We all want our dance to be a respected art. The how's and why's of this are still making the rounds in discussions and I hope it stays that way as we need this kind of discussions. There are so many things to write about concerning artistry and niveau in the world of oriental dance, or bellydance (I do not shun this word and you will see me use it a lot on this blog), so why should I be writing about competitions first, you might wonder.
First of all because I just came back from a festival where I judged a 9-hour long competition and because, believe it or not, I do think that competitions are often doing more harm than good to bellydance. But let me explain.
Before you say that this is my hurt ego speaking because I am jealous of all the winners, you should know that I myself took part in several competitions and also placed first in most of them (I placed 3rd twice). I am also now a frequent judge at competitions, including the Dutch Championship in 2012, which takes place under the IDO umbrella. I do not hate competitions. I think they push a dancer to work harder on her/himself, and many new talents can be discovered this way. While I consider myself a club performer, I gained many good contacts through competitions, not to mention about the experience I took away with me. I like competitions and I am happy they exist.
The level of the dancers is getting higher and higher every year - I feel like the technique and appearance (costuming, make up, hair) is finally getting the importance it deserves, which indeed brings bellydance closer to other dance forms and away from the image it has as "just some undefined shaking in a coin hip-scarf". I am amazed by the technique and strenght of some dancers. Delighted even. I wish I had such a strong technique many times, because I don`t.
I don`t even think it is bad to admit to the desire to win. I heard many times people complain that it got too competitive and thus the dance lost its soul of sisterhood. But what is wrong with wanting to win? That is logically the first goal of joining. No, I don't think there is anything bad about the desire to be the best. I had it too, for every competition I joined.
But while I was sitting there for nine hours watching all the dances, I was asking myself - where did the bellydance go? The choreographies would include odd movements at odd places. There is a certain logic to bellydance. There is a natural flow that leads your dance when you hear a maqsoum or a laff or a baladi rhythm. When you hear a qanun or an accordeon. Oh wait - except there isn`t anymore I guess.
It was all about spins and turns. Which would be fine but there was no hip work either. Arms and legs were strictly kept in 45,90,180 degree angles. Minimal amount of undulations and the isolations and accents were all hip-hop like pops and locks.
Now, while I do agree that your average Arab club dancer would probably not win a competition, I do not agree that only the current westernized style is suited for success. Getting an oriental feeling and styling to your dance does not mean you should not point your feet, keep a good posture, have strong arms and hands or not do fast spins. DO ALL OF THAT. I too hate flappy technique and I don`t think it has a place in any sort of dance on a professional level. But learn your rhythms! Learn the instruments! Learn the background of the songs. What the heck learn the background of the dance itself!!!
Your shimmy can be ground-shaking but I will make you lose points if you do it on a soft nay taqsim (when there is no tremollo).
But wait - there is a reason all these young new dancers think it is ok and they bask in the glory of their shining gold medals. It`s because they think that if they placed first then it all was good!
Someone gave them that medal after all... Why would they doubt any of it.
I do not mean to say it is all the judges fault. In the end, the points are a sum of all the judges` points. But I also feel like some judges probably never saw an Arab dance. Or never worked with ME audiences. Or they themselves are there only because they won the competition last year and being part of the jury was part of the prize. Especially the last point is puzzling, being given the many factors that influence the outcome of a given competition at that one given moment.
I am afraid that if we keep these young new talents in this bubble, that has been so cleaned from all that could be remotely connected to how dancing looks in clubs and restaurants or done by Arab dancers (not those at festivals! but those that do commercial performances), we will let bellydance transform itself into something unrecognizable.
If a dancer knows the theory, the music, the movement vocabulary, and still chooses the westernized style, then that is her own artistic choice. What bugs me is that I feel like most of these girls actually DO NOT KNOW any of this. Because their teachers or choreographers (if they have any and are not training all alone by themselves) might not know all this or bother showing them. And if the dancers do train alone, then they are most likely to just look at other competition dancers.
So after this very long and chaotic post, here is what I wish would happen :
Competitors, go and ask for feedback. Always. Even if you won first place. Do not forget you are also there because you were compared to the other girls that might happen to be bad dancers, or they just had a bad day etc. Sorry to put it this way but that`s what it is. That you were first does not mean you did nothing wrong.
Judges, I know we cannot just go and give feedback if the dancer didn`t ask for it. It can be rude. But try to find a way to sneak in some feedback. Maybe make a general public proposition to give feedback - many competitors do not know they can ask for feedback.
And everyone - do not work in clubs if you don`t feel like it. Do not dress with slits all up to the waist-line of your skirt if it makes you uncomfortable. Do fusion if that is what you prefer. But DO know how the dance looks like when it`s done outside of festivals and competitions. DO go to the clubs as a customers, at least a couple of times. DO learn from dancers working in such a setting. DO watch other Youtube videos than who won the most recent IDO Cup of Russia. Do not just learn combinations and choreographies, but try to understand WHY a certain combination has been put where it is in the choreo.
I hope you do!
Hello Ranya, as the person who helped collect the points at the competition you were judging, I found this post rather interesting. As a tribal and tribal fusion dancer, just like many others in this style, I have to agree that just the fact that you have won a competition is not telling enough. Competition is a great place to see other dancers, to learn to perform in front of an audience, to help get rid of shyness and ultimately to get some feedback. However, competition can also be done very very badly.
RépondreSupprimerFor me, a good competition starts with the judges who have to be professional, unbiased and above all else experts in the field. This is especially a problem for tribal and tribal fusion in our parts of the world as it is often included as a category, because we don´t want to discriminate anyone, but there is no one to judge it. Just as a tribal fusion dancer will know some or even many things about oriental and folklore, she is not qualified to judge it. Neither is a folklore dancer qualified to judge tribal fusion that has a different posture, different technique. Whenever someone boasts that they´ve won first place in such and such competition for this or that, my first question is "who was judging". If I know that the judges were qualified and would have no problems praising quality and penalizing mistakes, I would regard the first place as a real accomplishment. But if not, well then, your placement in the competition is completely meaningless to me and I will cringe when I see you perform and there is no tribal fusion in there... Having said that, I do not consider myself a professional dancer just yet, I´m still only learning and improving, still making plenty of mistakes. I perform, yes, but I don´t do so boasting about competition wins that weren´t judged correctly.
Having seen the scores you were giving, I have to praise that fact that you would give a wide range of points depending on the performance. Also, you would not judge a category you didn´t feel qualified to judge if at all avoidable. That is the sort of attitude we need in judges and you are someone who I would expect can give really good quality feedback.
Zuzi, thanks for your comment and your nice words! Indeed what I liked about this last competition was that we could always find a way between us judges to judge the categories we felt competent in (or the judges who had students or their choroegraphies competing would not judge that category either). Because I am not that well versed in fusion (although I did judge the pro level and the groups) and I feel like I might be too harsh on amateur/beginners (I have a hard time telling what is still appropriate critique and what is asking too much from that level). Unfortunately in other competitions, you are seated there and you have to judge. I don't dance fusion myself, and while I do know some stuff about tribal, ATS and ITS because I used to live with a tribal dancer :) I still don't think I would be the right judge for that... I think however that the biggest danger is to give judging as part of the first prize.
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