Double Standards - Belly Dancing in a Confused World

My dance troupe partners and I have worked hard and long to become competent belly dancers. And while we may not quite be as stageworthy as we'd like, we still shed blood, sweat and tears in order to someday be able to call ourselves good performers. So it really makes me upset when our performance - which we go to great lengths to make tasteful, cultural, and family-appropriate - is shot down because it is "too risque" for a family event.

I am speaking in particular of our school's recent back-to-school night, where we were invited to perform along with many other talented peers only to be told that bellydancing wasn't appropriate - that it was too racy. And for a while I lived with this decision, reasoning that perhaps some of the more conservative parents at our school might be offended by the mere mention of the term "belly dance".

However, these sympathies disintegrated when I went to the event and saw that the principal had instead invited the dance team to perform. These girls gyrated wildly on stage to music that contained offensive language and several sexual innuendos, shaking their personal tidbits around without tact or prudency.

For my sister belly dancers, these occurances are trying and altogether too frequent. We spend hours making sure our costumes cover every inch of skin, wear layers of skirts and pants to avoid showing the audience any indecency, hunt down obscure music translations to avoid offending any bilingual viewers, and steer clear of any choreography displaying offensive or openly sexual motions.

Shira, a belly dancer from Iowa, wrote a couple of wonderful articles on the subject of public views on belly dancing as well as the double standard that society thrusts upon us performers. Please read them - dancers, audiences and everyone can benefit from these pieces.

Belly Dance - Isn't That Like Stripping?
Public Perceptions - A Double Standard