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Dear Debating:
The cover-up rule exists to help us overcome the negative
image that many members of the general public hold toward our
dance form. Long-time dancers like me encourage our students
to use cover-ups before and after performances to:
- Preserve the mystique.
- Avoid showing people the not-so-glamorous vision of sweat
rolling down your cleavage.
- Demonstrate that you are a respectable artist, not a loose
woman who looks for every opportunity she can find to show off
some skin.
- Present yourself as an elegant, high-class person.
- Avoid dropping food or spilling red wine on expensive costumes.
(Even if you're not drinking red wine, an audience member or
waiter passing by might have an accident.)
You typically don't see ballerinas mingling with the audience
in their tutus after a show, or Las Vegas showgirls in their
thongs and feathers. When I saw the play "Cabaret"
in my community, the dancers didn't come out in their lingerie
to mingle with us audience members.
Of course, every situation is different and in making your
decision you should consider the specific factors of yours. There
are indeed times when it's appropriate to let the audience enjoy
a close-up view of the intricate beading or ethnic coins on your
costume. I can't make your decision for you, but I can offer
you some ideas to think about that may help you determine how
best to handle it.
Who Will the Audience Be?
You said that your performance will be part of a university
dance program. Is your university a liberal state-run institution,
or is it a conservative private school run owned and operated
by a religious organization? Would I be correct in guessing that
the audience members will consist of students, faculty, and those
members of the community who appreciate the performing arts?
Assuming that your university is not a conservative religious
school, then you can probably expect that the audience is generally
more receptive to artistic experimentation, including nudity
on stage, portrayal of homosexual relationships in theatrical
productions, etc. University populations often contain a high
percentage of people whose attitudes are much more secular, whose
sensibilities are much less easily offended by the sight of some
skin. Therefore, your bedleh (nightclub-style costume)
would be likely to be viewed by such an audience as interesting
and attractive rather than as risqué. Such people would
probably enjoy the opportunity to take a closer look.
In contrast, if a large proportion of your audience will consist
of conservative people whose political leanings favor "family
values" and "decency", your costume may be viewed
as a threat or a challenge to things they hold dear. In such
circumstances, you may want to distance your after-show persona
from the performer that appeared on stage. "That
was a character on stage, this is the real me."
How Formal Is the Show?
Will you be appearing in a standard theater, with professional
lighting, printed programs, a box office, tiered seating, and
formal introductions of each act? Or will the audience be sitting
cross-legged on the floor of a gymnasium with an announcer in
blue jeans introducing each dancer? A formal performance generally
calls for your behavior to be more on the professional side and
I would recommend changing your clothes before you mingle. A
casual performance can allow for more relaxed standards.
How Much Real Education Value Would You Offer?
Suppose you did decide to mingle after your show without wearing
the cover-up. Are you equipped to discuss your costume intelligently,
or do you just plan to parade around and let people take a good
look at your exposed flesh? University audiences are people who
respect and value education. Even professors generally enjoy
a lifelong journey of learning new things. If you plan to offer
people a close-up view of your costume, then I would urge you
to research the origins of bedleh (the bra/belt/skirt
costume) well enough to discuss how this look originated and
how it fits into the history of Middle Eastern dance.
Have you done the reading to understand how the Orientalist
art movement of the 19th century and the archeological fascination
with ancient Egypt helped inspire Isadora Duncan and Ruth St.
Denis to look to the mysterious East as a source of inspiration
for modern dance? Do you know how Oscar Wilde's play Salomé
and the opera by Richard Strauss that it inspired spawned a Salomé
craze and launched the entertainment industry of the early 20th
century into a continued fascination with the mysterious East?
Are you aware of the early silent movies that embraced harem
themes such as Rudolph Valentino's "The Sheik" and
Claudette Colbert's "Cleopatra"? Can you talk about
how Hollywood's harem fantasy costuming in early movies led Egyptian
nightclub dancers of the 1920's to copy the look?
I don't mean to intimidate you or discourage you, but if your
intent in staying in costume after the show is to educate, then
you need to prepare yourself to indeed deliver education. That
means you need to equip yourself with sufficient knowledge to
tell people how this type of costuming came to exist and become
associated with the raqs sharqi performing art. If you
can't answer the questions that people are likely to ask about
the costume, then you're nothing more than an attractive woman
in a revealing costume. If you do decide to mingle in costume
after your dance, you might want to read the chapters of Serpent
of the Nile titled "The Obsessive Image" and "Cabarets
and Clubs". Another good resource about the evolution of
Oriental dance as a performing art is A Trade Like Any Other.
Will Other Dancers Be Mingling in Costume?
Will the other dancers who appear in your show be wearing
their costumes when mingling with the audience? Or would you
be the only one? If you would be the only one, then it might
be better to change your clothes or put on a cover-up. Otherwise,
you could look like someone who is hungrily seeking further attention.
But if everybody comes out to greet the audience in costume,
you'll fit right in.
What I Would Do
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If the other dancers are not going to wear their costumes
for greeting the audience, then I would not want to be the only
one doing so. I would either put on the cover-up or change to
an attractive dress before coming out. If I chose the cover-up,
I would probably select either a Saudi thobe such as the one
I'm wearing in the photo to the right, worn belted at the waist
to keep the excess length under control, or an embroidered caftan.
Such an ethnic garment offers further opportunity for you to
educate people about Middle Eastern garb.
If I thought the audience was likely to have an interest in
seeing the costume I wore for the performance up close, I would
probably bring the belt with me to show people. I would leave
the bra in the dressing room because 1) It will be sweaty from
the performance, and 2) Costume bras do closely resemble
lingerie and that resemblance will be even more obvious up close. |
Photo by John Rickman, San Jose, California. |
If the other dancers are going to wear their costumes for
mingling with the audience, then I would wear mine too, but I
would first carefully pat down my body with a towel to remove
the sweat. Then I would tuck one of my veils around the upper
body, even if I hadn't used it in my dance. Even a sheer veil
will provide a level of modesty, and make it easier for the people
you're greeting to look you in the eye rather than gazing at
your cleavage.
Either way, I would make sure I possessed the knowledge to
hold intelligent discussions with people about the history of
the bedleh style of costuming. This will leave a lasting
impression of respect for your intelligence (in addition to appreciation
for your beautiful dance performance) in the minds of the people
you meet. I would also bring along a supply of fliers or business
cards to distribute to people who seem interested in my future
projects. |
