The Male Belly Dancer

The Male Belly Dancer

When one hears the words belly dance, the image that usually pops into people’s heads is of gorgeous women adorned in glittering costumes.  The crowd, mesmerized as they snake, shimmy and shake across the stage.  The last thing one would expect to see is a man performing in the same fashion, on stage no less. Male belly dancer is the term used to describe these men.  Calling them plainly as belly dancers is not enough in describing them. Implying that the term belly dancer is automatically associated with women, which is not the case.

Belly dance or rather Raqs Sharqi was originally a Middle Eastern form of dance expression, mostly performed by women but also by men. Raqs Sharqi paid homage to both the male and female form. However when it was picked up by Western society and media, women were pushed more to the fore front and men faded into the background. The idea of a male belly dancer became obscene in the West.  If a man is a dancer, particularly in belly dance, they are automatically written off as homosexual. The smooth, fluidity, flow, and dress of the dance may make these men seem too feminine by others as well.  The fact that male belly dancers are almost unheard of by Western society; they are more of a rarity than other male dancers.  One example is that in ballet men have specific roles, the same for ballroom dancing. However with belly dance one may not see it often unless they delve a little deeper into that community.

Here is one dancer that speak a bit about male belly dancing. 

Society seeks to continue keeping these men into traditional gender roles. Since this dance form is often seen as for women; they face a lot of ridicule even from their own community. There are women belly dancers would argue that this dance form is only meant for women and would not teach men who come seeking dance instruction.  It would seem as if society focuses more on the fact that they are men instead of men who just happen to have a love for this type of art form. 

When I first began belly dancing I assumed that this art form was only for women and it was used to become more in touch with ones femininity. Interestingly though my first dance studio made it clear that no men were allowed. The only men permitted inside were the musicians. Whenever the instructors went over some of the belly dance origins, they failed to mention that there were male dancers. The obscenity of these dancers being men is also largely due to simply not knowing, especially in my case. I had to delve myself more into the belly dance community to get a better understanding of some of its history and gender issues. 

A males point of view: 

Rachel Brice and Illan performs at Tribal Fest 12.

* I have no ownership of the videos used*