#21 Shimmies and Sprockets: Analyzing the Use of Belly Dance in Steampunk

The lights dim. The beat of the music fills the stage. The camera’s scope settles upon Captain Robert of Abney Park and the young woman at his side. Dressed in a leather halter top, an aviator cap, and voluminous skirts, Magdalene Veen sways on stage as Captain Robert croons the lyrics to “Death of a Hero”. Again and again, the camera returns to capture her lithe form as she twirls and shimmies. Taken at Convergence 13 in 2007, this performance is available on Abney Park’s website and not only showcases the band’s steampunk aesthetic but also adds a non-Eurocentric aspect physically symbolized by Ms. Veen’s dancing. Although Abney Park’s incorporation of belly dance into its stage show is most likely a carryover from its gothic dance roots and world music influences, it has nevertheless helped inspire many belly dancers and steampunks alike to add goggles, bloomers, and corsets to their dancing.

In fact, steampunk bellydance has been on the rise. Several belly dance companies—such as Read My Hips in Chicago, Pavlov’s Hips in Kansas City, and Troop Moirae in Massachusetts—have done steamy performances that can be viewed on their troop websites or YouTube. As another sign of its blooming popularity, the dancer Tempest, best known as the co-producer of Gothla US, the largest Gothic/Fusion Festival in North America, named the most recent festival “Cogs in Motion” and conducts steampunk belly dance workshops across the United States.

Steampunk belly dance may seem out of place in a genre known for its Victoriana. Historically, belly dance existed for thousands of years in northern Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Dancing techniques vary widely, with each region engaging different parts of the body in a series of various undulations, shimmies, and circles—the hips, the torso, their arms, and even through certain facial expressions and hand gestures. However, ever since European explorers made their way eastward, accounts of belly dance have been recorded in their travelogues since the 1600s. With the rise of Western imperialism in the nineteenth century, many travelers from Europe and America added belly dance to their Far East itineraries: the most famous account is French author Gustave Flaubert’s series of letters about his intimate encounters with Egyptian dancer Kuchuk Hanem (and just one of many cases of Western associations between sex, prostitution, and the Eastern woman).

Middle Eastern dance was showcased at many world’s fairs throughout the late nineteenth century, but the dance form achieved popular recognition in the West at Chicago’s Columbian World’s Exposition in 1893. According to Anthony Shay and Barbara Sellers-Young, authors of Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism, and Harem Fantasy, Sol Bloom, manager of the Midway Plaisance, promoted his Egyptian dancers’ performances as “belly dance” in order to attract audiences. Academic professor Zeynep Çelik spoke about how the press couldn’t get enough of the “new obsession” at the World’s Exposition. Thousands flocked to see the performers and newspapers cheekily remarked how “the soiled devotees of Constantinople and Cairo corrupted Western morals by the seductive allurements of the danse-du-ventre.” Thus, ever since its first forays into Western cultural consciousness, belly dance has been (and remains) associated with hyper-sexualized Orientalist imagery. Its resurgence as a popular dance form today has triggered concern within the Muslim community about popular misconceptions of Middle Eastern culture. As frequent contributor Fatemeh writes on the blog Muslimah Media Watch, “I take offense at the presentation of Middle Eastern ‘culture’ through things like transparent veils, coin necklaces, and henna tattoos because reducing the Middle Eastern experience to some jingly coins and a scimitar takes the humanity right out of us.”

So the position of belly dance within steampunk art is a polemical one. Dancers have interpreted steampunk as a current fad, a fashion aesthetic, and a form of neo-Victorian inspiration. Yet the intersection of steampunk and belly dance raises the concern about whether steampunk sanctions romanticized Orientialism. Not only that, but questions over co-opting come into play. Co-opting in general is defined as the use of something from a particular culture by members outside that culture. This “use” isn’t inherently bad, but can cross the line of cultural respect between the users and the originators. So, by applying a Westernized aesthetic to a dance form that has non-Western origins, does appreciation for the cultural roots of the dance get lost in its Europeanized glamour? Does the participation and emphasis upon Eurocentric, Western dancers in the community overshadow the historically marginalized dancers who originated it? With steampunk, is the West “stealing” belly dance from its native culture? These questions aren’t the easiest to answer but one way to investigate them is by looking at how belly dancers interpret and use steampunk in their art and how modern belly dance itself became established as an art form.

Read the full article in Steampunk Magazine’s upcoming Issue #7: New and Future Worlds

And of course, I have to thank the following steampunk belly dancers who offered to be interviewed for this article.  All of them contributed unique perspectives and insight into the art of belly dance and concerning steampunk; this article would not be possible without their help. They are spotlighted under the cut, along with my research sources for the article.

As part of the interview, I asked each dancer the question, “Why do you think the steampunk aesthetic and the art of bellydance work so well together?”

Akasha Afsana
akashawear.com
Afsana troupe performance/events at afsanafusion.com

Bellydance has evolved so much from traditional Orientale, through movement and musicality, and with my diverse dance background, it was an easy fit for me. Because I’m able to pick whatever genre of music I want to dance to, it’s easy for me to translate that into dance movements that have a steampunk ‘look’ to them.

Andromacke
Contact: darkfaery13 [at] yahoo [dot]com

I think they’re both exotic and they both come from a similar time period. Although the beginning of the popularity of Bellydance as we know it was probably around the 1950s, the age of exploration was (to my understanding) still going on around the Steampunk era. Think of airship pirates exploring the middle east and seeing belly dancers there.

Dizzy
Music Deadly Nightshade Botanical Societies
Videos of Dizzy’s performances

I absolutely love the combination of Victorian bustles and tribal style jewelery. Belly dance embraces color much like the Victorians did, using tones and patterns in new and creative ways. The first steampunk belly dance piece I made was a steampunk coin belt. I took a favorite coin belt and added watch parts, deco jewelry, buttons, and other charms that said steampunk to me, and went from there. I think that belly dance costume styles with a steampunk edge are a great way to also add multiculturalism to the steampunk aesthetic.

General Malcolm Kane
Profile on Steampunk Empire

I think they meld because they both deal with self-expression, personal power, and individuality.

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M’chelle DeMars
mariedemars.com

I think that fantasy aspect is a giant contributor to that, especially with Tribal Fusion. Steampunk is a sort of “turned on it’s head” version of history, and there’s a huge aspect in bellydance that’s very similar – no written history so alot of it’s assumed and made up. Also, bellydance in the Western world seems to have emerged during that same period Steampunk takes so much from. The connection is even stronger (for me) with tribal because of the craftiness involved – most Tribal dancers make their own costumes, and steampunks do a fair amount of crafting a well. There’s very little ready-to-wear in either. Crafty people who have to meddle with the appearance of everything they own.

Tempest
darklydramatic.com

So much of steampunk concepts/literature are rooted in the same time period as the Oriental craze of the late 19th century/early 20th century – which is the area I’m most inspired with in my dancing – so you’ve got real developments and influences to work from. As long as that history is kept in mind while developing the story and character of the dance, I think it makes for a great pairing. They key thing though is to really take the music and movements into consideration – far too many people do “gratuitous gears” – which is they think adding a few keys and cogs to a costume will make it steampunk – steampunk isn’t just a look – you have to consider how the music and character would affect the dance and bring that influence wholly to the piece.

Salomé of San Diego
brendasalamone.com/dancer
Salomé of San Diego on Facebook
Salomé of San Diego on MySpace

Well, I think it depends on the kind of belly dance you do. I started out in Cabaret style – sequins and sparklies. And while I still love it, I have always leaned toward the darker aesthetic of tribal, or gothic. Steampunk is ideal for the creativity that a gifted dancer can bring to her costuming and performance. There is just so much of interest to play off of. And of course, it’s always good for conversation. I need to come up with a more cohesive explanation, though. I usually get a blank look.

Works Cited

Abney Park. “Videos.” Abney Park. http://www.abneypark.com/2008/index.htm (accessed Sep 26, 2009).

Carlton, Donna. Looking for Little Egypt. Bloomington, Indiana : IDD Books, 1994.

Çelik, Zeynep. “Speaking Back to Orientalist Discourse At the World’s Columbian Exposition,” in Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures: Orientalism in America, 1870-1930. ed. Holly Edwards et al. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Fatemeh, “The Belly of the Beast: Belly Dancing as a New Form of Orientalism.” Muslimah Media Watch. http://muslimahmediawatch.org/2007/11/the-belly-of-the-beast-belly-dancing-as-a-new-form-of-orientalism-2/ (accessed Nov 16, 2009).

Shay, Anthony and Barbara Sellers-Young, eds. Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism, and Harem Fantasy. Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 2005.

Stavrou Karayanni, Stravros. “Dismissal Veiling Desire: Kuchuk Hanem and Imperial Masculinity,” in Dancing Fear and Desire: Race, Sexuality, and Imperial politics in Middle Eastern Dance. Waterloo: Ontario: Wilfred Laurier University Press. 2004.

Salimpour, Sahaila. “The Legacy,” Sahaila International. http://www.suhailainternational.com/video_legacy.php. (accessed Nov 16 2009).