'Freak dancing' is too dirty for school officials, parents

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | 11/16/05 | Sam Skolnik

[Conservababe]

I attended my nephew's wedding reception about four years ago. The young folks were freak dancing and it was embarassing to watch. Not only were the boy/girl couples doing this but boy/boy and girl/girl, too. We left when a friend of my nephew started a lap dance on my nephew's mother.

[HitmanLV]

That's well beyond the pale. Rotten behavior.

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

I would have left too.

[najida]

That was just crude, rude and ugly behavior.

Glad you left. :)

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

I've seen belly dancing in countries that consider it an art form and it really is neat. Some of the dancers were able to roll their stomach muscles.

Wasn't that Danse de Ventru on display at the first world's fair in Britain?

[AnAmericanMother]

My parents danced the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug (very well too). I don't think my grandparents danced the Charleston, because they were Southern small town people and rather strait-laced.

But you have to be a VERY good dancer to negotiate the Jitterbug or the Lindy Hop, and I think the Charleston as well. All very fast tempo dances with a lot of turns, swings, and jumps. Lots of coordinated moves with your back to your partner (that's VERY hard! you have to know what your partner is thinking without seeing him.)

I've seen the kids doing this booty or freak dancing stuff, and it's just simulated sex. No skill or artistry about it, just hanging onto each other and grinding the pelvises together.

I'm a Scottish Country Dancer myself, and there's nothing even remotely bootalicious about that . . . unless you're wondering what the gentlemen are wearing under their kilts.

[AnAmericanMother]

I was taught country dancing, I hated it.

Never learned the "Reel of the 51st Highland Division", did you now?

Our group does that one in an all male set. Scary! My husband broke a man's ankle at the Tartan Ball at the Gatlinburg (TN) Highland Games doing the 1 1/2 times round in the middle of the 51st.

Another scary one is "Irish Rover," a/k/a "Reel, dammit! Reel!" People have broken their noses, arms, etc. when they turned the wrong way in that one.

(our local branch of the RSCDS is also known as "The MacRowdies")

[najida]

Yep,
Sol Bloom coined the term "belly" for extreme scandal and it stuck.

Danse du Ventre is what the French soldiers called it when they saw the Ouled Nail of Algeria doing hip-8's...because they didn't have on corsets, you could see their abs flexing under their dresses....and the French, well...reacted :)

Yeah, I consider it an art form too,
Other that Flamenco and Odessa, it's the hardest dance I've ever done. Way more expressive, extremely feminine, the music is incredibly beautiful and complex....

And just about every negative lable it has stuck on it came from 'us' (IOW, OUR version of the dance).

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh, that naughty Little Egypt! She has much to answer for!

. . . to answer the question somebody posed up the thread, she premiered the "Danse du Ventre" at the Midway at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

[AnAmericanMother]

See post 69 for your answer (it WOULD be post 69, wouldn't it) < roll eyes >

[krunkygirl]

Think of reprehensible behavior by our wayward youth...uuugh!

[najida]

Yep, She was (probably) some hooker that Sol pulled in because the audience was disappointed in the 'real' Ghawazee dancers ;)

Like I've said, the dance is at least 50% American :)

[krunkygirl]

love your humor!

[TASMANIANRED]

Easily corrected. Cancel school sponsored dances.

[FeliciaCat]

I dig belly dancing - watching a good belly dancer is beauty in motion. I went to one class and its HARD WORK!!! A great workout though...

[AnAmericanMother]

She actually was an American showgirl named Catherine Devine (at least, she SAID that was her name!)

Those are very pretty girls in your photograph.

[najida]

Have you read Donna Carlton's "Looking for Little Egypt"?

It postulates several different stories about who she may have been...the most consistant theory is that she was really one of several women who profited off of the 'Oriental' craze of the period.

And yeah, the girls below are cute--- and the 'true' Ghawazee dancers....but sadly, the Victorian audience was upset that they didn't look like the 'porn' paintings of the delicate, blonde 'harem' girls that they had been expecting.

So Sol was smart....and gave them what they wanted ;)

[najida]

For me it was like walking into a room expecting to pop a bowl of popcorn and spending a year with the Iron Chefs.

It's not anything that you expect it to be and way more than you ever hoped.

And yeah, when I'm really pushing myself, it's the best workout in the world.

[AnAmericanMother]

My info may be a bit out of date . . . being from an old American Heritage magazine.

But you're right - the promoter's in the biz to give the public what it wants! I would love to have seen the authentic Egyptian dancers, but then I'm a little weird about historic/cultural/ethnic stuff.

[najida]

There are also several different stories going around too (depending on who you talk to). As for the original dancers, their decendents are still dancing.

In spite of 'pressure' to stop (fundies threaten to shoot them).

and here is the article to go with the picture.