A recent history about Dina (popular egyptian Oriental Dancer) just made the headlines in Egypt. According to the newspaper, Dina was stopped to dance at a wedding due to religious reasons.
First of all: we don´t know how accurate this piece of news are - I agree with that. Both Dina and egyptian newspapers love to spread polemic rumors that will make people talk (experts in sneaky, smart ass marketing!).
The question goes BEYOND it, though.
It is a FACT that the Wedding Industry in Egypt USED to be the touchstone of Oriental Dancer´s agenda. When I started performing in Egypt (almost 8 years ago), this industry was already a pale copy of what it once was but it was still running and making up for 60%, at least, of a dancer´s income by the end of the month and the best way to turn the dancer into a household name for common people (not specifically for dancer lovers but common egyptians out of this field).
It is known - to the ones who follow my career - that I never had a manager/empresario/pimp/boyfriend-musician-whatever who could make the BRIDGE between ME and the EXTERIOR world of snakes and frogs. I had many men against my career, not supporting it. I arrived alone to Cairo and built my name ALONE and that meant a lot of GOOD and BAD things:
1. I was never protected from all the garbage going in the Oriental Dance business in Cairo. I was the one dealing directly with EVERYONE (musicians, bosses, managers, clients, audiences, etc) and discovering the traps by myself. That meant I had to learn arabic fast - and by ear - as well as how to defend myself with no support from the men who run this world. It may be a "female dance" - according to the mainstream opinion- but it´s still ruled by MEN.
2. I SAW, FELT, HEARD and LIVED a great deal of pure shit simply because I was exposed to it with no filters or safety nets. Learning the hard way is, probably, the most efficient (yet painful) way to learn. I experience Oriental Dance business from inside, from its stomach (inside and out) and soul. THAT gave me a REALISTIC and DEEP vision of the whole thing (dancing, under contract, in Egypt on a daily basis for several years is not only about being a professional dancer but also a warrior with strenght, intelligence, stamina to receive the punches and punch back one and another time, courage and a lot of etcs no one tells you about).
YES, it is TRUE that weddings USED to be the central part of a
Dancer´s agenda but NOT ANYMORE. It is still a running business for dancers but much less than before because regular egyptians are becoming more adverse to their own dance.
RIGHT NOW (and for the last 3-4 years) I felt that: Oriental Dance is not in fashion for weddings (although it´s an old tradition some thought it would never disappear) and most clients started to request that I dance ONLY with CD (no men -musicians- allowed to perform with me: already a "religious" prejudice) or they would hire NO DANCER AT ALL. Why? Not stylish; not in fashion, "HARAM" (forbidden by God).
Djs and singers are having a blast with this new market -almost exclusive for them.
Many traditions (like genital female mutilation) are kept and followed until today inside people´s homes; women´s roles seem to be pushed back to the domestic sphere and their rights seem to be in jeopardy - more than ever. The freedom to profess and express different religious points of view is also disappearing...
BUT an ancestral tradition like ORIENTAL DANCE in WEDDINGS (which used to bring good luck, fertility and HAPPINESS to the bride and groom and their families) is starting to be considered "HARAM".
Suddenly, all my comments vanish. FACTS speak for themselves, even if many dare to ignore or deny them.
No comments:
Post a Comment