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The pertinent questions go on and on… I wanted to reduce the above questions to only one that could summarize the core issues of the constant debate that exists in our dance. I have failed! I shall call them \u201cThe Controversy\u201d.
\nAnyone who spends time in the dance community via workshops, classes, Belly dance publications, and message boards, is aware of what I am trying to embrace. These are the issues that spur unending comments, raised tempers, page after page of debate, and thesis papers, too. All of this effort is exhausting, but it is essential. <\/p>\n
My background influences how I feel about The Controversy: I studied fine arts at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design<\/span>. In order to earn a degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts, I was required to take liberal arts classes and art history classes alongside the studio classes in which I learned techniques, and where I created and discussed my art. <\/p>\n My introductory art history classes started with the following idea:<\/p>\n The path of artistic innovation is not a forward pointing line; it is a pendulum. <\/p>\n Art doesn\u2019t move foreword cleanly; it bashes against ideas and is repelled by them! Movements emerge from conflict, not despite it.<\/p>\n You can be an artist without studying the history of your art form. <\/p>\n Some artists feel that the study of art history gives them a deeper understanding of their craft, while others find it a hindrance. It is also possible to be an artist without going to an art school; school simply provides a readily available community to learn techniques, to critique, and to enter into the debates between artists.<\/p>\n You can be an artist without an artistic community, but it is rough. <\/p>\n Unchallenged growth is often soft and pathetic. A secluded artist can become unfocused, uninspired, and weak. Unchecked progress can be unwieldy and tangled as artists spend undue time in fruitless pursuits. In isolation, there is nothing to which one can react (either for or against).Being active in a community where other people react to ideas and innovations helps focus, inspire, and strengthen artists. I don\u2019t want blind encouragement to do whatever I want, whenever I want because that doesn\u2019t help me as an artist or as a person. I want informed guidance. I need an artistic community to provide that guidance. For me, getting intelligent feedback requires openness to the full range of what being a member of an artistic community involves, including debate and dissent. The Controversy can be exhausting! It has no definitive answer; it has too many answers. <\/p>\n It cannot be solved for once and for all. It makes us sometimes sigh and say, \u201cI can\u2019t have this discussion again…\u201d Sometimes, it keeps us up past 2am, screaming, \u201cSomeone is wrong on the Internet!\u201d at our computers, cats, and loved ones.<\/p>\n The Controversy creates factions within our communities. <\/p>\n We draw lines, point fingers, and define ourselves in opposition as much as in allegiance. We brand each other as Belly dance police, feckless Fusionistas, or crazy, goddess woo-woo types. I object to such titles! They tend to chain intricately complex ways of being involved in the dance to their most zealot representatives. <\/p>\n Branding dismisses nuances.<\/p>\n Even the zealots have their place in the discussion, although I\u2019d rather not have them at my dinner table. They are the unalloyed areas of the Venn diagram while most of us fall into the overlapping circles. <\/strong>The voices of the inflexible ideologues can help us pinpoint who and where we are. We need them\u2026 but in moderation. They can infuse debates; however, they can also be the reason we walk away from the discussion. We are better served by admitting our overlapping natures than adhering to only one belief.<\/p>\n The Controversy forces us to examine the dance, bringing forth ideas to investigate, inform, and define our artistic path. <\/p>\n The Controversy is the whetting stone against which new ideas are honed and old ideas retain importance. Innovations must prove themselves against traditional opposition just as traditionalists must prove cultural and historical relevancy in times of change.<\/p>\n It is possible to enjoy dance without engaging The Controversy. <\/p>\n You can enjoy art for its own sake without constant awareness of the history, culture, and conflicts. You don\u2019t need to engage the debate constantly to explore the dance. Relentlessly being part of the debate will consume you. There are reasons it ebbs and wanes; there needs to be time to absorb and reflect after conflict. This is why the Controversy is sometimes in full-swing in a community and at other times it remains relatively dormant.<\/p>\n There are points on your artistic path where you need to make your own choices, define yourself, and disengage from the discussion for a while. We need safe places in which to explore ideas. Sometimes, we need shelter from the debate when it is flaring up, lest it overwhelm us when we are too vulnerable, but when it is our time to take a break from the debate, we shouldn\u2019t unilaterally declare it toxic to all or irrelevant to the dance. It needs to be there for others\u2026and for us to return to it when it is \u201cthat time\u201d again.<\/p>\n The Controversy also exists for a reason beyond our personal artistic growth.<\/p>\n Controversy exists to protect and strengthen the cultural complexity of the dance.<\/p>\n Belly dance is, for most of us, a cultural import. It has a history and a culture different from our own. Those we brand as \u201cBelly dance police\u201d are often accused of trying to tie us inexorably to the past. Yet, if many of the traditionalists and scholars are examined more closely, you\u2019ll find that there is a complex aspect of the dance they try to bring into the table frequently:<\/p>\n The cultures the dance comes from don\u2019t exist only in the past, they co-exist and cross-pollinate with the new lands of dance.<\/p>\n![\"bumpercars\"](\"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/art53\/graphics53\/bumpercars.jpg\")
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