Serpent Of The Nile:

Women and Dance in the Arab World

Cover

Title Serpent Of The Nile

Author Wendy Buonaventura

ISBN 1-566-56300-3

Publisher Interlink Pub Group in the U.S., Saqi Books in the U.K.

Category Nonfiction: Oriental Dance History

Shira's Rating (On a scale of 0 to 5)

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What It's About

This book explores the history of Middle Eastern dance, from ancient times through how it evolved into the dance we know today. It explores the ancient practice of sacred prostitution, the role of dance in the tribes of the Sahara, the Ghawazee, the Orientalists' perception of Middle Eastern dance, the role of Oriental dance in inspiring the early leaders of modern dance, and Hollywood.

Its Good Points

The book is fascinating to read, and is lavishly illustrated with many color photographs. It explores the historical role of Oriental dance throughout human history, across many cultures.

The description of how Oriental dance influenced the evolution of modern dance in the hands of such leaders as Ruth St. Denis and Isadora Duncan was done very well, and the pictures from the era when Hollywood discovered the Middle East include some fabulous costumes that are a delight to look at. The biographical information about Mata Hari and her involvement in Middle Eastern dance was very interesting.

The chapter "Cabarets & Clubs" offers a helpful history of the rise of Egyptian nightclub dance in the early 20th century, and is supported with many wonderful illustrations.

Overall, despite the negatives I mentioned below, I found this book to be well worth having, and I periodically enjoy picking it up and leafing through it to explore the pictures and the information all over again. It makes a good starting point in learning about the history of Oriental dance, but if you're seriously interested in that topic, you should go on to study other sources such as A Trade Like Any Other and Looking For Little Egypt.

On The Negative Side....

The author attributes too much authority to the writings and artwork of Orientalists such as Flaubert. The Orientalists were Europeans who visited the Middle East during the 1800's, then returned home and either wrote about their experiences or created paintings. Some were very racist, believing that the people of the Middle East were primitive compared to them. In many cases they used great artistic license in their works to titillate their countrymen back home with stories of exotic, sexy, barely-clothed women. For example, one of the lush illustrations of women in a Turkish bath was painted by a man, who would certainly not have been granted admission to such a facility. He painted a picture of naked women that was based more on his imagination than on anything he might have had an opportunity to see firsthand.

Now, admittedly this was not true of all Orientalists. Some genuinely admired the culture and sought to faithfully portray it through their work. The problem is that Buonaventura didn't make any effort to guide her readers in assessing the accuracy of the Orientalist works in the book. I would have given Serpent Of The Nile 4 stars instead of 3 if the captions for the photos would have included comments such as, "This painting accurately portrays the garb that women actually wore at the time it was created," or "Although artistically exquisite, this painting is probably more fantasy than fact because..." I suspect that most of us who read this book don't have sufficient background to assess the accuracy of Orientalist works for ourselves, and the author let us down by failing to provide that information.

There are some areas where I have concerns about the accuracy of some of Buonaventura's assertions. For example, on page 102 Serpent states, "Fahreda Mahzar came to be known as Little Egypt", and it then goes on to say that she became the most talked-about attraction at the fair. Yet, in another book titled Looking For Little Egypt by Donna Carlton which focused entirely on careful research of the facts behind the Little Egypt legends, Carlton concludes, "Fahreda Mahzar probably did dance at the 1893 fair, but not under the name 'Little Egypt'." In fact, Carlton discovered that the first dancer to call herself Little Egypt was Ashea Wabe.

I am also very skeptical about Buonaventura's linking of the dance of Salomé to the tale of Ishtar's descent into the underworld. In my books on Middle Eastern mythology, both Ishtar's and Inanna's stories are translated to say that they left jewelry and symbols of kingship behind at each gate, not garments. For more information on what I've uncovered in my own research on Salomé, see my article Dance of the Seven Veils. I had other concerns with the chapter on ancient dance as well, but this is enough to convey the general idea.

In Conclusion

Serpent Of The Nile is an artistic feast for the eyes, and the chapter talking about how Oriental dance entered the awareness of European and American people during the 20th century is excellent. The chapter on Cabarets and Clubs offers some wonderful vintage photos of the early Egyptian nightclub dancers along with a valuable historical perspective.

Although I was gravely disappointed by the scholarship in the chapter titled "Ancient Echoes", I would still consider Serpent of the Nile a good candidate for a dancer's book collection. Just remember to take the Orientalist section and the ancient times section with a grain of salt, while you enjoy the rest of it!