By: Amir Thaleb
Translation by: Amar Lammar & Ian Els
Its very common since long ago, to listen to opinions about the “Argentinean Style”, but what is the Argentinean style??
I’ll try to unravel this confusion and clear up the understanding by means of my
knowledge, observations, experiences and journeys around the world. Maybe this
way I can clear the panorama.
According
to the experts on the topic, it’s been told to us that “All the ways that cross
the boundaries of its own core, where it was developed, inevitably undergoes
normal transformations. This transformation is a process in which it adapts to
the new environment that rescued it, creating a new way over the old one." I think it is a normal process of all things,
for example to eat in a Mexican restaurant in any part of the world would not
have the same taste as a restaurant in Mexico itself. A Mexican Restaurant in
Mexico may be much more orthodox and traditional with its own local essences. But
there are people that like this transformation, maybe because the authentic
taste is stranger to them. This is a logical deduction and just maybe we can implement this
logic to the transformations of the art itself.
When we
watch a famous Egyptian belly dancer in her own country, we get enchanted by
this dancer’s movements, gestures and scenic dramatization. Even more so when
this dancer is set in a unique atmosphere that only the air of the river Nile,
the pyramids and orchestras of 40 or more spectacular musicians can create. It
is like a dream but, … What happen when we see the same diva outside of her
environment ? What happens when she must perform to an audience that expect more
than gestures and charming smiles that only she understands. When she performs
for an audience that yearn for the universal concept of dance that require
technique, body plasticity and all that charisma that a diva must have? An
audience that is not captivated by Middle Eastern atmosphere but only by the
art, and nothing of this appear on the stage? It happens from what I’ve seen in
many dance festivals around the world, where the audience stand up, leaving the
Diva alone. Only those dancers whom understood the importance of adapting their
shows into a much more understandable language for the people who weren’t born
in Egypt, people who doesn’t speak her tongue and that posses another mentality,
achieved success. It is important and necessary to adjust the dance into a much more universal language,
without losing the essence and without thinking that western people don’t
understand anything. Many oriental belly dancers have made achieved success,
and that’s why their names are in the higher pick of the chandelier.
Oriental
dance posses a great virtue, the virtue of adapting to any environment. This
cause the dance to develop, acquiring colors according to the culture, society,
daily living and social manners
where it sets. It’s is exactly why
there exist so many varieties of styles in many parts of the world: The
Egyptian, the Lebanese, the Russian, the Iraki, the Greek, the Argentinean, the
American etc, etc. Through history the individual Middle East cultures were
free to each performer to explore beyond their social taboos and the culture
where it sets and the technique itself, why? Because it is a dance that goes
beyond a single culture, we could as well name it: The dance of all cultures.
Now, it is
good to clarify certain points, if we dance a “tradition” we should respect the
tradition and there’s no place for inventions otherwise we stop being traditional.
The Baladi means ”from within” and is ethnic to the Bedouin, the normal woman
who doesn’t make pountee, arabesques or battements. If it is Saidi, it is
folklore and you must respect it! In the folklore there’s no place for
innovations but there’s space for modernization in expressive language… but if
it is oriental, it is free! In this manner, the dancers have created their own
styles over decades. As foreign cultures adopted the styles of the dancers who
succeeded, these dancers became legendary and left us their legacy.
Now, it is
very important to separate the reality and ethnicity of a dance from the
fusions, confusions, contaminations and fantasies that are created around the
world due to the narcissistic need to “make history” even if it destroy the authentic
component of a dance which represents a culture. And this is where the door of “eternal discussion” opens
controversy and criticisms to certain styles, among them the wrongly call “Argentinean
style” which I will mention later.
It is here
where the belly dancers lose their path, believing that because oriental dance
have freedom of expression they can jump the traditions and classic ways of
this art without any information or consciousness. And these morphologies of
the dance are taught to the next generation of dancers, falling victim to the
belief that they are taught traditional dances. Today the belly dance is spoiled
in many aspects, contaminated not only with expressions that are too far from
this dance, but also with clones and coarse imitations of the Egyptians. An
example of this is when we see a German, an Argentinean, a Mexican, or an Asian posing like an Egyptian. Even worse are the
dancers without any personality that become clones of their Idol, making the
same gestures, using the same steps and even in a very sick way, styling their
hair in the same way as their idols. Belly dance is also contaminated by those
“fault- finders” whom doesn’t know anything about dance, who cannot dance themselves,
and dedicate their time to spoil the work of others who are able to dance. Belly
dance is also contaminated by the tyrannical attitude of some Egyptian teachers
who have the mentality that “nothing have value if you don’t do it
as they tell you to”. These teachers will make you feel inadequate if you don’t
dance in their festivals or buy their videos, out of their senile resentment to
everything that is different. And many times their words echo in the western
girls whom doesn’t even understand what’s been discussed. Nobody posses the
absolute truth, even amongst the Egyptians there are contradictions. Nobody is
the owner of this art, this art belongs to all, even if you are not Egyptian.
We recognize the Egyptian style as the mother of this dance, we choose it because
we like it, but be aware! Is not the unique nor irrefutable.
The
Egyptian teachers owe a great deal of respect to the West because even with its
faults, the West praise this dance. The West adopted and have provided a better
environment to the Egyptian performers than what many Egyptian dancers have in
their own country. The West take care of them, recognize and admire them. We
fill their festivals and consume
all their dancing proposals. But the Westerners should stop inventing “oriental
dances”. Leave the fans, and learn more about the essence and meanings of a
tradition. Om Khalthoum shouldn’t
be danced with feathers or fans, the Tarab should not be eaten with jam,
oriental dance does not wear Tu-Tu’s. We should learn to respect each other. We
cannot live without each other. What would we do without the source? And¿What
would they do without our events in which they can display their knowledge?
LESS CRITICISM from each side, because we are all ON THE SAME SIDE, less
inventions and more knowledge.
This is how
the wrongly called “Argentinean style” emerged around the 1990’s, in a place
where belly dance wasn’t popular and had to somehow reach a massive audience.
It could not be achieved by being orthodox, so we had to search for a language
understood by everyone. For sure we over did it and others were responsible to
trim and shape this dance even more. Each dancer should take responsibility of
their own invention and the criticisms that comes with it. But the Argentinian
style found a place in this world just as the Russian style and American style
did by the hand of it’s great performers. The Argentinean style has lots of
things to be corrected, and there is still time to rectify the path. The so
called Argentinean style, is not my style, and I’m not the father of this
creature. I do not teach karate
steps nor piques in my Baladi. I like to be faithful to the Arabic culture but
not with a narrow mind. This is a dance that invites you to set loose your
imagination and create new Styles in a coherent way when possible. In my Shaabi
flashmob, the appreciation for the traditional dance was demonstrated with over
a million and half views around the world. In especially Lebanon and Egypt the Arabic people debated if
my origin was Egyptian or Lebanese, that’s what it is all about! To be able to
enjoy this dance without spoiling it. But it is important to take off our
masks, this is not a sect, and even more, the one who criticize is the first
one to copy the methods , the choreographies in internet and more. Let’s be honest, all of us, lets
respect the essence and evolve as the art itself evolves in the Middle East. I
never met any fault-finding person who had succeeded in life, she spend too
much time criticizing.
In this pic: Amir Thaleb teaching in "Pasión Arica 2015 "
It is time
to exhalt the origins, take them as a starting point and let the own being be expressed
without the killing the legacies.
Thank you
for reading me and I hope this help to clarify the complicated world of all of us
who practice this dance. A wise
philosopher said: “lets put in front the intelligence to the narcissism , the
intelligence built, and the narcissism destroy you and everything you touch”. Hurray
to all the oriental dance styles in all its shapes. If you don’t fancy one
shape, there’s no need for you to clap, there’s no need for you to accept it,
but also your critic is not needed. We are a free world, lets use this fredom
in a wise manner.-Thank you for your Attention.-
Amir Thaleb.
