Raqs Sharqi and Self-Discovery

By Shantell Powell

Arabic for Dance of the East or Oriental Dance, raqs sharqi (or Raks el Sharki) is colloquially known as belly dance. It is derived from the oldest known documented dance forms, and has traditionally been taught by having female and male children "imitating the movements of their parents and older siblings. In its native setting, dance is used to mark the special occasions of life: the birth of a child, a circumcision, a wedding, a good harvest, a religious holiday, a family gathering or an informal congregation of close friends" (Abd el Malik 27). Since its American debut in the late 1800s, raqs sharqi has educed different motivations and teaching methods within North America, and has become a powerful tool for self-discovery.

Body Image

The North American assimilation of raqs sharqi has changed the dance into something rather different for Western dancers than it is for dancers in the Near and Middle East. Some of the differences are the result of the misconception that raqs sharqi is a women's dance. Although raqs sharqi historically has been (and still is) performed by men as well as women (Sultan 2003), the common belief that it is the sole domain of women has flavoured the way it affects its practitioners.

One of the interesting side-effects of this misconception is a positive shift in physical perceptions of self. For many women, raqs sharqi has had a profound impact on their body image. According to S. Austin, Clinical Professional Affiliate of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Jungian Analysts,

• The history and background of belly dancing have their roots in cultures which do not take for granted the assumption that thinner is necessarily better/more attractive at any cost.
• Classes are usually women-only, thus reducing the level of embarassment for many participants....
• Classes are usually populated by women of a wide range of shapes and sizes....
• The nature of the dance itself makes it almost impossible not to adopt a proud physical stance, whether one feels like it or not and (over a period of time) this often has flow-on effects in terms of how a woman actually feels about herself (Austin 62).

Austin goes on to say,

Someone once expressed it to me, "... after an hour of concentrating intently on the way my teacher's backside jiggles and trying to get my backside to jiggle in a similar way, there's not a lot of room left for self-consciousness...". This seems to me to be crucial to the whole endeavour: to find a way out of the world which so many sufferers inhabit in which every move, comment and indeed every thought is played back endlessly as if on some awful, distorting hatefully critical closed-circuit TV" (Austin 63).

This impact on body image holds true in online interviews I conducted. Chthonia says, "Having started a new exercise program, I one day found myself considering the effect weigh[t] loss might having on my belly dancer body and worrying to myself, 'Oh no! I hope my butt doesn't get too small! What if my hips get too narrow?' As a young woman, I had bouts of anorexia, so this was an amazing breakthrough for me" (Chthonia 2004).

However, in a few instances it may have encouraged the opposite sort of perceived body dysmorphia. For example, Fooltothink says, "I was really excited when I saw women in my belly dancing class that weren't a size 6... or even a size 10. There are women there that aren't society's idea of beautiful, most of them aren't thin. They are voluptuous and curvy and I think they are absolutely beautiful. I feel out of place there because I am thin, I almost wish I could gain weight to be shaped like them" (Fooltothink 2004).

Female Power and Spirituality

The belief that raqs sharqi is a women's dance has sparked feminist imagination. "A large proportion of the belly dance teachers ... believe that the dance was originally performed by women, for women--various Western women have described it to me as the most woman-centred thing they have ever encountered, in spite of the 'cabaret' connotations it has taken on in the West (Austin 62). "Many women who find gender imbalance in their lives may be first drawn to this dance because of its emphasis on the missing feminine agency" (Osweiler 2000). Dancers like Dionella Gioseffi, author of Earth Dancing,

focused on the dance's movement style as an expression of their new found social and sexual liberation. They considered it to be a style derived from a female definition of the universe rather than a masculine one and 'females as active rather than passive sexual objects'. Gioseffi, who appeared on campuses all across [the United States] and at many meetings of the National Organization for Women, advocated the movement style as a means for women to gain understanding of the inherited female power that resides within their bodies (Sellers-Young 146).

Halimeda of Tallahassee, Florida, says "[The dance required a] confidence level in your own femininity, that was certainly something that was lacking in the rest of my life. I am a computer programmer [and] I worked almost totally with men.... at the naval air station... Here was something that was feminine and strong (Osweiler 2000). Similarly, Anaheed of Granada Hills, California, says "The image that I started with was, just my personal image, a powerful, feminine, woman in touch with her body" (Osweiler 2000).

Karen Andes believes the rounded movements of raqs sharqi can be traced to the sacred shapes of ancient matriarchal societies. She writes,

People from these cultures believed that a feminine divine force was responsible for all cycles of life, death and rebirth. Because these four gentle shapes (1) were self-contained or flowed back on themselves, they seemed to represent all that is yielding, enduring, enveloping, receptive, infinite and therefore powerfully feminine (Andes 6).

She goes on to say

The soft, rounded movements gave my feminine spirit an immediate sense of freedom. As soon as I started dancing, something familiar inside woke up--me! Where had I been all these years and why hadn't I kept dancing? When I was a little girl, my favorite thing in the world had been playing dress-up and dancing around the room. Now I was forty and doing the same thing--only it was better and more fun and I was a much better dancer. Maybe it was a bizarre form of therapy, but it was simple and it worked (Andes 3).

The sacred shape concept was arrived at by Barbara Brandt through intuition. In 1990, she taught classes on "Belly Dancing and Women's Spirituality," despite having no initial concept of what that meant. By researching such books as Barbara Walker's (not a dancer, herself) The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, Brandt was able to draw correlations between dance movements and sacred shapes, and between dance props (eg. finger cymbals and veils) and women's spirituality. She also read about a Great Goddess who birthed the world, resulting in a revelation for Brandt:

I suddenly envisioned the Great Goddess, full-bodied and powerful, almost naked except for some necklaces and a jingly belt around her hips, squatting as the round earth emerged from the sacred opening between her legs. This was the connection I had been looking for!

I intuited: Belly dancing in its earliest origins is a dance about the creation of the world by the Great Goddess – and it was done many thousands of years ago, both as a sacred ritual and Creation story, and also to honor women as representatives of the Goddess and creators of life here on earth.

With this insight, I went out and began teaching classes in “Belly Dancing and Women’s Spirituality.” Dozens of women came to these classes, and were so inspired that soon thereafter a group of us jointly birthed “The Goddess Dancing” – a collaborative that for many years now has taught and further developed the work of bringing belly dancing to the world as a sacred women’s dance (Brandt 1999).

Although the sacred female-centred roots of raqs sharqi are conjectural, they have had a huge impact on many women's sense of spirituality and self-worth as females.

Physical Ability

Raqs sharqi effects more than just a person's spirituality and perception of physical beauty and gender identity. In North America, raqs sharqi is often learned after the student has already reached adulthood. Studying the dance affords students the opportunity to learn more about their physical capabilities. "As a performance form in North Africa and the Middle East, Raks el Sharki is part of a large solo and improvisational tradition of Islamic dance that focuses on movement of the torso as opposed to movement of the arms and legs as in most western based forms. The arms are used to frame the movement of the torso. The legs are used to augment the movement of the torso" (Sellers-Young 141).

Learning to move the body in an entirely different way lets a person discover what he or she is capable of doing. "The technique of Oriental dancing is one of contractions and releases while all other muscles not involved in the movement are relaxed" (Varga Dinicu 1964). As a personal example, I have been experimenting with techniques of lifting one side of my pelvis. For most people, this will be accomodated by bending up through the entire leg. For many raqs sharqi dancers, it is done by engaging the hip flexors, lower abdominals, psoas, and the gluteals. I am discovering it can also be done wholly through the obliques during a relaxation of the rest of the body. This realization is teaching me more about my body. Besides learning a different way of moving, I now know my right side is significantly stronger than my left.

Relaxation during the dance is vital. Raqs sharqi "is a form of movement in which rigid strength is of limited use. A good dancer needs a flexible sort of strength" (Austin 62). "A healthy level of self-discipline is useful (i.e. for practicing between lessons), while the zealous over application of willpower or force can often be counter productive--a good dancer must have a strong sense of her own body in order to be able to interpret the music through it" (Austin 63).

Pregnancy and Childbirth

This strong physical sense of self takes on a whole new meaning during pregnancy. Roula Said, dance instructor and co-founder of the Toronto Bellydance Collective taught "Baby in my Belly" dance workshops. She says, "Dancing pregnant was the highlight of my experience as a belly dancer.... It just felt so right, and so nourishing. I felt that I was interacting with my belly in a totally different way. Movements I'd done a zillion times had a different kind of life to them" (Nopper 2004).

Some of the movements of raqs sharqi are exercises intended to prepare women for labour, and are "the oldest form of natural of childbirth instruction" (Varga Dinicu 1964).

Childbirth must be prepared for. Dormant muscles must be built up little by little, step by step. All it takes is a little work, which certainly would never harm the mother or the unborn child. Strengthening the muscles also helps in carrying the child through pregnancy and greatly reduces stretch marks on the abdomen.... According to Farab Firdoz, a dancer from Bahrein, Saudi Arabia, the dance was still performed in the less Westernized parts of her country in the '50s, around the bedside of a woman in childbirth, by a circle of her fellow tribeswomen. In this ritualistic form men are not allowed to watch it. The purpose here is to hypnotize the woman in labor into an imitation of the movements with her own body. This greatly facilitates the birth and reduces pain from womb contractions. It helps the mother to move with instead of against the contractions (Varga Dinicu 1964).

As an interesting sidenote, the dance has also been used to prepare men for childbirth. "A small subsect of the Allaoui Moslems believe that the Messiah will be born to a man, since woman is unworthy of such a high honor. Under this supposition, the men in that sect practice Oriental dancing in preparation for the honor to be awarded them someday, that of giving birth to their Deliverer" (Varga Dinicu 1964).

Yoga and Raqs Sharqi

Raqs sharqi, with its philosophy of muscular isolation and relaxation, is in some ways similar to yoga. Like yoga, raqs sharqi has steadily been gaining acceptance in North America, and to some dancers, the two have become inextricably linked. According to Said, "Belly dancing is working with that kind of kundalini energy at the base of the spine. It's a 'love yoga'" (Nopper 2004). Many teachers incorporate yoga in their classes (eg. Stefani Pappas teaches a Belly Dance and Yoga class called Graceful Sweat). Some dancers, such as Rachel Brice, blend the two together in performance (you can find video footage here).

Digitaldurga writes,

I've studied yoga for years, making slow and fitful progress. Dance has come much faster and much more immediately gratifying. It's helped me learn to stick with my yoga practice, and my yoga has made my dance body more supple, and responsive. I honestly don't think I'd be as good a dancer if I weren't such an experienced yogi.... They've led to different sorts of self-discovery for me. The dance is much more about performance, external, whereas yoga is totally internal. They inform each other. I couldn't be as balanced with a sword on my head were it not for the good posture from yoga, but I couldn't be as lighthearted in my yoga practice without the energy from my dance practice (Digitaldurga 2004).

Recovery From Sexual Assault

Many people have discovered raqs sharqi helps heal psychological and physical traumas brought on by sexual assault. Miss_binkowitz says,

[Raqs sharqi] has helped me to regain confidence. When I was in college the first time (15 years ago) I got date raped -- raped repeatedly and beaten over and over again -- and when that happened my self-esteem fell apart. I have been living in this tiny shell for years, but finding this dance is helping me to break out of that shell.

When I started dancing I would barely move. God forbid anyone should notice me because getting noticed is bad. I believed that bad things happen when people notice you.

Slowly I am coming back to where I was 'Before.' I have been living with this for years, never telling people, never explaining why sometimes I flinch when people touch me, but slowly I am regaining the yardage I lost and am going onward. I felt divorced from my body for year[s] and I believe dance can help me finally heal (Miss_binkowitz 2004).

Lucy Lipschitz writes,

To me, Belly dancing is not about being cutesy and wearing bedlah (2). It can be so much more! I honor and respect all dancers, but others like me, who use this dance as a panacea for something personal, must also be given respect. We are seeing this dance help others to feel wonderful about themselves. We are using this dance to work some miracles.

Yes, it is a miracle to be able to wear a beautiful costume and perform onstage after having been raped as a little kid. It is a miracle to be able to move one’s body in such a beautiful way that an audience can feel strong emotion. I don’t even have to say a word to my students about healing. All I need to do is to teach them correct posture and breathing, and the rest just comes naturally. Those of us in “recovery” are not pathetic or gloomy when we dance, most of us are full of joy and laughter. We have our dance roots in a place that many people don’t have to go, and we balance ourselves with those deep roots of recovery (Lipschitz 2003).

It has also been suggested that studying the dance may be restorative in terms of lost sexual drive in women, and raqs sharqi training may be of value in sexual arousal disorders (Hallam-Jones 279).

Coping With Illness and Disease

Other people have discovered raqs sharqi gives them a way to work through disease, allowing them to focus on a strong sense of self. Bay'la Washburne teaches raqs sharqi to seniors and disabled students. She has severe rheumatoid arthritis and says she's "positive that I would not be able to walk if I could not dance.... Dance has so many advantages for the maturing body, and it keeps it limber and young" (Xiong 2003).

Talikah, diagnosed with fibromyalgia,

has her own web site, is in a troupe, and also dances solo. Dancing has been very important to her over the years, but now her symptoms are so severe at times, that she has had to cut back to only two lessons per week, and dances only once a month at a local café. She swears she will never give up dancing, but if she overdoes it, then she can't get out of bed for a few days.... Without belly dancing, Talikah would lose herself as a person, and she will to fight her physical illness (Lipschitz 2001).

Misschemo says,

I've learned to say 'fuck you' to my disabilities--worsening remitting-relapsing multiple sclerosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome and bi-polar disorder and the people who refuse to accept that a disabled woman can dance. I can dance in a walker or a wheelchair and especially with a cane (3) (Misschemo 2004).

On a personal note, I used this dance through the recovery process. A few years ago, I had a bad case of whiplash caused from a misstep on an icy sidewalk. Although I could not get in and out of bed by myself, and the simple act of walking was very painful, I was able to dance with the meticulous use of isolation work.

Physical exercise is often useful in the recovery process. The low-impact and gentle movements of raqs sharqi lend themselves well to healing. Lucy Lipschitz underwent a series of abdominal surgeries and wrote this:

While I was allowed to leave the hospital right after surgery, it has taken me much longer to recover, but at least I was home. Luckily, I've been able to use what I learned in my belly dance classes to recover. I'm more aware now of my muscles than ever before. I can use other muscles, besides my stomach muscles to move, roll over, etc. I'm very aware of my posture, which has been crucial for me in keeping my shoulders down and back. My first instinct was to hunch over, and my shoulders would try to ride up. I've been able to catch myself, and re-posture myself properly. If I hadn't had these many years of focusing on my muscles, breathing, and understanding how my whole body moves, it would have been harder for me to protect my torso while I've healed. I haven't stressed any other muscles or skeletal groups.

I was told not to dance until the beginning of August of 2001, but at least now I can move a bit, do a few shimmies, and some beginning undulations. I can pull in my abdominal muscles now, and they are getting strong again. If anyone ever asks me what good belly dancing can do, recovery from surgery is one more fantastic reason for learning (Lipschitz 2001).

I have witnessed the healing and regenerative powers of this dance with my students and colleagues. One of my students was recovering from knee surgery, and her doctor had told her she would always walk with a limp, and would never be able to bend her knee more than ninety degrees. However, after just a few months of dance classes, she was not only able to walk without a limp, but she was also able to bend her legs to sit on her feet. My own instructor used the low-impact movements of the dance therapeutically to regain mobility and flexibility after experiencing a near-fatal car accident.

Through raqs sharqi, many people have found a medium to achieve physical healing, even when they themselves were not sure recovery was possible.

Conclusion

Although many of the movements are the same, North American raqs sharqi has evolved into something quite different to its Near and Middle Eastern ancestor. The dance has enabled people to discover more about themselves in numerous ways, including body image, female empowerment and spirituality, physical ability, pregnancy and childbirth, its correlation with yoga, recovery from sexual assault and injury, and coping with illness. As North Americans continue to explore the dance form and make it their own, they will find even more ways it will aid them in self-discovery.

Notes:

1. The four sacred shapes, according to Karen Andes, are circles, figure 8s, snakes, and spirals.

2. Bedlah, Arabic for "suit", is the name of the stereotypical raqs sharqi costume consisting of a decorated bra top and belt.

3. A cane is a common prop in raqs sharqi and is used in a variant called raqs assaya.

Photos:

Comic strip copyright 1996 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Photograph of Leyla Lanty from Belly Dance Photo Gallery Leyla Lanty, Part 1. July 29, 2001.

Photograph of The Goddess Dancing performing "The Rainbow Chakra Dance" by Allison Perkel, 2003.

Photograph of Tarik Sultan performing a Moroccan Tea Tray dance from David Entertainment: Tarik Sultan.

Photograph of pregnant dancer taken by Julia Faisst in 1994. From Snake's Kin.

Photograph of Rachel Brice from rachelbrice.com.

Works Cited:

Abd el Malik, Tarik. "It's Not Just for Women -- Men in Oriental Dance" The Belly Dance Book: Rediscovering the Oldest Dance, edited by Tazz Richards. Backbeat Press, Concord, CA. 2000.

Andes, Karen. A Woman's Book of Power. Perigree, New York, NY. 1998.

Austin, S. "Belly Dance--A Therapist's Perspective" European Eating Disorders Review, 1995, vol. 3, issue 1, p 61, ISSN 10724133.

Brandt, Barbara. "Belly Dancing and Women’s Spirituality: A Journey of Discovery" The Goddess Dancing. 1999.

Chthonia. "Re. Request for Information" LiveJournal Bellydancing Community. November 13, 2004.

Digitaldurga. "Re. Request for Information" LiveJournal Bellydancing Community. November 13, 2004.

Fooltothink. "Re. Request for Information" LiveJournal Bellydancing Community. November 13, 2004.

Hallam-Jones, Ruth and Wylie, Kyle R. "Case Report: Traditional Dance--a treatment for sexual arousal problems?" Sexual and Relationship Therapy, Vol. 16, No. 4, 2001.

Lipschitz, Lucy. "I Walk In Pain And Beauty" The Gilded Serpent. August 1, 2001.

Lipschitz, Lucy. "Belly Dance and Healing from Sexual Trauma" The Gilded Serpent. October 3, 2003.

Miss_binkowitz. "BD has been very very good to me" LiveJournal Bellydancing Community. November 13, 2004.

Misschemo. "my disabilities are coming to the hafla" LiveJournal Bellydancing Community. November 14, 2004.

Nopper, Sheila. "Belly wisdom: a new body politic." Herizons, Spring 2004 v17 i4 p24(5).

Osweiler, Laura (Amara). "Contemporary American Middle Eastern Dance" Presented at the 2000 Cultural Dance Studies Conference.

Sellers-Young, Barbara. "Raks el Sharki: Transculturation of a folk form." Journal of Popular Culture, Fall92, Vol. 26 Issue 2, p141, 12p.

Sultan, Tarik. "Oriental Dance: It Isn’t Just For Women (and Never Was)" Morocco and the Casbah Dance Experience. 2003.

Varga Dinicu, Carolina (Morocco). "'Belly Dancing' and Childbirth" Morocco and the Casbah Dance Experience. 1964.

Xiong, Nzong. "Moving experience: Belly dancing undulates into the Valley" The Fresno Bee. Thursday, January 16, 2003.