Gilded Serpent presents...

Becoming the Object of Your Own Fantasy

Diane, ren faire, 71

"Perfumes of Araby" in the 1970s, Part 1

by Stasha Vlasuk
posted July 5, 2011
Part 1: posted here You are here!
Part 2: posted here
Part 3: posted here

“I live by a man’s code designed to fit a man’s world, yet at the same time, I always remember that a women’s first job is to choose the right shade of lipstick.”
Carol Lombard quote from “Women’s Wit and Wisdom”

Dianne and GuyThe Belly dance scene in 1970s Los Angeles:  It is difficult to spotlight succinctly even one portion of a vibrant, vast and quickly growing community of Middle Eastern dancers, their enthusiasts, and the ethnic communities, musicians, festivals and supper clubs that supported the dance arts.  The abundance of inspiration in that era was almost beyond understanding; yet once upon a time before the Internet, music, imagery and information was less readily available.  Knowledge had to be directly and carefully mined from academic, ethnic and cultural sources.  We always performed to live music; recorded music was rare at dance events.  The sociological change of American society in the 1970s also informed our dance community. 

Now, as I reach back in my memory of these exciting times to compose this article, I’m grateful for the researched archiving amassed and available in today’s technological world.  I’ve tried to be precise: please forgive me where I’m hazy!  It was the ‘70s after all!  Please enjoy the links provided at the end of this article for more exciting information to further encourage and stimulate your own creativity as you, dear reader, move our dance form ever further.

This article will focus on the iconic 1970s “Perfumes of Araby” Belly dance troupe, lead by the almost mythical performer/actress/teacher, Diane Webber, who was also my teacher.  I was there!  Through a selection of our performances in that era, we’ll explore dance and costuming as becoming the object of your own fantasy. 

The article also touches on paradoxes of our art form: the performance setting, creating a artificial boundary within which we feel free to have intimate exposure (and how costuming facilitates that), and the seeming female accommodation of male sexism –actually a proclamation of autonomy and a pathway to power. 

Diane Webber was a Playboy centerfold –twice; there’s another whole story there – yet, we’ll stick with Belly dance this time.  Among her earliest Middle Eastern dance engagements were at Lou Shelby’s “The Fez” in Hollywood (Lou was our orchestra violinist.) and on the road with “Haji Baba” star, Guy Chookoorian, who was also the Perfumes’ stalwart oud player in our multi-piece orchestra. Throughout the ‘70s, Guy continued to call on various Perfume members for countrywide performances. Diane also appeared in “The Witchmaker” (1969) as the Nautch dancer.Witchmaker PR still

Diane’s self-made costuming was breathtakingly inventive, interpretive and well structured.  She drew inspiration from classic images of women in Orientalist paintings as well as cheesy Belly dance cover art and ground-breaking modern dancers such as Ruth St. Denis (my “great-grandmother” in Modern dance: my Modern dance teacher Pat McLaughlin studied with Martha Graham, who started with the Denishawn Dancers).  Diane inspired her dancers to create their own beautiful costumes and was intimately involved in their fabric selection and construction.

Diane at the ren Fair in 1971The Perfumes of Araby dance troupe was initiated in the Los Angeles area in the late 1960s for the Renaissance Pleasure Faire.  As producer, director, and lead dancer, Diane Webber chose the name from popular imagery of the early 1600s: Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” (written somewhere between 1603-1607), in the sleepwalking scene "…nor all the perfumes of Araby shall sweeten this little hand…" and Claudio Monteverdi’s 1607 libretto of “L’Orfeo”, where in the second act, nymphs sing to Orpheus, god of the underworld:

“Therefore, Orpheus, make worthy
of the sound of your lyre
these fields, where there blows
a breeze with the perfumes of Araby.”

What an appropriate moniker for these outdoor Belly dance extravaganzas! 

Perfumes of Araby’s repertoire included specialties like balancing on goblets (a.k.a. shimmy on glasses), candle dance, snake and sword dances, as well as folk dances of North Africa, Turkey, Armenia, Syria and Lebanon, with a cabaret style solo dance at the end.  Many members worked individually in nightclubs, and thus, brought a strong entertainment background to the performances.

article on censorshipYoung stagehand Scott Pierce has a fun memory of those days:
“I had the fantastic good fortune to spend many hours on stage with Perfumes of Araby, unobtrusively on the side or in back with the musicians, except for my star turn helping one dancer get her giant snake back in its basket. I remember one afternoon as if it happened yesterday, although it was almost 37 years ago.  We were on the small stage at a corner of the Faire for an early afternoon show. The lead drummer yelled out to the audience, "Baksheesh!", which throughout the Arab world means charitable giving.  Some guy in the audience threw about half a dozen fat joints of dope onto the stage, wrapped together with a couple of rubber bands.  My eyes popped out so far the pupils thought it was recess.  The joints landed a few feet in front of me. I thought to myself, “I’m 13.  I spend hours every day at the Faire on stage with beautiful, athletic, dancing women, and the audience throws drugs on stage!  Am I living one of the best lives a teenager can hope to have, or what?”

The Renaissance Pleasure Faire’s entertainment policy changed around 1972; with the questionable critique that “dancers could not show their bellies”.  The Perfumes were canned.  A splinter group composed of two members of the orchestra (Joe Carson and Geoff Hunter) and three dancers (Khadija Cynthia Beck, Maya Hunter and myself) appeared the next year (‘73) and took to a small stage.  In protest, I wore sheer harem pants with a diaphanous Egyptian beledy dress: high neck, long draping sleeves, yet completely sheer with just a wide hip scarf around my hips.  Yes, nude. Yes, sheer. Yes, I have a photo, and no it won’t be placed with this article, this is a family web ‘zine!  Yes, the Faire’s powers-that-be howled, to which I innocently rejoined: “…but my belly is covered… ”

 

musicians
Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Agoura, CA circa 1971

Candle dancerSnake Dancer

 

Diane Webber

 

From the 1970 performances until today, in group presentations or as solo artists, Diane Webber’s dancers continuously offer her philosophy of connecting to a spiritual understanding: driven to be in the moment and not think about the future, living life to the fullest in that moment, in our own way; aspiring for a visceral spiritual connection through the sharing of our dance. We are the objects of our own fantasy.

Coming soon!
  • Part 2: The Calabassas Pumpkin Festival Photos
  • Part 3+: More misc photos and stories from various events.
 Interesting links
Costume inspirations
Orientalist books to read online:
Author’s Photo Credits:
Most of the pix come from my personal archive; I supply the links for the web sites of other photos in the "interesting links" section.    I encourage you to visit these sites as they contain further (and interesting) information plus exciting video montages for which there’s simply not enough space in this GS article!  
Regarding the Top Photo: Diane in a pink kaftan at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire circa 1971: I really don’t remember where this pix came from, I seem to remember it coming to me around the time of Diane’s passing, perhaps with the notice of Diane’s passing sent to many by Jillina (another Diane student!). I fondly remember Diane dancing in this diaphanous pink silk kaftan; I remember how she made it, how she taught me to make it – it’s a pattern I still teach my students. I just archived the image with out a credit.
 

use the comment box

Have a comment? Use or comment section at the bottom of this page or Send us a letter!
Check the "Letters to the Editor" for other possible viewpoints!

Ready for more?

  • 11-17-10 We Will Rak You! My Dance Experience with Queen by Stasha Vlasuk
    I’ll admit I wasn’t too familiar with the music of the British rock group Queen. The year was 1977, the month of December, in Los Angeles. I was invited to perform at a dinner party where Queen, in Los Angeles for several concerts, was the guest of honor. The job came to me through Dianne Webber.
  • 10-9-08 A Big Picture Book Review: Martha Burns’ "Belly Dance, Celebrating the Sacred Feminine" Reviewed by Stasha
    Every page is a work of art, a truly astonishing array of images. The content is very inclusive and features all age ranges, body types and styles. You will see yourself, your best self, in these pages.
  • 12-3-02 “Adventures In Belly Dance Costuming” by Stasha Vlasuk, Vol 1 book review by Robin Alnisa Wood
    This is a good book for both sewing veterans and beginners alike.
  • 9-20-02 On the Road #10 by Aziza!
    She was the fiery “Bedouin” who argued with the band in apparent Arabic and seemed so real and dramatic.
  • 7-4-11 Inaugural "Art of the Belly" Festival Rings in Spring in Style, Bellydance comes to Ocean City, Maryland by Brandon Johnson
    Inside the hotel, waves of positive energy radiated all around. People were not just glad to be at this festival, they were honored. If you were from Maryland, this was your belly dance festival. Dancers were representing both themselves and the elements of various fusions. They wanted this to be done right.
  • 6-29-11 Photos from Rakkasah West 2011, Pg 4: Sunday M-Z by Carl Sermon
    Maria, Nadika, Naiya-Hayal, Onyx Moon, Oreet, Raks Al Khalil, Raks Terayz, Raks the Casbah, Reda Darwish, Ruby, Sabiba, Sassafras, Shimmy Amour, Tatseena’s Troupe, Terry, Titanya, Troupe Aneena, Yolanda, Zahara
  • 6-26-11 Dancer Cancer, Part One: "Hopping on One Foot by Najia Marlyz
    Still, I was confident that there would be no further problem and that I was letting my vanity get the best of me. By wanting to look good, I had caused all my own discomfort, I reassured myself. He said I would have the biopsy report in a few days and to call my referral doctor to hear what the UC San Francisco laboratory report said.
  • 6-24-11 Dancing on the Roof of the World, Community Festival in Tajikistan by Robyn Friend, PhD.
    After all my many travels to Tajikistan, filled with the frantic bustle of dance lessons, rehearsals, teaching, doing trip logistics, hunting for traditional bits and bobs for costuming, and getting fitted for stage costumes, I finally decided to try being a more-or-less normal tourist in one of my favorite places on Earth, the Pamir mountains of Badakhshan, eastern Tajikistan.
  • 5-31-11 Serpent Tour 2011 Journal- London, Madrid and Marrakech! Travel notes by Lynette NEW VIDEO UPDATE-7-1-11
    An experimental travel blog. Let see how it goes! The plan is to update this page frequently.
  • 5-30-11 Photos from Rakkasah West 2011, Sunday A- L photos by Carl Sermon
    Adira, Anisa, Ashley Lopez, Orchids, Damascus, Danielle, Desert Dream, Diana, Dondi, Dancers of the Desert, El Asaab, Evangaline, Fahtiem, Fatima, Ghawazee, Alexandria, Jamilla, Joweh, Karavansary, Lisa
  • 5-25-11 The Transformation of Beauty, Inverting the Gaza, Part 3 by Shema
    As women and performers, why cannot we see beyond physical representation, when we, too, are trying our hardest to achieve such beauty in our own lives? Such hypocrisy ensures that we can never escape the limitations that society and, thus, we place these same limitations upon our own bodies.

  1. tracey farmer

    Jul 5, 2011 - 11:07:21

    I had the privilege of being a student of Diane Webber’s for 1  1/2 years.  Glad to see this article, people need to know the truth.  She was one of the ‘original’ belly dance teachers and founders of the ‘American Cabaret’ style. R.I.P.

  2. kathy

    Aug 8, 2011 - 07:08:38

    Since many of these photos were taken from other peoples web sites, why is there a Gilded Serpent Logo on all of them??

  3. admin

    Sep 20, 2011 - 10:09:43

    Logos are applied for tracking purposes. When these photos show up elsewhere we know where they got them. Thanks Kathy for sharing and giving us permission to use the photos you collected on your site. I hope you will write your own article soon.

  4. kathy

    Sep 22, 2011 - 05:09:03

    The 1972 photos of  Maya and Niki at the Faire are from the L.A. Free Press or Freep.  Photos are credited to Birdalone and Art Kunkin

  5. Rita Ractliffe

    Jul 20, 2012 - 12:07:53

    I believe the large color pic of diane in the pink veil and silver/black outfit is mine.  I took hundreds of pix during that year and have about 10 rolls of b/w of all the girls.

    Thanks.  My photo credit reads Rita Dyan. 

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.