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Scenes From Turkey: The Real Turkish "Belly" Dance

© Shira

Back in the 1890's, an American event promoter named Sol Bloom coined the term "belly dancing" for a dance form that is known as "Oriental dance" in the Middle East where it comes from. It's called "Oryantal tansi" in Turkish and "raks sharki" in Arabic, both of which mean "dance of the East" or "Oriental dance". Neither language uses the word "belly" (or any other body part) to refer to it.

But there is a folk dance that the Turkish people call "gobek tansi", which is Turkish for "belly" dance, and it doesn't look a thing like Oriental dance! So when the Turkish people use the term "belly dance" in their own language, what kind of dance are they thinking of? Read on, and see pictures from a performance that I saw at a tourist show in Turkey on July 12, 2000 at a nightclub called Gar Gazinosu!

Gobek tansi is a duet, with one dancer dressed as a man, and the other as a woman, as shown in the above photo. The accompanying music is a fast Turkish-style chiftetelli rhythm, and the dancers romp playfully around the stage, taking turns chasing each other.

The following two pictures show a closer view of each dancer:

Look closely at the above photos, and see if you can guess how they achieved the effect.

Both dancers are portrayed by young men. The faces of the characters are painted on their abdomens. The headdresses, which come to just below the dancers' armpits, hide the dancers' heads and arms which are folded to fit.

The "neck" of the character's costume rides below the dancers' hips, with the "arms" attached to it so that they flop about as the dancer frisks around the stage.

It was difficult to snap good pictures, because the dancers were in constant motion as they danced about the stage to the lively music. Plus, I loved the performance so much that I didn't want to stop watching to use my camera!

At one point during the dance, the two characters wound up "face" to "face". The two dancers then performed energetic stomach rolls, to portray the notion of the characters kissing.

For the finale, the two dancers made their way to a stage-side table, and each selected an audience member to "kiss". I had the privilege of being one of the "chosen" ones! It was great fun! My "friend" vigorously rolled "her" belly right up against my face as I howled with delighted laughter.