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I confess
that the fourth season of Dancing with the Stars, the ABC television extravaganza that couples
star ballroom dancers with celebrity partners, kept me riveted to my TV set on
Monday and Tuesday nights. First, because I have a recurring fantasy of taking
up ballroom dancing with my husband to spice up our later life (he is not yet
convinced). Second, the dancer in me is intrigued by the idea of getting
one’s act together through discipline in limited time (the show requires new
routines weekly), even with a hectic schedule (the contestants had other
demands on their energy, requiring them to appear at movie studios and travel
the world).
Such are the premises of the show. Of course, we don’t know the complete
story behind the contestants’ training leading up to this glittering gala,
but it is enlivening to imagine that by practicing incessantly from 6 p.m. to
midnight every day for a week, with a stellar coach, one could deliver
something charming, commendable, and frequently spectacular on the dance
floor.
Déjà vu
One element of the show kept me
perplexed from Week 1 on. The women’s costumes immediately gave me a feeling
of déjà vu. So many reminded me unsettlingly of my old cabaret belly dance
costumes. ABC’s cover page for the show provides a preview of costumes to
come: a half shot of a sparkling purple beaded number. Our eyes focus on the
stars twinkling from the belt and then note that the belt has no skirt
attached and the bra has no back strap. Otherwise, the beginning of a great
belly dance costume!
Week 1 presented in my opinion at least five costumes descendant from ours. Cheryl
in what could be a black beaded beledi dress complete with left torso cutout,
but with a mini skirt. Kym in a
striking white crystal-crusted bra, attached by vertical midriff runner to a
distinctively long-fringed belt--with bell-bottoms below.
Edyta in a delicious salmon bra and belt with scalloped interest but
seemingly lacking a front panel to the skirt. Elena
in a firebird outfit--for all the world belly dance gear except that the skirt
with lively fringed action is approximately belt length (I knew several belly
dancers who proudly wore fire costumes, but with billowy long skirts and
tie-dyed silk veils). Julianne in
an intensely red beaded dress--add a few feet in length and maybe something to
the back to transform it into a beledi dress your parents would love.
The show’s ensemble number offered a stunning display of danse orientale grandeur crossed over--some dancers in pure sea-green
bedlah, others in
coordinating beledi dress creations. My
Kauai
honeymoon belly dance costume would have fitted right in!
Subsequent weeks brought further indication that our costumes have fully come
out of the world closet, as attested by the abundance of bugle-beaded, appliquéd
bras and belts, bare backs and midriffs, cut-out torsos, asymmetrical styling
reminiscent of Cairo’s finest designs, and skirts (however brief) worn at
hip level.
Enjoy Joey and Kym in Week 3:
Kym’s flared skirt with earth-toned elegance and pharaonic-inspired bra and
belt would be a smash amongst Bay Area belly dancers. Marvel at Maksim
and Laila in Week 4: Laila wears a purple and red sleeved dress, ornately
beaded on top and fantastically flounced on the bottom. How many belly dancers
seeking something sizzling with unique skirt interest would not covet that
creation? Cheer on Cheryl and Ian on Week
Five: Cheryl is adorned in a gloriously gaudy gold-beaded and sequined
concoction: bra and belt, and in lieu of a skirt, sheer orange flounces of
indeterminate material precariously fastened to the belt.
It wasn’t just the Latin dance attire that crossed over. For John
and Edyta’s Week 2 quickstep, John was resplendent in white tie and
tails and a great deal more covered than his partner, who wore something out
of azure belly dance heaven, her delicate floating veil framing her every
move.
After Week 5, my wrist rebelled against the incessant clicking required to
confirm my crossover costume theories (and I have described but a fraction of
them), but you get the picture. In your idle time between shows, check it out
for yourself by visiting ABC’s website; they archive photos of each
season’s performances. My best estimate is that at least two-thirds of the
costumes seemed curiously derivative of ours. Which of course begs the eternal
question: Were they ours to begin with?
Mosaic
I recall that in the early eighties
belly dancers were already experimenting with cultural crossover in selecting
music to accompany their routines (not counting the fact that danse
orientale contains its own melting pot of nationalities). We began to hear
Latin, New Age, African, and for me on one occasion, European Classical music
in dance routines. An American belly dancer’s reputation was enhanced from
having trained in other dance forms and from boldly incorporating unexpected
elements from diverse cultures. Ballet and jazz elements began to appear in
cabaret belly dance routines.
Despite the unfolding of fusion, I nurtured the belief that our belly dance
costumes were uniquely our own, part of what defined us. Now that I’ve been
entertained for lo these last ten weeks by ballroom dance stars donning
designs suspiciously similar to our cabaret costumes, I’m not so sure any
more.
Whose Hip Roll Is It Anyway?
What defines the dances themselves adds another puzzling twist to my dearly
held beliefs about the uniqueness of a particular dance form. Terpsichore’s
expressions have more in common than I realized. Surely all dance requires
good posture, rhythm, contrast, color, drama, and music—that is a given. But
examine some of the descriptions of the individual ballroom dances. The Rumba
mentions figure eight hip rolls (I was almost certain those were ours); the
Samba describes hip action, sways, pendulum motion, balls of the feet,
shimmies. The Paso Doble’s cape movements often resemble our basic veil
maneuvers. I saw bold body waves and rhythmic breaks--of the type I aspired to
learn in more than one belly dance seminar--throughout many of the Latin
dances (or Rhythm dances, by its American ballroom term). The American Rhythm
style also favors bent knees, somewhat like the belly dancer’s basic stance.
Less standardized than the International ballroom style, the American style
allows the couple latitude in breaking their hold, resulting in more solo
interludes. During Week 4, Edyta’s
fuchsia-splendored introductory flourish, choreographed to showcase her
talent, looked much to me like an opening beledi, veiled and spinning.
Confusing fusions! We recognize that dances such as Flamenco and Polynesian
share elements with belly dance, but we can rest assured that not all--not
even most--dances resemble ours. Not tap dance. Not Irish step dance. Not
square dance. Not the waltz--no belly dancer dances in three-four time. But
witnessing a waltz delivered in something akin to an Egyptian-style cabaret
costume or a quickstep in a compellingly collared Cleopatra dress does
somewhat blur its identity!
Revelation
Then there is the question of how
much of a dancer it is acceptable to reveal. The answer seems to change by the
decade. Or perhaps more accurately, by decade amongst dance genres, for I
don’t believe the cabaret belly dance costume of the 1970’s was either
more or less modest than today’s regalia. Belly dancers have so often
been considered as provocative or seductive, daring to expose their circling
centers.
How my mother worried when I became mesmerized by belly dance in the
mid-1970's! Yet some of the costumes in Dancing
with the Stars leave far less to the imagination than did our carefully
crafted costumes.
Look, Ma, how demure were my voluminous skirts and veils! How careful I was to
sew a sequined strap between the panels of my heavily beaded Egyptian skirt so that it would not fly open and reveal too much forbidden
leg! No such concerns among today's ballroom dance contestants, resplendent in
their muscled armor and yes, spectacular and entertaining costumes!
Finale
The finale episode of the Fourth Season of Dancing with the
Stars has arrived. What an excruciating choice—I would have been
comfortable with a tie! Actually, I did have a weak spot for the candidate who
entered the competition with much talent, charisma, and humor but minus the buff factor (he came in second and is probably plenty buff after
all this training).
As for the costume dilemma: If ever I belly dance again, I think I’ll favor the
coined look, tarnished and tribal. No one fox-trotted in that. And I’ll be
sure to play my zils really loudly.
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