Cultural No No's
When dancing for Arab people you should try especially hard not to do something offensive or crude. An American or European audience will have a completely different idea of what offensive or crude is but, I won't be covering that here at this time.
To portray the dance in the best possible way to an Arab try to follow these suggestions:
- Wear a body stocking to cover your abdomen or a one piece costume dress. (Yeah, I know it doesn't technically cover much of anything but, remember that Arabs tend to think of dancers as prostitutes. So, as much covering as you can do is best).
- Don't do a lot of chest locks or rib lifts/drops all at one time (their the equivalent of the American "schawing" (I.e. thrusting the pelvis forward.)
- Don't do a lot of "in your face", "here I am" things (being modest and discreet is a virtue among Arabs.) So for example, shaking your chest right in front of someone's face is not really appropriate. This will only cement in the viewers mind a picture of bellydancers as prostitutes.
- Although it is quite common to have the audience stuff money in your belt here in the US, it is sometimes a sign to Arabs that you are more promiscuous then other dancers or that you are a dancer of a lower quality. If you decide to allow tips in your belt then only allow tips to be put in certain places such as the sides of the hip belt and the shoulders but reserve the shoulders for female members of the audience, if someone should try to put it somewhere else, stop and tell them that is inappropriate and ask that they put the tip where you signal them to put it. You may lose a couple of tips, but you will be helping to raise the quality of which they view dancers and help to establish boundaries for the rest of the audience. The best thing to do is to have a container with the message "tips for dancer" on it and place it next to the stage or cash register. However, Arabs may want to give you a money shower which is acceptable as well as long as your comfortable with it and it does not endanger your saftey by making the floor slippery with dollar bills. Also be aware that if you get a money shower it's good to have someone who picks up your tips discretely while you are dancing or immediately after for saftey reasons since you or a customer could slip on the bills and injure yourself... also, some people shower you with money and then quickly recollect their tip before your set is done meaning no actual tip for you.
- Try to make yourself as scarce as possible before the performance and cover yourself up with an abaya galabiya, caftan, etc... Not only will it be less offensive but you will be able to save the surprise and mystery of what you will be wearing for the performance.
- Cover yourself back up with an abaya, galabiya caftan, etc... before you come out after your performance.
- Try to keep your conversation from being too personal, talk about the performance, costuming, party, etc. DO NOT ever bring up religion or politics!!! Keep conversations professional talking about aspects of your art as your bussiness. Do not give out too much personal information. If you have a business card now would be the time to hand them out.
- Under no circumstance should you hold your hand in a position with just your middle finger down and the other fingers out (this is the equivalent of giving someone the middle finger) in several Middle Eastern and North African countries. It's basically the opposite of the American version of giving the finger where we drop all fingers but the middle).
- If it is a family party ask young girls and the ladies to come dance with you. If none of them will eventually one of the men will probably come up... no need to ask... they will just do it. Maintain a respectful distance while engaging them in dance.
- There is likely not much room for you to perform in and the Arab audience members will frequently just walk through your space. Make sure that when you enter that you circle the area you will be dancing in as this helps them remember that this is within your performance space. Clearly defining that from the start is essential or you'll likely be dealing with people walking around you while your dancing.
- It is considered offensive to show the bottoms of your feet/shoes. Keep this in mind if your dance will include any movements that may expose the bottoms of your feet to your audience and consider possible was of covering them or changing the position to avoid it.
- Under NO circumstance should you perform to a religious or political song. Dancing is not done to religious songs (with some exceptions to sufi dance and music) and both of these types of songs can get you into trouble and be considred really offensive. If you hear the following ask someone to translate the song or help you to determine if it would be appropriate for use in dance. "La ilaha il-Allah," "Allah," "Muhammad," "rasool Allah" It is not uncommon to hear someone say "ya Allah" meaning "Oh, God" in non-religious music but if your not sure of the meaning of the song do not dance to it if you hear "Allah." This would be considered sacreligious to most Arabs (both Muslim and Christian) so it's best to avoid that. If the song you are thinking of is referred to as a "nasheed" this means it is a religious song and should not be danced to.
