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The
Gilded Serpent presents...
Rhea
Reminisces
"The time has come, the walrus said,
to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and ceiling wax, of cabbages
and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."
(from Alice through the looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.) And so it transpired
that, before the century comes to an end, in this last remaining period
of fin de siecle, and fin de mille, I was seized by the urgent need to
take pen in hand and relate for future generations some of the wondrous
happenings to which that the first generation of American Belly Dancers
bore witness.
The two extremes of America, the two coasts, East and West, have traditionally
been the precursors of whatever trends the great middle heartland will
follow, and Oriental dance has been no exception to this rule. In this
instance, however, I believe that it was the West coast, and particularly
San Francisco, that spawned the most energy and creativity, fashioning
the forces that were to change the face of Belly Dance as it has evolved
in America as we see it today, and that one of the main characters who
was in the forefront of all this churning creativity was Jamila
Salimpour. She was both loved and hated, respected and
feared, as are many prominent figures in history (think of Franklin Roosevelt)
who seem larger than life to those near her. She inspired people to become
dancers and dance teachers. The most germane component of her contribution
to American belly dance, as I see it, is the fact that she was able to
attract people to her who would not ordinarily have been in the slightest
interested in becoming dancers, let alone Oriental dancers, and instill
in them a passionate fervor to not only dance and teach, but to be missionaries
for Oriental dance. In particular, she promoted and innovated "American
Tribal Style" of Oriental dance. This happened during the period
that I took lessons from her in Berkeley, California, in the beginning
of 1968. Just as many artists have their "performance periods",
(Picasso and his "blue period, for example), she later went on to
create many venues that were copied by the next generation of dancers,
and to eventually embrace Egyptian dance. During that period she was teaching
the dance that she had evolved in her touring career as a professional
Oriental dancer. I believe her dance appeared to have a very strong Turkish
component.
It is certainly true, I believe, that Southern California had its share
of dedicated proponents, and there were other colorful characters on the
San Francisco scene; because, if the truth were to be known, the San Francisco
scene was peppered with some pretty amazing personages who could easily
have graced the pages of Jack Kerouac's "On The
Road", or Ken Keysey's "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's
Nest."
We weren't the Beat Generation, we were the Belly Generation. All the boys seemed to have taken guitars in hand to become would-be Bob Dylans, or later would-be Beattles or the Rolling Stones, but the girls had other ideas.
It was the first time, with the emergence
of the nascent feminist movement, that such numbers of women were galvanized
in the service of such a cause. The present day focus on "Goddess"
dancing has its roots in the 1960's. My own name, Rhea,
given to me by Jamila (one didn't take just any old name in those days;
one was given one's name by one's dance teacher). This name produced such
a tremendous effect on me that I went out and became pregnant! Later,
I went on to become the first performing pregnant belly dancer in our
milieu dancing with my ex-husband's skiffle band, dancing at sit-ins,
love-ins, and stop-the-war demonstrations. Yes, Virginia, I was a real
hippie! However, hasn't it been widely accepted that the 90's are the
sixties without the social turmoil that took place at that time? (One
of my daughter's friends suggests that we call them the "Gaia Nineties".)
Those decades weren't about Arabic or Turkish or Egyptian or Oriental
or even "Belly" dance! Those years were about women's desires
for self-expression free of the constraints of a patriarchal social system
("I'm a stud; you're a nympho...) coupled with a woman's longing
to be a star. Why should only the boys be prancing around all over the
stage with their guitars? The young women of that time showed a willingness
to support other women in the self-same endeavor. ("I'm a Goddess;
you're a Goddess.")
Of course, it was not all sisterhood and light. As befitting the primal archetypal nature of most ancient Goddesses, there were rivalries. Rivalries? There were WARS! Belly Dancing suffered from that all-American penchant for the law suit. And it wasn't mere lucre they were after. It was the PRINCIPLE of the matter. Many a "student night" was produced to make a public statement obliquely directed at another teacher or another "camp." There were other displays of belly flexing including who would or would not be hired at a particular club.
I must have had an angel on my shoulder
because I always worked the weekends and was fortunate enough to share
in the student glut resulting from the now-raging Belly Dance fad. When
I finally left for Greece to reside and work in 1977, seminars had begun
in earnest. What had been more or less one teacher or dancer sponsoring
another (Jamila brought the late Lebanese style dance instructor, Ibrahim
Farrah. I brought Aischa
Ali to San Fransico. Amina
lovingly presented Fatima
Akeef, (sister of Egyptian movie star and dancer Naima Akeef).
These early presentations began to coagulate into a more dense body of
activities. Bazaars and vendors were added and "workshops" began
to emerge featuring more than one teacher or dancer.
Amina, director of the Aswan Dance Troupe and founder of the Giza
Club, together with Hoda, sponsored a giant production called
The Isis Convention and
Show in 1975 at the U.C. Campus at San Francisco. The convention was attended
by the entire Bay Area population of dancers because it was well known,
and generally agreed upon, that Amina and Hoda were scrupulously fair
in their choice of the teachers and performers. The specialties that each
teacher was asked to teach were a true representation of part of that
teacher's expertise. No one was left out. It was a prodigious effort and
produced a whopper of a show generating the same excitement and attendance
of any hit show on Broadway.
At the same time, Sula, (once a vital force in our area and publisher
of one of the first Belly Dance periodicals titled "The Bellydancer"),
who is now deceased, sponsored a seminar more widely attended by out-of-towners
familiar with her magazine which was eagerly subscribed to by those far
away from the thriving "scene."
They came thirsting for the "word" as it emanated from the greats and near greats abiding in that flaming, teeming, crescendo of belly dance culture, and were not disappointed.
Sula presented the first Belly Dance fashion
show (I waltzed down the aisle with Daoud, the male dancer in my
troupe of that time, Nara Nata.) Bert
Balladine and his dance partner,
Najia Marlyz danced with a back-up chorus
line, and Patrick, caused a minor furror with his male solo version
of belly dance. They were seen by many who had not even been in a cabaret.
I will never forget the events transpiring on the Saturday night following
the first day of the seminar at the restaurant I danced in at that time.
The Parthenon, now long gone, (Alas!), as are all the lovely
playgrounds of our dancing youth. Many of the women who had attended my
class at the seminar decided to see my show and arrived at The Parthenon
in the very garb they had sported earlier for the dance lessons. The regular
Saturday night crowd of Americans and some Greeks were out in force. A
ship of Greek merchant marines had landed at a nearby port and came to
hear real bouzookie music and the songs of their country. As Oriental
dance very much resembles a folk dance in Greece called Tsif t'telli,
when the seamen requested the band to play such musical numbers that were
popular in Greece at that time and got up to dance their folk dance, the
stage was flooded with exotically eccentrically garbed dancers much to
the joy, nay, ecstasy of the Greek sailors. The sailors must have believed
that "Never On Sunday", (the musical piece I have heard more
times than any other song in the world except for "Zorba The Greek"),
was about to be re-enacted before their very eyes! It was to them as if
manna had been dropped from heaven. Being very quick on the uptake, and
quite capable of believing their good fortune.
The Greeks in a thrice began to dip and twist and turn, falling to the floor and exhibiting all manner of tricks to impress the ladies in their storybook get-ups. The ladies thought, "Oh, my! Real people from the Middle East. I do hope my dancing will meet with their approval and even admiration."
Those ladies danced with all their hearts,
bodies, and souls, shimmying, undulating, falling to the floor and performing
what was known in those quaint old times before the dictates of Modern
Egyptian Dance, as "floor work". A sea of at least fifty people
undulated in an area meant for thirty as the amazed American patrons looked
on. In those days, the dance scene seemed more spirited than it is today,
but perhaps the old days were ever thus.
When I returned to my "regular" life here in Athens, I contemplated
the round of seminars at which I had been sponsored, and the shows I saw
and in which I participated in many different areas around the country
during my latest seminar tour in America. One of the welcome things I
saw was a partial return to the "old days"; people were constructing
their own costumes again, rather than opting for a glamorous, but formula
look which was purchased rather than lovingly dreamed over and shown off
to friends who really cared. ("Men have no more time to understand
anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no
shop anywhere one can buy friendship."--from 'The Little Prince'
by Antoine De Saint Exupery) That is not to say that the latest creations
of Madame Abla or Aziza are not scrumptious and yummy and to die for,
or that dancers should not avail themselves of every labor saving device
that mass production has to offer them. I guess I'm speaking of a sort
of personal, homespun quality that used to prevail in all aspects of American
life that seems to have been lost. This quality was a major factor in
my decision to make Greece my home for these last twently-two years, not
just because it had such hot clubs to dance in (Greece had those and more).
I was also surprised by the support of the community for those shows that
are now taking place. Jason and Yasmina packed them in in a glamorous
setting on the hotel's main floor. They and their troupe decorated the
stage, professional lighting and sound equipment was brought in, and the
crowd was really responsive. The entertainment consisted of their troupe
and themselves both in solos and duets in a very relaxed, professional
yet playful evening.
When the cassette for my sword number experienced a glitch, I took the microphone and regaled the audience with anecdotes and many came to me afterwards asking if I was a a professional stand-up comedienne turned dancer.
The show in Santa Cruz, which was presented
by that seasoned and spiritual world traveler from England, Helene,
was an inclusion of the very best performers of the area. She included
Carolena of Fat Chance Belly Dance with all the troupe exquisitely
and individually costumed. I was fortunate that evening in that I had
the assistance of my younger daughter, Melinda, who had flown in
from the University of Pennsylvania. Both my daughters (Piper
is the elder) are professional dancers from a young age, as I followed
the example set by Jamila who had Suhaila dance in Bal Anat
at a very young age. I have also dragged them around the world with me,
so they have performed in a number of different situations. The particular
sensibilities of this crowd were for the enactment of the Goddess ritual
and the importance of passing on the tradition from mother to daughter.
In Austin, Texas, the Belly Dance community rallied around Bahaia,
who remembered her adventures on a Greek Island with nostalgia, which
had led her to ask Bert Balladine for my telephone number in Greece. She
was able to turn this into the amazing support system in the community.
Their Belly Dance association has a video lending library and she has
produced a wonderful and pleasurable week-end, treating me like a goddess
and queen. I was given three snake's vertebrae (my Chinese horoscope is
the snake) and books on becoming a "galactic human" from some
of the more alternative society people I've met outside the Berkeley-San
Francisco or Montreal area. Ozell Gamel and Sidonia Om Dunia
had traveled to Salt Lake City from Boise, Idaho, in the snow to attend
my seminar there. They decided that Boise needed the input of my particular
approach. Staying in the guest room at Ozell's house while some of the
show's participants slept on a fold-out couch in her living room, all
having coffee together in the morning, and laughing in the hot tub, reminded
me of the old days! Those were the old days when Ma'Shuqa housed
and fed people who had come from incredible distances to be together.
It reminded me of shooting the breeze in the hot tub at Bob and Lynn
Zalot's house (former owners, publishers and creators of Habibi
Magazine before Lynn died of Multiple Sclerosis) and talking about
the old days with Marliza Pons
of Las Vegas.
Everywhere I went I saw a great deal of support, community, and freedom,
plus tolerance and love. Many people were open to the spiritual approach
I have taken with the dance. (Did you know that it's possible to be spiritual
and still have fun? Just ask the ancient Minoans). We enjoyed the multi-faceted
aspects of dancing our chakras and auras, moving around our chi, posing
and re-posing as Greek statues, moving our bodies like snakes, and using
our hands to distribute and re-distribute the energies of the earth and
sky. If I can just balance my yin and yang a little more and heal the
ridgity between my anima and my animus, I think I have it made. I hope
to see you in Greece April 20th to 30th on the island of Methana for a
spiritual dance seminar culminating with Greek Easter. Yasoo!
Ready for more?
4-8-04 A
Period of Innovations
In the late 1970s, there were two events produced for the belly
dance community that were different from things that had happened before
– events that began and paved the way for so many that were to happen
later. (more on the Isis Convention)
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