What eyes are educated to perceive today will become tomorrow´s prejudice.

It´s an old talk, the one of the way ORIENTAL DANCERS are perceived in Egypt and the Middle East. I grew up inside different art forms (classical ballet and others, acting, singing, painting, writing,etc) thanks to my parent´s open and advanced minds. Through that wide and early artistic active life, I was taught to see myself as an WHOLE system of blessed and complementary parts. My body fits my mind and my heart fits my soul. No part is superior to the other. No piece of me is prone to be smashed by my inner devils because I cherish it. ALL.

Never did I perceive the human body as shameful, dirty, uncontrollable, primitive (in the negative sense of the word) or a "work of Satan". Christianity and Muslim religions (the one I grew up in and the one I currently live in) seem to view the HUMAN BODY as a distraction, to say the least, from the most superior spiritual realms. An obstacle to the religious person´s ascention to purity, a Devil´s tool to make us fall into temptation and so forth.

Isadora Duncan, the famous mother of Modern Dance and a (LOVE) religious person herself once said: "The body of the dancer is the soul´s luminous manifestation." What a contrast between this quote and the ones of priests, sheikhs, so called "religious" individuals.

In a society where the human body, specially the FEMALE, is considered shameful, dangerous, weak to the temptations of the flesh, shameful and object of tight CONTROL, LIMITATIONS and CRITICS, ORIENTAL DANCE and DANCERS cannot be seen like anything other but PROSTITUTES. As ARTISTS, we use our creative tool - body, mind, heart and soul - to COMUNICATE with others. If that creative tool is seen, in normal circumstances, as a Devil´s work, then we represent the DEVIL. It is logical and sad.

Only when the nature and richness of the HUMAN BODY is known, respected and FREED can ORIENTAL DANCE and DANCERS be understood and cherished. Until that happens, we´re just a provocative signal of this (and all) time´s decadence.

Change mentality and you´ll change DANCE, DANCERS and the WAY they are represented in egyptian society.
Malcom X once said: "I have a dream..."
Me too, Malcom...me too!***