, artistic expression
and appearance.
Subsequently,
these categories were further broken down into costume and body,
make-up and hair, choice of music, coordination and control, repertoire
of movements, use of stage, flow and harmony, phrasing and interpretation
of music, choreographic balance, and artistic expression. We
were to give a ranking of 1-10 for each category with 1 being
lowest and 10 being highest. Sitting in my seat watching these
beautiful dancers is when the numbers suddenly became so arbitrary
to me. I knew that some dancers would probably get a 10 from
some of the other judges because they were “typically beautiful”
and “typically good.”
In
other words, they were appealing to the masses. But
I knew that they weren’t a 10 to me. I also knew that some of
the dancers would receive low scores from the other judges but
I would be the odd person out giving high scores.
There was
a dancer at this competition who was gifted with talent, beauty
and a very unique style. But, she seemed to be only about 40 percent
Raqs Sharqui and the rest of her performance was a mixture of
jazz, modern and acrobatic. In our briefing before the contest,
Horacio and Beata told us emphatically, “If the dancer is not
dancing Raqs Sharqui then she should not get a high score.
She must dance Raqs Sharqui.” As I was watching this
dancer, I knew that she was not traditional Raqs Sharqui. Her
movements were wild, almost frenzied at times with straight legs,
high kicks and jazzy arms.
Would she
have been accepted on the big stages in Egypt? Yes. Would
she have been categorized by Egyptians as Raqs Sharqui or even
Modern Egyptian? I don’t think so. Should she accrue more
points than someone else who carefully stuck to 100 percent Raqs
Sharqui in feeling and technique and who also was highly skilled?
This dancer took a risk in displaying a very energetic and unique
style. And, I love risk takers, but this was a RAQS SHARQUI
contest and I was told to NOT give high points if someone didn’t
fall into the category of Raqs Sharqui. Because of this, I couldn’t
give her my highest score, even though I thought she was the most
confident and professional performer. She received the highest
score from every other judge, which didn’t surprise me at all.
I am sure the bottom line for them was that she was gorgeous,
exciting, fresh and professional.
The
original idea of “the dancer must dance Raqs Sharqui” naturally
went out the window with the other judges.
The moments
I spent judging this sensational Raqs Sharqui-ish dancer were
difficult, but it wasn’t the most difficult one of the day. The
most difficult was for me to judge a dancer who was wearing a
less flashy costume than the others and was approximately 20-30
lbs overweight by society’s standards. If she were in the
professional category it would have been easier for me to deduct
points from her ballot. After all, there was a section for us
to judge on called Costume & Body. I was reminded in the briefing,
“If a dancer looks cheap or she is very fat you should not give
her a 10.” This comment had me immediately thinking, “Why can’t
a very fat woman be a 10 if she has all the necessary polish,
talent, skill and grace of a professional dancer?” Maybe
in our society a very fat woman would never be a 10, but in my
own opinion, she very well could be.
Obviously,
this is the area that I could have justified dropping this particular
dancers score – professional dancers must adhere to a certain
look that society has placed on women. But she was in the amateur
category.
What about
categories like amateur? Are we to judge by society’s standards
or what WE like and don’t like? Should we punish
the “fat” dancer for her extra flesh even if she is just as skilled
and talented as the thin dancer? Or, are we in the Bellydance
world at the turning point of only accepting thin, svelte figures
in our field? These are important questions for any competition
as Bellydance competitions become more popular, especially for
dancers who have high skill levels and grace as this young woman
did. It was her body that lacked tone and her costume that lacked
sparkle, but her talent was strong. After the competition the
conversation was buzzing among some of the judges and one commented
that, “The performers need to work out and take care of themselves. The
larger girl needs to go to the gym.” It struck me as a sad
and misinformed comment since I knew the dancer who won the professional
category was probably naturally thin (based on her tall
body and small-bone structure) and the one who was overweight
very well might go to the gym everyday. The body type of
a woman does not always represent how well she takes care of herself. “She
needs to take care of herself” is a remark I have heard many times
amongst professional dancers when observing heavier dancers. I
find it shallow and ignorant. It is a typical comment of people
who lack wisdom about metabolism, hormones, chemistry and the
unique make-up of every woman’s body.
It
is also an easy out for judges who need to find a reason to
drop a dancer’s score…especially if the competition is tough.
As
an interesting side note, a couple of months before Horacio and
Beata’s competition I had traveled to Hilo, Hawaii, to The Merrie
Monarch Festival. It is a hula competition that has been running
for 38 years and is considered to have the best and most professional
Hawaiian dancers competing from all over the world. The winners
of the competition are featured in television commercials, magazines,
in parades and in brochures. Many of them are approximately 50-150
lbs overweight and the words “beautiful,” “gorgeous,” “feminine,”
and “amazing” are used to describe them. I, along with other
audience members, felt these women were some of the most stunning
women I had ever seen in my life. Why, in this particular dance
form in a dance contest of this caliber, is weight not an issue?
What is it that makes us view fat Polynesian Dancers as strong
and beautiful, but fat Bellydancers as lazy, overweight, homely
or other negative images that are so often used to describe them?
After
the 2006 Raqs Sharqui competition ended, Horacio and Beata made
sure that every contestant received his or her ballots in the
mail. Grids, scores and results were compiled. Horacio and
Beata sent me the final grid for this competition, and I noticed
that for the professional category Irina Popova
of Russia and Ivana Aladina of France were one
point away from each other taking first and second place, respectively.
This
is quite momentous and important for the competitors to be aware
of. With the grid, the competitors could also view the
breakdown of their rankings in every category.
Horacio and
Beata’s judging ballots were well thought out and covered many
different aspects of the person’s performance, which is ideal. These
ballots were some of the most thorough I have seen. However,
with EVERY competition I believe there should be a small area
for the judges to write a comment or two in to justify the score…something
beyond the numbers. This is the only way that the contestants
will learn from their experience. Additionally, it holds
judges a bit more accountable to be constructive and intellectual. A
judge will be less likely to say, “I just didn’t like her.” They
will have to use their brain and come up with a valid reason why
they just didn’t like her. Constructive criticism should be a
rule, not an option. Simple comments like, “please work on
your arms,” or “your costume was unflattering because it was too
small” take less than a minute to write and mean the world to
the competitors.
These
constructive comments can help a dancer in her development and
to move to the next level of her craft.
Although,
I once received a comment from a judge that said, “Those things
on your hips look like cancerous tumors.” I am not sure how
intellectual or constructive she thought she was being, but after
I got over being hurt, it did force me to scale down my freakishly
large tassels that one of my boyfriends called “UPS packages.” So
in the end, it was a good thing. If contest hosts don’t have an
area for extra comments and don’t give the performers their individual
ballots, then the competition will lack an educational element.
The competitions will simply be entertainment and titillation
for a hungry audience waiting to see who wins and who loses.
If
you are considering signing up for a competition, I say just do
it!! There are plenty of competitions that can be found on
the internet and several just around the corner including Belly
Dance of the Universe in Los Angeles every February and Horacio
and Beata’s Summer Festival in 2007. For more results from
Beata and Horacio’s Summer Festival 2006, please visit www.oriental-fantasy.com. If you live
in Europe, or want to visit Europe, take advantage of a great
opportunity to compete with women from many different countries,
which is a unique and incredible aspect of this event. If you
win, you will take home fabulous cash and prizes. If you
don’t win, you will not have lost, for you will be rewarded in
ways you will least expect it through friendships and personal
evolution. When dancers enter competitions, I don’t believe they
can emerge from the journey without having had grown and improved
physically, emotionally and perhaps even spiritually through discipline
and focus. For this we should all be grateful to the hosts of
bellydance competitions who work so hard to make them happen and
provide a venue to perform in and goal that we can work toward
as artists. Competitions are experiences that ask for courage
and hard work. They are an experience you can always be proud
of and that you will never forget.
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Ready
for more?
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Magana placed first runner up in the Miss USA beauty competition
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held
June 23-26, 2006. Part Two- The Evening Show, Event organized
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volcanic natural park of La Garrotxa near the picturesque village
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In the wings, before we hit the festival stage, Andrea
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Delving into Oriental Culture, Dance and Surviving Israeli
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Eilat Oriental Dance Festival,
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by Gali Tibon
As my friends' car was making its way through the desert,
the sense of anticipation, mixed with excitement, was growing
inside me. |