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Belly Dance and Film; a Feminist Critique
By Ishtar

Published in Gilded Serpent 10/7/07

At a political meeting in the nineties I was introduced as a ‘feminist belly dancer’, much to the hilarity of the misogynist male ‘comrades’ in attendance. This is one of a long line of depressing encounters with men and women who see belly dance and feminism as diametrically opposed. The information about both constructs is learned (like all social constructs), primarily through the media. A media who’s reality is elitist and male-centred. The very words feminist and belly dancer are emotive and evocative. Belly dancers and feminists come in all shades and hues of intelligence, skill and ideology.

For most none-middle-eastern people, their first introduction to belly dance is via a white patriarchal media. Hollywood has often preferred to examine the oriental dancer as a dangerous sexual archetype; Theda Bara, Mater Hari are two who typify these elements. Biblical epics in the forties and fifties featured a belly dancer (briefly) for light relief. When belly dancers appear in the likes of a James Bond film, we are presented with significant non-verbal information about the perspective from which we should view the dancer. The camera work, direction and casting collude to create a construct only partially accredited to the dancer. Frequently the dancer is beheaded by the camera - this is symbolic of the deprivation of individual identity of the woman. However, if she is not a real dancer but an actress with a fully formed character, we may see her head and shoulders alone (like the dancer in Laurence Durrell’s Justine).

As belly dance is an archetype of the feminine experience, when we see it captured by photography we are also receiving information concerning  fear and fascination of the erotic powerful women. In Western films, the audience is  nearly always male and the context  frequently a smoky club. Here, we perceive the dance removed from its historical and cultural context. The component parts of the body -  arse, breast and belly are separated and fetishised. Interestingly this phenomenon is far more apparent in Western cinema than in its Eastern counterparts. Middle Eastern camera angles frequently show the whole dancer (although cuts to the audience are included). Generally, the dancer is presented respectfully as an artist.  Belly dance in Western  film industries often takes place in the private world of men. However, many dance scenes in middle eastern Cinema are outside in courtyards or deserts where women and men watch female dancers. In Hollywood films it is very rare to see women watching other attractive women. Attractive, powerful women are frequently perceived competitively as a threat to the main female character.

‘The Great Unknown’, and ‘Stars of Egypt' are compilations of clips of vintage belly dancers by Hossam Ramsey. The dancing is  breathtaking. We can gain so much cultural and sociological information on the status of dancers then, as well as seeing the true poetry and genius that they display. Stars of Egypt/The Great Unknown show respect and homage to the dancer. One of my favourite dancers - Suhair Zaki – is featured on the ‘Great unknown'. She is filmed like a goddess, elevated in a temple, performing to  an audience of  adoring males, perspiring madly, looking up to her  entranced: a deeply feminist film moment.  The stunning Samia Gamal - the most filmed and famous dancer, gave charismatic performances in Egyptian and International films. She  gave Oriental Dance recognition and admiration in Egypt and worldwide. How such a woman came to be so  influential in Cairo society at that time is amazing and a Soheir Zakipositive reflection on the dance.

The film Khali Balak Min Zou zou (The example of Zou Zou) unusually advances the idea that there may be nothing inherently shameful about being a dancer. Zou Zou ,a dancer in her mothers troupe who hides the fact from her fiancé, tells her mother that, "it is other people who have created the bad name of dancers".

To critique how belly dance and the erotic mystique of the dusky Middle-Eastern women are represented in the west, we need   tools of analysis. I have found feminist theory, in particular feminist media studies, to be effective in the understanding of my own position in society and how one is seen as a belly dancer and how the film/media present the image of a belly dancer.

Contemporary feminism is a multitudinous array of fragmented perspectives, which is how it should be, as we can construct the notion for ourselves. For me it is about accepting that there are no universal truths about human gender. It is about challenging hierarchies based on gender, class and race. It is as potentially liberating for men as it is for women. Belly dance initially with its ultra feminine way of negotiating space, dress codes and orthodoxies does not seem at first glance to fit with a feminine critique and analysis. However belly dance is something almost uniquely female, overwhelming performed and developed by women. This in itself should make it of interest to feminists.

Belly dance with its freedom of improvisation and modification within the vocabulary of moves, encourages self-expression. The dance is liberating to women. Today, Tribal dance and other divergent forms seem to have taken on the social, cultural and gender analysis of Middle Eastern dance.

 

Sohier Zaki

Laura Mulvay’s ground breaking article in 1975, Visual pleasure and the narrative cinema, explores the media construction of women as spectacle, to be looked at by the (male) gaze. Women function in film as objects of voyeuristic pleasure. Mulvay draws on Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis to examine the pleasures of scopophilia and narcissistic identification.


Scopophilia is a complex term that describes a human being’s intense desire to look at another, with feelings that are more holistic and satisfying than lust alone. As women belly dancers or fans of belly dance we spend time gazing at other women both live and on film. We may experience a sense of satisfaction in this, which is hard to define. Perhaps we like to look at an idealized feminine self? Lacan describes children perceiving their reflection in the mirror as more powerful than themselves. Belly dance students often enjoy looking at their own reflections in dance classes - perhaps this is why.

Hollywood cinematic conventions often fetishize the female with objects such as shoes or other items or clothing. This removes us from the actual body of the women (so rendering her less frightening!). Perhaps the belly dance costume and paraphernalia actually makes us less threatening , as these objects themselves have a meaning and symbology. Casting  the women as unproblematic means she must be framed in a way where males are as Mulvey put it ‘The active controllers of the Look’.  John Berger writes in his classic study Ways of Seeing, that 'men act and women appear' and that the 'surveyor of woman in herself is male; the surveyed female'. 

The observations of those such as Mulvay apply to the framing of belly dance in the media because the belly dancer is a condensation or typification of  a woman who is to be looked at .Males dominate photography and film industries in both the west and the east. As well as ideas concerning the status of the dancer and gender, films involving belly dancers can give us information on the class dynamic and stratification that exists.

In the 1920s Egyptian movies began to rely on music and dance scenes, the nightclub and theatre became familiar settings for the film narrative. “Real-life prejudices against dancers, singers and even male musicians were part of the narrative as well," writes Marjorie Franken in Images of Enchantment. Hollywood exerted a great influence on film nevertheless, and "its fantasy of Oriental dance” filtered through and was taken up and unconsciously parodied by Arab dancers in their desire to emulate Western behavior.

A frequent theme in Arab films is class conflict. One of my all time favourite films is a Tunisian film called Silences of the Palace (Saimt el Qusur) by Moufida Tlatli . Silences of the Palace  is a beautiful heartbreaking film about a young girl, whose mother is a dancer and lover to the married master and is set within a feudal palace where the servants are slaves .The film is not uncritical of the patriarchal abuses of Islam—in particular laws that count women as "half-persons" and systematically favour the male in terms of marriage and divorce. The film's visual language  however, favours the rhythms of inner worlds and spirituality. Lingering camera shots immerse us in the sensual visual worlds of contoured Arabic architecture, idyllic courtyards, fountains and soothing inner spaces are entered and explored.

The film focuses on a 25 year old woman, Alia (Ghalia Lacroix), who returns to her place of birth - a prince's palace in which her mother worked in the kitchen and in her master’s bedroom. The daughter eventually receives emancipation from her mother’s fate. The film is a series of her reminiscences. Alia attempts to uncover the secrets which these silences hide, primarily of who her father is. But there are other secrets as well, such as those surrounding the political struggles outside the palace, as Tunisia fights for its independence from France, and the silent class struggle between the upper and lower class in the palace. Feminine secrets are also searched for, as the 11-year-old Alia  has her first period and with it the insight into the  joys and sorrows of womanhood. Finally, there are also the silences surrounding rape, as no one will admit to its frequency in the palace.

The emphasis on the curved nature of the Arabic interior becomes a perfect back drop to the films belly dance performance. Alia’s mother performs a full  oriental routine for the elite family of the house in their plush family room. She is a dancer but also a slave, she is commanded to dance. She looks happy , beautiful and liberated  when she dances in full cabaret costume. Both the women and the men enjoying the performance. Her dance is symbolic of the freedom the slaves find in poetical emancipation. The others look stiff and unyielding as they rely on the dance to introduce a subtle eroticism into a circle where the women seated would find it beneath them to generate this energy themselves.

The palace itself, which can also be seen as the oppressive traditions of Islam, is a prison for these women. As one woman states: "in the palace we are taught one rule: silence". Alia's memories are inextricably linked with the freedom of spirit generated by music, song and dance which in the film, penetrate the power of the silence.

There are a variety of what could be termed feminist films about Middle Eastern women. For example Egyptian feminist Nawal el-Saadawi’s Hidden Faces explores the problems of women working together to create alternative institutions. Elizabeth Fernea's The Veiled Revolution (1982) shows Egyptian women redefining not only the meaning of the veil but also the nature of their own sexuality. And Moroccan filmmaker Farida Benlyazid's feature film Bab Ila Sma Maftouh (A Door to the Sky, 1988) offers a positive gloss on the notion of an all-female space, counterposing Islamic feminism to Orientalist fantasies.

A number of recent diasporic film/video works link issues of postcolonial identity, the position of women and visions of Middle Eastern culture as perceived by the West. These experimental films/videos call attention to a diversity of experiences within and across nations. Connected by glaring cultural differences and separated communities we can also recognize equally obvious commonalities.

I am a big fan of Shirring Neshat (so I was delighted when she gave me a £10 tip when she saw me dance at a restaurant!). Based in New York, she is one of the most significant contemporary artists working today. Having achieved international renown as a photographer in the 1990s with her dramatic visually arresting photographic series Women of Allah, Neshat has since shifted her focus towards the more ambiguous media of video and film. I saw her installation at the Heaven exhibition at the Tate Liverpool and found it to be overwhelmingly powerful and mind-blowing. The soulful power of a solitary Iranian woman singing a heartfelt folk song is juxtaposed to a classically trained male singer with audience.

Strikingly minimalist, Neshat’s early photos often have traditional Middle Eastern women as their subject. The work deploys charged symbols, incongruous pairings of - weapons and writing, the body and the veil produce a psychological dilemma as we attempt to work out just what the subtle message is within the obvious subversion. We are shocked by stark contrasts both visually and thematically. Statements are made and questions are asked. Women’s power and lack of it is described. The personal is political, an intimate portrait or detail can problematic post-revolutionary Iran and the situation of women within that society. Pattern and form create a language that speaks of the political and gender relationship between women and men.

I believe that it is empowering to not accept the paradigms of any dominant ideology. In the film Strictly Ballroom, we learn that coming from your heart and doing your own unique thing is more important than following someone else’s rules. However it also  has to be a collaboration with another’s view when we are filmed or photographed. When dance is filmed it is changed and altered by the perceptions of those involved in creating the film. What is important to them about the dance will be its focus. How we see the presentation of oriental dance in both Middle Eastern and Western films reflects the ideologies, fantasies and prejudices of those who capture the dancer on film.

Feminist critique, based on a wealth of theoretical discussion, can help dancers resolve the chasm between what they are striving for and how they are perceived. Feminist theory can give us a language to discuss the cultural gender and power relationships within Arabic dance. 

The perception of belly dance as an encapsulation of the feminine can both empower and limit women in their creative expression and self-exploration. Ironically performers like Fifi Abdu, Armani and others have strong assertive personalities (masculine traits?) so perhaps there is scope for the whole repertoire of human experience to be presented. Personally, I find that Middle Eastern Dancers to be a lot more character than western ones.

The Orientalists’ described  dancers and Arab women to conform to a fantasy and myth that white Western society held about Arab women. What we see is a fusion of the reality of Arab culture fused with the mystic and/or prejudice held in the minds of the artists. The process of film and photography also has the potential to present the image of the dancer within a preconceived cultural context.

I am lucky to have  had many peak experiences precipitated by dance  I have been misrepresented and misunderstood as well. Like with patriarchal perceptions of women generally, the emphasis on the sexual detracts from the complexity and talent of any individual.

When I look at filmed and still images of myself as a belly dancer I feel disconnected from the person. I prefer the image to my ordinary self. When I am being filmed and photographed, I lose control of my own image and have to hope that the person behind the camera will be sympathetic and sensitive to the person I want to be. I am involved in a photographic exhibition with my partner film maker and photographer Peter Rix. These are manipulated images that make the work more of an art and more separated from the real me than ever. However in this case I have control over the selection and content.

Being a feminist belly dancer means I dance to my own tune. If people want to critique my show or filmed work, I hope they do so though a feminist lens, rather than a petty, moralistic, prejudicial one with no grounding in intellectual theory. I hope people will see a woman doing her own thing; writing her own poems through the vocabulary of Middle Eastern dance. People may frame me whichever way they choose, but I will never be a marionette, moved by the strings of someone else’s worldview.

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Paula Ishtar, 27/12/05

References:

Wendy Buonaventura
bellydancing

Virago 1983

Andrea Deagon
Feminism and Belly Dance

Habbibi magazine

Kappanir 
Europes myths of the Orient 

London 1986

Mulvey
Visual pleasure and narrative cinema

1975 Bloomington

Ella Shohat
"The Cinema of Displacement: Gender, Nation, and Diaspora," in Middle Eastern Identities in Transition, UCLA Near East Center Colloquium Series CUNY-

Graduate Center 1997

Zoonen 
Feminist media studies

Sage publications 1994

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