I have big news to announce! I've recently been talking with Artemis Mourat, winner of a Lifetime Achievement Award, one of the world’s leading experts on Turkish bellydance, and author of part of the introduction to the Tribal Bible. She's a living legend in the American dance community, and I'm very, very, excited to let you know that she will be coming to Edinburgh on 16-18th September 2011! 

What a rare, fabulous opportunity for us to study with this wonderful teacher! Needless to say, I'm over the moon. During our chats, I invited Artemis to pen a few words to explain a little about Turkish dance from her perspective. She kindly agreed, and her comment follows below.

With Artemis' permission and input, I have also excerpted and edited some text from her excellent article on Turkish Dance, American Cabaret and Vintage Orientale, focusing on the competition, and she has called it a rift, between the Egyptian and Turkish styles. I've also supplemented it with some vintage videos. It makes this post longer than usual, but a really worthwhile read. So make a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy!

I hope the excerpt whets your appetite to read more, and I heartily recommend the full article. It makes fascinating reading on the history of the Turkish and Vintage Orientale dance styles in America, and can be found here. But first, a comment from Artemis....

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Well done Tamsyn on your fairminded and intelligent commentaries on Turkish dance. Turkish Oriental dance is greatly misunderstood. This is the dance that was born from the Romany dances, the Egyptian and Arabic oriental dances from the countries formerly occupied by the Ottomans, the court dances of the Empire and the Europeanized theaters of Istanbul from the early 20th century. It is a legitimate branch of the Oriental dance tree with a history that is at least 1000 years old.

Vintage Orientale, which is what people often call "American Cabaret" style, was an amalgamation of the Pan Arabic oriental dances, plus the Turkish Oriental dance that was done in the night clubs of the United States and this was fused with American showpersonship (can't quite bring myself to say showMANship when referring to this, sorry). This too is a legitimate but much newer branch of our dance tree.

Tribal dance, and all the eventual offshoots that came from this artform, have at their early roots, Vintage Orientale. Isn't it wonderful to see how these dances are all related and intertwined? They should all be respected and they all have their rightful place. 

If anybody is interested in more information, I have a long article on my site on Turkish style belly dance and the dance that many folks call; "American Cabaret" but I prefer to call "Vintage Orientale". In the meantime, I am really looking forward to coming to teach for you in Edinburgh and elsewhere in the UK in the fall.

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There is an unavoidable drift in styles of Oriental dance every one or two decades because dance is an ever changing, ever evolving art form. So, when people claim to be Egyptian style dancers, the only way to predict how they dance is by knowing where they fit in the continuum. Did they learn in the 70s, the 80s or the 90s and from whom? Did they learn in the United States, in Europe or in Cairo? The point is that no one style is superior or inferior within the Egyptian Oriental dance lineage. This should be obvious but what is less obvious to some people is that no one style is superior or inferior when comparing dance styles from different countries, including Turkey, Lebanon and America.

Turkish Oriental dance is similar but less refined than its Egyptian sister dance form. It is less elegant but not less articulate. What it lacks in composure and predictability, it makes up for with spontaneity and passion. Both styles are expressive, playful and sometimes introspective. The Turkish dance is assertive, passionate and sometimes even indifferent. It is far more energetic and sometimes has a bouncing or hopping aspect to it. 

Anahid Sofian, a well known Armenian woman, describes its appeal: "The steps are in the music and the music shapes the dance". Artemis explains that for her, "The Turkish style appealed to my hyperactive nature. I liked feeling as if I was in flight. I remember how painful it was when Egyptian style dancers told me that the dance I was doing was wrong. I knew that I was accurately reproducing the dances of my teachers. Converting to Egyptian style would have resulted in more acceptance for me and more opportunities for employment. It would have been the easier road, but I loved that [Turkish] style of dance. It was part of my ethnic heritage." Anahid adds that, "Ultimately, I see the oriental dancer as being individualistic and as not necessarily adhering to one style. She is a conduit for developing her own expression as long as it is still within the genre."  

Anahid describes prejudice against the Turkish style, but this has not always existed. She first learned in New York the early 1960s before the sharp delineation in style and massive popularity of the Egyptian style that dominates today. Her teachers were among the first Oriental dancers in America, who were immigrants from Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Armenia, Greece, Assyria, Iran, Morocco, Algeria and Iraq. Back then, Artemis continues, the dancers worked in the nightclubs in major cities, and had to be proficient in different dance styles in order to appeal to the diverse ethnic mix who frequented the nightclubs and restaurants. The patrons were right “off the boat” and the clubs were the one place where they could go and feel like they were in their home again, even for a few hours. It was the beginning of what is now correctly termed the Vintage Orientale style, and sometimes inappropriately called the American Cabaret style (or, even worse, abbreviated to the expression 'Am Cab', which sounds like a taxi company). Here's a rare video of Serena Wilson, including footage taken in the Egyptian Garden club, circa 1960.

Morocco [a legendary dancer in America] remembers in New York in the 1950s and 1960s, "The best dancers, regardless of their country of origin, were the ones who enjoyed working to all types of music...(and they)... integrated the much wider variety of movements from oriental dance's rich movement vocabulary into their dance...The movements are the movements ‑ it is the 'accent' and 'idiomatic expressions' that define what we would like to think of as different 'styles.'" They all danced with the same musicians so they had to be able to perform to the same music. All of the dancers played finger cymbals, regardless of where they were from, because that was the way it was for oriental dancers throughout the Middle East. Here's a clip of the legendary Nejla Ateş, who appeared in several Turkish and American films as an actress and dancer, in her performance from Son of Sinbad, 1955. Notice the ever-present finger cymbals.

Nevertheless the educated eye could tell who was from where. The Egyptians were more serious and used more controlled and complex, layered movements. They preferred using maqsum and did not want to do floorwork because it had been illegal in Egypt since 1954. They often danced barefoot. Morocco describes how: "The professional Levantines [Lebanese, Syrians] affected a more 'distant' attitude, thought the Egyptians were 'too sexy' and often wore heels that affected their hip work, possibly adversely... The Turks were mostly out there acting like they were having a heck of a good time: bouncier, peppier movements, hitting the beats more obviously, their fast music had fewer rhythmic changes, but their slow çiftetellis were really slow, heavier and sexier than the Arabic dancers' taxims. There was more playfulness, joking interaction with the audience in the fast parts...There were hand gestures in the kar_ilama [Turkish 9/8 rhythm] that were specifically Turkish Romany (Gypsy). A few Turkish dancers, like Saliha Tekneci, were famous for their attitude. There was a haughtiness, a distance; it was almost challenging." 

The 'Modern Egyptian' dance did not appear in the States until the very late 1960s and early 1970s. Arabesque Magazine and Habibi Magazine were publishing academic papers about other dance forms and differences in style. More dancers and dance ethnologists started going to Egypt. A new form emerged and Egyptian elements (or what people thought were Egyptian elements) were rapidly being incorporated into the newly named "Egyptian style of Oriental dance". Here's an example of the new fusion that was taking place (Tenisha, 1978).

At this time the original night clubs were closing one by one, replaced by more restaurants and entertainment establishments divided by ethnicity. Middle Eastern food was becoming more mainstream. Many Americans joined the clientele and they could not tell one “foreign” dance style from another. The Turkish style and Vintage Orientale was slipping into obscurity and it's easy to see why. If you compare how many Arabic countries there are in the world to Greece and Turkey, you can see that overall, there would be more Arabic establishments. The Egyptian style of dance began to dominate in most of the places and eventually this was true even in many of the Greek and Turkish establishments. Eventually, many patrons (most of whom were no longer right off the boat) accepted that the Arabic [Egyptian] style as the “correct” or only style. 

Vintage Orientale lost its foothold and was nearly eclipsed by the modern Egyptian style due to the latter's popularity and the rather misinformed opinions of some loyal Egyptian style aficionados. In the last 25 years, I have heard frequent and blatantly ignorant statements such as: "The Turkish style is not REAL Oriental dance. The only real Oriental dance comes from Cairo...I don't do that 'dirty' Turkish dance...Nobody does that style anymore...There are only two styles of Oriental dance - the Egyptian style and everybody else who is wrong." Of course, there were and are wonderful performers in Turkey, but following an unfortunate trend in Turkey beginning in the 1980s, when the clubs started hiring very young women who were not serious dancers but who were quite beautiful, one has to wade through the mediocre in order to find the skilled representers of the style. 

Now many new students are only exposed to Egyptian styling, so floor work, veil dancing to an entire song, finger cymbal playing and the high energy of Turkish style are casualties of the trend. This is a loss since these aspects can be powerful, spirited and extremely musical, as is clear in this video taken of a soloist with Bal Anat in the 1970s. The new students are partaking of only one slice of a much larger and legitimate pie. This pie encompasses Turkish style, Vintage Orientale, Lebanese Oriental style, Egyptian Oriental style and now American Tribal style. However, many students thought, and still think, that the Egyptian slice is the entire pie. 

Today, many American and European dancers call what they are doing 'Egyptian' when it is neither strictly Egyptian nor American Cabaret. It is Pan Arabic styling, mixing Egyptian styling of different eras with Lebanese styling, and adding other Arabic elements. A BIG source of the confusion is that Egyptian styling morphs every 10 - 20 years, and many people aren't aware of differences when they look for inspiration. But they call their dancing Egyptian and this if for many reasons...because their teachers told them that it is, or they are unclear about where their dance fits on the continuum of Egyptian eras, or they are not clear about the non-Egyptian elements that they are fusing into their dance. It is fashionable and marketable to be 'Egyptian' and when you think about it, there are many Arabic countries and they all love Egyptian style as the grande dame, the source (with the exception of the Lebanese folks who are very loyal to their style). So the people of many Arabic countries are watching Egyptian dancers as their role models of Oriental dance. Another source of confusion is that the dancing of Ibrahim "Bobbie" Farrah, who was a Lebanese man and a huge influence in his time and even now, is called 'Egyptian' but he did Lebanese and Egyptian styling.

Despite this, Turkish style and Vintage Orientale are making a comeback. Kajira Djoumahna, who organises Tribal Fest, started out in Vintage Orientale before she converted to American Tribal Style, and has invited me to hold workshops on Turkish and Rromany style dance at Tribal Fest for the past three years. If you can get her to do a cabaret show, you are in for a treat. Rhea of Greece, and her daughters Melina and Piper, are all very talented and unique Vintage Orientale dancers, and Piper has her own nomenclature and certification program. Ansuya of the Bellydance Superstars was a superb example of Vintage Orientale and has branched out and created her own style from there. Didem is a Turkish style dancer trained by the famous Turkish performer Sema Yildiz, and is at her best when she does Romany (Gypsy); this is her culture. Didem is very young and talented, but her dancing is still developing as she invents new things for television appearances five times a week. And of course, the best dancers from Turkey (from the 60s to the present) were and are: Tulay Karaca (who is a zill queen), Nesrin Topkapi, and Sema Yildez. 

Anahid also sees a resurgence of interest. "There was a break in the lineage, so I was alarmed," she said, [but] "at the present time some dancers are getting tired of the Egyptian style because it has been out there for so long. They want to do something different and they want to see something different. When the students come and experience the Turkish, they connect with it and they can see its appeal, the power and beauty in it and what is wonderful about it. They often say they are glad to discover this, that it is closer to their heart, that they feel they are 'home'. There is a future for the Turkish style. It is back."

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About Artemis Mourat

Artemis has been dancing, teaching and researching dance history for her entire adult life, including extensive travel to 33 countries. She is of Greek and Turkish descent, and fuses her love of these cultures with strong academic knowledge and excellent dance technique. She brings her spirited and articulate technique to workshops which include information on the history and cultures that generate the dances she teaches. Artemis is listed in the International Dance Council (CID) Who’s Who of Dance. Her photograph can be found in the International Encyclopedia of Dance under the listing for “danse du ventre” (which translates to “Belly dance”). She has won three Ethnic Dancer of the Year Awards and a Lifetime Achievment Award.