Gut reaction

Seductive showbiz or storied art? Belly-dancing showcase stirs visceral feelings

Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 6, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Theater

More stories »

All that shimmying and shaking by scantily clad belly dancers has got to be about sex and seduction, right?

Well, yes and no, says Sadie, a Denver dancer known in the community by her one name. "The general populace tends to over-sexualize women. In our training, we are told not to be sexy - but you can't separate that from what we do."

Therein lies the crux of an evolving chasm between those who want to market the form's sexuality and those who want to protect the sanctity of a storied art.

The two schools of thought collide in Denver Saturday at the Oriental Theater, where local dancers and a rock 'n' roll video director have joined forces for a project they say aims to highlight the discipline and art behind the form.

And what have they chosen to call this elaborate showcase? Temptation of the Belly Dance.

What's more, during a recent photo shoot to help promote the performance, Sadie and her fellow dancer Raya dressed in revealing apparel and posed . . . well, seductively.

All in the name of art?

"You can be a serious artist and also be sensual," Sadie insists. "You can dive into an emotion with a very beautiful display."

Seated nearby, the show's producer, Michael Drumm, nods in agreement. "We want to show that these dancers are serious about what they do," says Drumm, an Emmy-nominated director who has previously worked mainly with musicians and comedians, from Ani DiFranco and Panic! At The Disco to Bill Maher. "We want to make this valid entertainment. The intricate lighting will help raise it to another level."

Then he smiles, glances over at Raya, his wife, and says, "But there is a sexiness to it."

Diligent training pays off

It's difficult to ignore the beauty behind Raya and Sadie. But nor should an audience ignore their years of diligent training to perfect an ancient and challenging dance style.

So, is belly dancing high art or thinly veiled seduction?

Yes, the pun is intentional - a reference to Salome's sultry Dance of the Seven Veils, performed long ago for King Herod, ending with Salome minus her veils and her clothes.

Ask longtime local belly dancer Eva Cernik about Drumm's extravaganza (which will be taped for DVD release and possible cable TV airing) and she does not mince words in voicing her displeasure.

"Drumm is using the old sales technique - sex sells," says the Brazilian-born redhead.

For Cernik, who once taught Sadie, the art of belly dance is "a sacred act. It's meditative."

Marketing aside, she praises Temptation's performers: Sadie, Raya, Viktoriya, Isadora and Layla Isis.

"Michael did choose a good cast," Cernik noted. "But I don't like the name of the show. What will be on the minds of the audience? What will be their preconception?

"I'm guessing that people won't remember what the dancers wore - what kind of bra, or what sort of belt. They'll only remember what's in between."

Cernik readily acknowledges belly dancing's earthy appeal. "We don't deny the sexual elements," she said. "Sexuality is creation - it's a sacred thing. When I dance, I'm not thinking about seduction. I'm meditating.

"It's the intent and attitude of the dancer that matters. Unfortunately, belly dancing is looked upon in most of the world as something done by seductive showgirls. I know that's the attitude in Uzbekistan."

That central Russian country, located north of Iran and Afghanistan, was home to Drumm's wife, Raya, until her recent move to Colorado (the couple married in November).

"In my country," she notes, "everybody dance. There are so many folk styles. But you can only belly dance in restaurants. There is no respect for us - you can't (belly) dance after you become 24."

She said she had stopped performing in 1999, working as a fitness trainer - "but Michael inspired me to dance again." Adjusting to America and, significantly, to the closed world of Denver belly dancing, has been difficult, she says.

"I feel more comfortable with Sadie than with the belly-dance community here," she says.

Act shocks festival audience

There's a strong division of opinion about the art form among its practitioners - a fact understood all too well by Sadie and her dance partner, Kaya.

Earlier this year, the two women (who perform together as Groove du Monde) shocked their audience at Rakkasah West, the largest Middle Eastern folk festival in the world, held each March in California.

"We did a show that the belly-dance community banned," Sadie says. And what was it called? "Tales of the Kama Sutra," she replies matter-of-factly.

After that performance, which involved some provocative interaction with kneeling men, Sadie and company were sent packing by festival organizers.

News of the banishment spread quickly in the belly-dance world.

"Oh, I heard about it," Cernik says. "And they did get blasted. Kaya and Sadie simply lost their sense of what this dance is. Kids go to shows at Rakkasah. (Tales) wasn't suitable for the general public. Las Vegas would have been fine."

Sadie defends her glitzy, modern approach, pointing to the sexy, hip-shaking moves of Shakira. Fans of the pop star often come to Sadie to learn "to dance like Shakira."

But this is not about pop-culture fads. "I have a strong background in jazz, ballet and hip-hop," Sadie says. "I have tremendous respect for the art form. But I'll also take fresh opportunities that will work - like Michael's show."

Kaya (who recently had a baby and will not perform at Temptation) and Sadie are comfortable with the shunning they've received. "We're outcasts in the belly-dance community," Sadie notes. "That used to concern me - but I believe in what I'm doing.

"I'm a thoughtful teacher. My videos sell around the world. I have lots of fans - particularly teenage girls."

Drumm insists that Saturday's show will be suitable for those young fans. "I think that the concept could help develop a national awareness - that it could raise the profile of belly dancing to a legitimate art form. We want to show that dancers are serious about what they do."

Hearing those views, Cernik remains skeptical. She received an invitation to audition for Drumm, but was leading a tour in Turkey at the time and couldn't respond.

Promotion or exploitation?

Still, Cernik said she wouldn't have participated. Something about Drumm's promotional style.

"I wonder if maybe Michael used Miles Copeland as his model," she speculated.

Indeed, Copeland and Drumm have much in common. Both share backgrounds in rock 'n' roll - Drumm produced and directed an Allman Brothers DVD, while Copeland has had a storied career as producer and manager of such major rock acts as the Police and the Sex Pistols.

And both men have recently become involved in belly dancing, Copeland more famously with Belly Dance Superstars, a lavish production that has been touring the world for three years.

Cernik rolls her eyes when talking about Copeland. "We (in the belly-dance world) were very mad at him when he put together that Belly Dance Superstars project. He chose all the pretty young dancers."

Cernik and other purists worry that producers such as Copeland and Drumm may mean well, but are exploiting belly dance and those who've devoted their lives to this expressive art form.

"You can't disassociate it from the (Middle Eastern) culture it came from," she stressed. "But it's becoming more superficial. There's so much misunderstanding.

"We're dealing with a modern mentality about the Arab world and Arab dance. That's what worries me about what Michael is doing: If you're going to enter a community, you should know what's going on."

Though only 28, Sadie has been a fixture in that belly-dance community for several years and has seen it all. "I've been at both ends of the spectrum. I've been degraded by guys who've watched me dance. I've performed in all kinds of settings: corporate stuff, theme shows, burlesque. I've done bellygrams."

Delivering personal greetings with a shake of the hips is one way to make a living as a belly dancer. But Sadie's ambitions extend much further. "I'm grateful to the (belly dance) community here, but I've felt stunted," she said.

"I'm focusing on a bigger goal," she says. "I want to do big shows."

• Of Note: At 7 p.m., the annual BOO Fest "Shimmy for the Cure" will be presented at the Oriental.

Dancing through the years

• 1270 B.C. Delilah disarms Samson with dance and a pair of scissors.

• 28 A.D. Salome performs her Dance of the Seven Veils for Herod.

• 527 A.D. A dancer/actress named Theodora becomes the Byzantine empress, bringing ritual dance into the church.

• 1096-1300 Returning crusaders bring Muslim dancers back to Europe.

• 1767 Ghawazee (early Egyptian belly dancers) are brought to Denmark.

• 1893 "Little Egypt" (actually, several dancers) performs for shocked visitors at the Chicago World's Fair. Attendance records are broken, and the term "belly dance" is coined - easier than the Arabic term, raks sharki.

• 1963 A dancer also calling herself "Little Egypt" appears on The Steve Allen Show and releases an album, How to Bellydance for Your Husband.

• 1980 The first Rakkasah Middle Eastern Festival is held in California.

• 1987 A new form of belly dance, known as American Tribal, is presented by Carolena Nericcio and her troupe, Fat Chance Belly Dance, and soon spreads around the world.

2000 Colombian-born pop singer Shakira belly-dances during Ojos Asi at the televised Latin Grammys - and a new generation of belly-dance fans is born. (The video for her 2006 hit Hips Don't Lie is a belly-dance spectacular.)

Want to know more?

Where to find information online:

• Performances - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EthnicRhythms

• Classes - mercurycafe.com; freeu.com; evadancer.com

• "Temptation" Dancers - bedouinprincess.com (Sadie); bellydancingdenver.com (Raya); laylaisis.com; bellydancingbyviktoriya.com; izzydancer.com (Isidora).

Where to watch live dancing:

• Mataam Fez, dancing nightly at three locations: 4609 E. Colfax Ave., 303-399-9282; 2226 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-4167 (Thursdays-Sundays only); 101 N. Tejon Ave., Colorado Springs, 1-719-634-2101

• Casablanca, Fridays and Saturdays, 2488 S. University Blvd., 303-871-0522

• House of Kabob, Fridays and Saturdays, 2246 S. Colorado Blvd. 303-756-0744

Shulgoldm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5296

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News