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Back in the 1890's, an American event promoter named Sol Bloom coined the term "belly dancing" for a dance form that is known as "Oriental dance" in the Middle East where it comes from. It's called "Oriyantal dansi" in Turkish and "raks sharki" in Arabic, both of which mean "dance of the East" or "Oriental dance". Neither language uses the word "belly" (or any other body part) to refer to it. But there is a folk dance that the Turkish people call "gobek dansi", which is Turkish for "belly dance", and it doesn't look a thing like Oriental dance! So when the Turkish people use the term "belly dance" in their own language, what kind of dance are they thinking of? Read on, and see pictures from a performance that I saw at a tourist show in Turkey on July 12, 2000 at a nightclub called Gar Gazinosu in Istanbul! |
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Gobek dansi is a duet, with one dancer dressed as a man, and the other as a woman, as shown in this photo. The accompanying music is a fast Turkish-style chiftetelli rhythm, and the dancers romp playfully around the stage, taking turns chasing each other. |
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Look closely at these photos, and see if you can guess how they achieved the effect. |  |
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Both dancers are portrayed by young men. The faces of the characters are painted on their abdomens. The headdresses, which come to just below the dancers' armpits, hide the dancers' heads and arms which are folded to fit. The "neck" of the character's costume rides below the dancers' hips, with the "arms" attached to it so that they flop about as the dancer frisks around the stage. |
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It was difficult to snap good pictures, because the dancers were in constant motion as they danced about the stage to the lively music. Plus, I loved the performance so much that I didn't want to stop watching to use my camera! At one point during the dance, the two characters wound up "face" to "face". The two dancers then performed energetic stomach rolls, to portray the notion of the characters kissing. For the finale, the two dancers made their way to a stage-side table, and each selected an audience member to "kiss". I had the privilege of being one of the "chosen" ones! It was great fun! My "friend" vigorously rolled "her" belly right up against my face as I howled with delighted laughter. |
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| At the end of the show, as the two dancers prepared to make their exits, they removed their "headdresses" to reveal who had just entertained us so enjoyably. They then peeled off the tight-fitting flesh-colored shirts which had had the characters' faces painted on them, giving us a fabulous view of their muscular bare chests before they disappeared behind the curtain. |
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For more photo galleries from Shira's July 2000 trip to Turkey, explore these other pages on this web site:
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This article originally appeared on the Suite101 web site, in the Middle Eastern Dance category on September 15, 2000. I'd very much like to thank Morocco for organizing her "Tantalizing Turkey" tour, which gave me the opportunity to see all these fascinating dancers! |
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