Alexandria, one of the Rakkasah festival's organizers,
gave an impromptu bellydancing demonstration.
Photo by John O'Hara
Alexandria, one of the Rakkasah festival's organizers,
gave an impromptu bellydancing demonstration.
Photo by John O'Hara
Sexy gyrations, wild shimmies,
revealing outfits, seductive glances --
no wonder bellydancing gets little
respect as a serious art.
But at Rakkasah, the world's largest
bellydance festival, the art is not only
taken seriously, but it also practically
raises the roof of the Richmond
Memorial Auditorium. The Middle
Eastern dance extravaganza will held
there Friday through Sunday.
``Bellydancing has been underground
for hundreds of years,'' says dancer
Alexandria of Berkeley, one of
the festival's main organizers. ``Nobody
in the dance world or the media ever
gives us a shot at legitimacy, but it's
one of the great arts where a woman
can feel like a queen and be treated as
such.''
More than 2,000 bellydancers and
musicians, male and female, will gather
this weekend for the Rakkasah
celebration, and the audience will add
thousands more. Rakkasah -- Arabic for
dancer -- marks the Bay Area as a
national hotbed of bellydancing.
The festival will be nonstop celebration
of dance, music and costume from
Egypt, Greece, Iran, Lebanon,
Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey, with
American hybrids thrown into the mix.
Sheer costumes that seem suitable
only for harem wear, and elegant ones
with glitzy Casbah motifs, will be on
view as dancers perform onstage and
at dozens of workshops.
It's OK to call it bellydancing, a term the
French coined long ago that has stuck.
But from that simple image of a gyrating
navel arises a dance genre that means
many different things to many people.
``Let's not kid ourselves, it has a risque
side,'' says Linda Grondahl of San
Francisco, a Lowell High School
English teacher. She dances and plays
tambourine with King Tut and the Luxor
Ladies band, popular in San Francisco
cafes.
``But there are folkloric sides, a cabaret
side, a New Age side, a goddess ritual
side,'' she says. ``You can't pin it down,
and that's what makes it so
fascinating.''
Rakkasah attracts big names in Middle
Eastern music -- percussionist Reda
Darwish; Armenian folk dancer Michael
Solakian; longtime Petaluma resident
Bert Balladine, considered one of the
top male Moroccan dancers.
Bellydancing has been embraced by
women who trace the history of the
dance to ancient birthing rituals, and it
has even been embraced as a form of
exercise. ``It's completely aerobic while
also being sensual,'' Alexandria says.
``And it's not boring. You don't have to
get all snotty about rigid moves or fancy
gym machines, and it doesn't matter if
you're young or old, fat or skinny. You
don't have to be on a quest to become a
stick with two silicone things stuck on
your chest. Every body type can do it.''
Contrary to the common view,
bellydancing is a
women-pleasing-women thing more
than a women-teasing-men thing.
``Of course it has a seductive aspect,''
says violinist Doug Adams, whose band
Light Rain plays for bellydancers.
``People think of it as some kind of
burlesque used to tease men, but that's
actually only a small part of what goes
on. By far the largest audience is
women.''
Adams' music is evidence that
bellydancing isn't always shunned by
the ``respectable'' dance world.
``Dream Dancer,'' a piece he wrote with
Rusty Gauthier, was adapted by the
Joffrey Ballet from a dance that Adams'
wife, De Ann, created.
Nevertheless, bellydancers still
generally feel like objects of derision in
the dance world.
``I've been bellydancing for 30 years,''
says Alexandria, who is also considered a
virtuosic finger cymbal player. ``There
are certain moves, many styles,
different postures and ways of using
your arms that take years and years to
learn. ``Frankly, there are a lot of bad
bellydancers. But what's wonderful is
that doesn't stop anybody from enjoying
it.''
Alexandria specializes in an Egyptian folk
style called Ghawazee that developed
from Gypsy celebrations. Little flesh is
bared; costumes are works of art
involving sequins, glass beads, jeweled
crowns and dowry necklaces, some
depicting waxing and waning moons.
For cabaret-style dancing, the
costumes are more revealing and
garish; many of them have been
denounced or banned by Muslim
fundamentalists. In a dance form called
Saidi, the dancer wears still another
type of costume, a full dress style.
Many dancers make their own outfits.
There are plenty of costume supplies
available for purchase at Rakkasah,
along with bellydancing videos, musical
instruments, books, sheet music and
recordings. ``It's a huge marketplace,''
says Grondahl. ``It's just a big
wonderful party.''
BELLYDANCING BASH
RAKKASAH MIDDLE
EASTERN DANCE, MUSIC
FESTIVAL AND
CONVENTION: 7-11
p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday,
11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday at the Richmond
Memorial Auditorium, 27th and Niven
streets, Richmond. Tickets: $10 Friday,
$12 Saturday and Sunday, children
younger than 12 half price. Phone (510)
548-4260.
Alexandria,
one of the Rakkasah festival's organizers, gave an impromptu bellydancing
demonstration.
Photo by John O'Hara