Scenes From Turkey:
Oriental Dance at Orient House, Istanbul

I spent July 10-22, 2000 in Turkey through Morocco's "Tantalizing Turkey" tour. Since this tour was organized by a dancer for dancers, the itinerary incorporated several evening shows featuring folk dance and Oriental dance. ("Oryantal tansi" is the Turkish-language name for belly dance, so the correct translation into English would be "Oriental dance".) This article offers pictures and commentary on what we saw.

The shows we saw in Turkey were done specifically for the tourist audience. We did not see any performances that were primarily intended for local people. Also, nearly all the shows we saw were specifically chosen by Morocco based on which shows she knew to be good from her previous visits to Turkey. Therefore, all my comments about what I saw, and the pictures that I've posted, are based on a subset of the Turkish dance scene: the best of the shows available to tourists at a specific point in time. Please don't conclude that my comments are representative of all Oriental dance in Turkey, because they're not.

The evening of July 11, we went to Orient House, a dinner club in Istanbul that caters to upscale tourists. Most of the tables (including ours) were set up with very large parties - tour groups. The club was clearly focused entirely on the tourism business. There was a corner set up for tourists to have their pictures taken wearing "native" costumes that could be borrowed for the purpose.

This picture shows Hale, the first Oriental dancer to appear in the evening show at Orient House in Istanbul on July 11, 2000. She used entirely Arabic music for her show. The use of evening gowns like this is new in Turkey--in the past, dancers used the familiar bra/belt/skirt combinations. In the 1980's and 1990's, Egyptian dancers began to use beautiful evening gowns like this, and it is reasonable to assume that this dancer may have been inspired by the costumes used in Egypt.

After she finished dancing, Hale went to every table in the restaurant accompanied by a photographer and offered to have her picture taken with the guests. For a fee, of course - yet another attempt to soak money out of the tourists.

Here are two more pictures showing Hale and her costume from other angles.

The structure of the show at Orient House went like this: there was a very, very annoying Master of Ceremonies who introduced each act. Components of the show consisted of these elements:

• Songs sung by the annoying emcee along with feeble attempts at humor
• Folk dances performed in folkloric costume by large ensembles
• Oriental dance solos performed by the dancers pictured on this page.
• A "dance contest" in which audience members were brought to the stage to strut their stuff.

The show alternated between these various elements. So, between Hale and this dancer there was some singing and joke-telling by the master of ceremonies, and a performance by the folk dance ensemble.

This picture shows Yildiz, the second Oriental dancer to appear at the show at Orient House in Istanbul on July 11, 2000. She too used entirely Egyptian music for her show, and wore an Egyptian style costume, although its cutouts were probably somewhat more daring than most Egyptian costumes of the time.

Some highlights of what I observed in the shows we saw:

• Music Chosen. Nearly all the dancers used Egyptian music for their performances. Hardly anybody used Turkish music. I found this disappointing, since I like Turkish music very much.
• Costuming. Based on what I've heard from other people who visited Turkey in the past, I expected the costumes to be very, very skimpy. Although there were indeed a few skimpy ones, the majority were quite tasteful, and would have been acceptable in a typical U.S. family-oriented restaurant. Some of the costumes did have some daring cutouts, but I felt they were artfully done.
• Floor Work. It was relatively common to see dancers get down on their knees and do backbends. However, for the most part they would then get right back up. I didn't see any extensive sets of floor work that lasted for any period of time with varied moves.
• Veils. Many dancers copied the Egyptian custom of entering holding a veil behind them, but didn't seem to know what to do with it once they got on stage.
• Dancer Quality. I really didn't see any dancers that I would consider to be star quality. In general, I would characterize the dancers we saw as being somewhat comparable to restaurant dancers in the U.S. -- some were quite good, but many were merely adequate.

I was fascinated by this beautiful costume. I particularly liked the asymmetric effect of having a sleeve on one side and just a strap on the other.

Even though the master of ceremonies in the show was dreadful, I enjoyed both the folk dance group and the Oriental soloists very much. Orient House clearly hired top-quality talent for the dance performances.

This was Birgul, the third dancer to appear in the show at Orient House in Istanbul on July 11, 2000. This style of candelabrum is definitely not a Turkish custom. It is actually an Egyptian innovation dating from around 1910-1920. At that time, in a wedding performance Shafiyya el Koptiyya was the first to balance such a 3-tiered candelabrum, and it quickly became a popular part of Egyptian wedding tradition.

The performer in this picture used Egyptian music for her performance.

Note the shoes in the photo to the left!

In addition to the touristy pandering by the emcee and the wonderful folk dancers and Oriental dancers, one other element of the show consisted of a young woman parading on stage like a model on a runway showing off a "native costume". She had won some sort of Miss Turkey or other beauty queen award. Her strutting looked just plain silly.

For more photo galleries from Shira's July 2000 trip to Turkey, explore these other pages on this web site:

Scenes From Turkey: Oriental Dance at Gar Gazinosu. Photos of dancers who performed at Gar Gazinosu, an Istanbul nightclub, on July 12, 2000. Scenes From Turkey: Oriental Dance at Kervansaray. Photos of dancers who performed at Kervansaray, an Istanbul nightclub, on July 13, 2000. Scenes From Turkey: Oriental Dance in Kusadasi. Photos of dancers who performed at the Kervansaray Hotel in Kusadasi on July 18, 2000. Scenes From Turkey: Other Oriental Dance Performances. Photos of three dancers who appeared at various places in Turkey in July, 2000.

Scenes From Turkey: The Real Turkish "Belly" Dance. Photos of the Turkish folk dance named "gobek tansi", or "belly dance". Scenes From Turkey: Whirling Dervishes. Information about Turkish whirling dervishes of the Mevlâna order and photos. Shira's Turkish Costume Collection. Shira models costumes she purchased in Istanbul on her trip to Turkey in July 2000.

This article originally appeared on the Suite101 web site, in the Middle Eastern Dance category, on August 4, 2000.

I'd very much like to thank Morocco for organizing her "Tantalizing Turkey" tour, which gave me the opportunity to see all these fascinating dancers!

General: | Home | Shira's Classes | E-Mail Shira | About Shira | Shira's Photo Gallery | Shira's Performances | Troupe | Mailing List |

Belly Dancing Information & How-To's: | About Belly Dancing | How-To's | Middle Eastern Culture | Belly Dancing Fun & Frolic | Belly Dancing Poetry & Art | Reviews: Books, Music, Videos | Find Belly Dancing Teachers/Performers | Tech Talk | Links |

Shopping: | Mugs, Shirts, Mouse Pads | Videos | Toys | Books | Music |

Using This Site: | Table Of Contents (Site Map) | Search This Site | Survey | Behind The Screens |