National Folk Festival 2016 - Wild Wild West

We had a great time semi-street performing at the National Folk Festival this year! We went all out with some crazy western-inspired gingham costumes, some Wild West-Bellydance fusion and an Old Fashioned Shimmy Off!

Thanks to the amazing Tracy Lee for the fab photos!
More pics from the National to come!

UPDATE - What do curry and bellydance have in common?

World Curry Festival Performance - Saturday 18 July 2015 11 July 2015 7pm - Garema Place Canberra

Update: The weather is definitely getting colder. With wind, rain and possibly snow forecast for the weekend of 11 July, the organisers of the World Curry Festival have postponed the event until next weekend - 18 and 19 July. So stay in, keep warm, and dance on!

The weather may be getting colder in Canberra, but that won’t stop TABLA getting out to perform at the World Curry Festival in the city. Rug up and warm up your insides with a tasty curry and a performance by TABLA Bellydance on Saturday 18 July at 7pm.

So what does curry have to do with bellydancing? Well, firstly TABLA loves good food, and curry is one of the best, however you like it.

It also shares a mixed and varied history, with many adaptations and evolutions.

From its origins in India, dishes of meat or vegetables in a spiced sauce with bread or rice have spread throughout the world, with each region adding its own special touch. Similarly, ‘bellydancing’ has been influenced and adapted by many regions and cultures to become the fabulous kaleidoscope we have today.

Curries can have many different ingredients and come in many different styles, with variations within countries and regions. This gives modern cooks many options to draw on, while still keeping in touch with tradition, much like TABLA’s joy in many different styles and influences of dance.

See? Bellydance and curry do have some things in common.

Now for a bit of fun, if a TABLA dancer was a curry, which one would she be?  

Daluna is a korma - Like any character played by Michael Cera or Zooey Deschanel, you're sweet and a little bit nuts. You've never (intentionally) hurt a soul in your life, but you probably fall over at least twice a day.

Zohra is butter chicken - Mild and inoffensive, your sweet disposition makes you everybody’s favourite. You’re sorry that people are jealous of you, but you can’t help it that you’re popular.

Inara, Hadeeqa and Sahar are all rogan josh - You prove it's possible to be a lover AND a fighter. At first glance you're sweet and approachable but underneath the surface there lurks a slow-burning passion. Everyone's always saying how great you smell.

Samina is a madras - You're the reliable one, like Lisa Simpson or Gandalf. Your favourite expression is an eye-roll accompanied by a "Never mind, I'll just do it." You don't need attention - you're content knowing that without you around, none of the others would even be here.

To find out which curry you are, take the quiz here https://www.menulog.com.au/blog/curry/ and share your result in the comments below.

We hope to see you next Saturday night, whatever flavour you like!

BHTS- Canberra Belly Dance

It’s that time of year – The National Folk Festival! is here.

Held in Canberra, Australia every Easter.

TABLA is in full swing with costume making & rehearsals.  If you happen to be at the festival on Saturday – swing by the Piazza to see TABLA by Night Sizzling! Spicy!

Behind the scenes at TABLA Belly Dance headquarters 

See what it is all about in these videos below. If you like what you see- grab a ticket, your walking shoes & get your folk on with us at Easter.

National Folk Festival 2014 Canberra from Tracy Lee on Vimeo.

National Folk Festival 2012-2013 from Tracy Lee on Vimeo.

TABLA's website

Visit The National Folk Festival website to see the groovy program!

Videos!

TABLA bellydance's YouTube channel is slowly being populated! Here's a piece we all loved performing - "Gypsy Sentez" or sometimes called "Misbehaving Basimah" ...  i'm sure someone knows where the second title came from ...

Here it is for your viewing pleasure, from a performance at Bellyissimo in 2010!

If you'd like to get in touch with us, leave a comment or check out our facebook page!
Sam :)

The Image of Belly Dance: The Performance and the Body

Zohra and Hadeeqa of TABLA had a performance for a group of social workers at ANU on Tuesday night. Planning to have one choreographed piece to open the show, each a solo, and the rest of the performance as improvisation, we were gearing up to be in our performer headspace. Having not had much experience in restaurant performances, I was a little unsure as to what to do. With coins on our hips, charcoal eye make-up, and a last costume check, we went on into the restaurant and performed our set list. The audience claimed, cheered, smiled, laughed, and some even got up to dance at the end. In my assigned week of blog posts, I'd like to explore the atmosphere belly dance brings; in particular, the divide between the performer and the audience member. I would also like to discuss a very important part of belly dance, and that is its broader transformative effect on the dancer.

The Performer and the Audience Member

            The division between performer and audience member depends on the space in which the performance is taking place. In my experience, a restaurant is different to a staged show at a festival, which is different again to paid show in a theatre. In a theatre, the audience in front of you is often family and friends; they have come to see you and they are only interested in you. Here, the performer comes on stage, lights are brightened, music comes on, and for 3 minutes, the performer is the focus and the audience stays quiet - often, in the dark. At a festival, it tends to be more casual; people drift in and out. They may stay, have a dance, ask you questions, or they may go to see what else is on offer at the festival. Here, the audience is fully visible, and the division between performer and audience member blurs as the performer feeds off the audience's behaviour and even invites audience members up on stage to join in.

            At a restaurant, it is different again; the performer is there as a prop. The audience is in full view, and even though you have been hired either by someone in the audience or by the restaurant itself, the audience member may choose to watch you, or to talk amongst themselves, eat, drink, or leave to use the bathroom or have a smoke. This is not in any way intended to critique the audience member or to grumble about not getting attention! This is merely the atmosphere belly dance creates within the restaurant. The performance itself, the music, and the sound of coin belts and other such signifiers of belly dance, is what changes the atmosphere of a restaurant, not the performer.    

The Professional Body

            Once considered grotesque and immoral by the West, traditional Middle Eastern belly dance was a signifier of the Other - "fetishised" as exotic (Keft-Kennedy, 2010). In many ways this idea still exists. By donning ourselves with dark eye make-up, elaborate costumes that are reminiscent of traditional dance, and signifiers such as coins, jewelery, and props, we as Western belly dancers transform ourselves into the exotic Other - an act labeled cultural appropriation. We transform into that fetish, the stereotype of a belly dancer. However, beneath the exterior, cosmetic transformation lies another transformation, literally - the body. And here is the division between the amateur and the professional, as we see the transformation at work.

            In the article, 'How Does She Do That?' Bellydance and the Horror of a Flexible Woman (2010), Keft-Kennedy discusses the transformation of the body within belly dance. Keft-Kennedy argues that key techniques in belly dance involving the isolation of various body parts creates a particular kind of flexible and muscular body - a body that may not be considered as such among other dancers and athletes. It is a body that may be considered grotesque in its abnormal skill, sensual in its focus on the hips, and exotic in itself. While many men around the world belly dance, it is often considered a female dance in the West, and I wonder whether this assumption is due to the particular display of the body - exoticness and sensuality are often associated with femininity. The professional belly dancer body becomes a signifier in itself; essentially, a body which is trained to do all these weird, strange, sensual, exotic, fun things... we see a body trained to perform all the hip slides, belly pops, undulations, and shimmies it wants! 

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            To conclude, our restaurant performance went well despite nerves; it was a different experience, and it made me think just how atmosphere of belly dance is modified depending on the context, the space, and the audience. I found the article fascinating, and I encourage you to read more about belly dance from an anthropological perspective. I did not have time - or space - this week to go into other topics surrounding belly dance. Topics such as its feminist appeal (due to the female domain belly dance possesses), the various mental health benefits that have been found in belly dancers, and more thorough understandings of the exotic and the sensual, give a greater understanding as to why we love belly dance, and why we continue to do so.

Happy belly dancing!

Hadeeqa from TABLA

References:

Keft-Kennedy, V. (2005). "'How does she do that?' Belly dancing and the horror of a flexible woman." Women's studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 34(3-4): 279-300.