Berber identity. This is why so many have heard her always
introduce herself as: “An Arab woman from Paris, France.”
Says Leila, “I have become so accustomed to declaring my
background to others to justify my mission – it has become
a personal mantra and personal behavior.” Because she lives
in a foreign country, she frequently encounters the need to
define her background and culture.
Tell us about your raison-d’etre with regard to your
mission to elevate Raqs Sharqi.
A quote by Oberon of Seattle, Washington, USA, in
a 2006 interview for The Belly Dancer magazine provides
an excellent introduction: “Given our times and recent
directions our dance has wandered into occasionally, here
timelessly, from a worldly woman who ‘walks the walk’ and
lives the dance within her heritage, are words to consider
with care.” to Leila’s response regarding her ‘raison-d’etre’,
goal and mission in life.
Says Leila, “Let me refer to the book of Edward Said
Orientalism, who wrote about an image of this cheap
Orientalism and characterizing the Arab culture, as a cross
between the olives and the mint tea…(referencing the exotic
culture of the Middle East). We have all been subject to the
photographs of the most prolific Orientalist photographic
duos, Lehnert & Landrock … They used the money they
made catering to the pornography market for naked &
semi-naked ‘native’ women to finance their hundreds of real
photos of people and places in Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt.
(“The Colonial Harem” by Malek Alloula is a really good read
about these sorts of ‘French postcards’…), and the literature
of Flaubert, and the myriad of ‘Orientalist’ paintings
depicting Arabo-Berber girls, and women with naked breasts
posing in lavish attitudes among pillows in the harems of
their imagination. Because of these erroneous images from
‘Orientalism’, Raqs Sharqi was not even regarded as a dance
with a solid technical background, nor with a strong and
intricate technique. I fought to teach in the best school of
dance in Paris. I pioneered this dance in France.”
Leila continues, “I know how to dance, but I had no
formal training to teach. I found I had to deconstruct my
dance in order to learn how to teach, as I had no experience
as a teacher. And, funny enough, it is an American tap dancer
living in Paris, Sarah Petronio of Chicago, IL, USA, who
gave me my first opportunity to teach in her school. I was so
passionate that I convinced her of the beauty of this dance
and I explained to her: ‘I have not formally studied this
dance. My teachers have been my mother, my grandmother,
my aunts, my neighbors…” And Sarah replied: “Well, why
not! Let’s try.”
Leila, how do you know your work as an Oriental Raqs
Sharqi dance professional and teacher has been effective
and accepted?
Leila says, “I have had many articles written about
my choreographic work and published in national verywell-known French newspapers, daily, weekly, monthly,
like Le Monde - Liberation - Le Parisien - Elle - Le
Nouvel Observateur - Le Point - l’Express - Marie Claire
- Telerama and also major Dance Magazines : Ballet 2000
- Danser - Dance Europe - Danser Canal Historique, to
name a few. Many dance critics came to
see my performances finally, the same
ones who are used to seeing at least 200
choreographic pieces per year of Ballet,
Danse Contemporaine, Modern Dance,
Jazz, etc… As professional critics they have
the sense of dramaturgy, space, lighting,
stage presence, and technique (of course).
The first time one of the most famous dance
critics came to see my work, I was at the
same time happy, proud and frightened. I
used to call her the “Khomeini” (despots)
of the dance critics… AHAHAH! Every
choreographer dreams to have even
one line written by her, or her name
mentioned by this particular critic. She
On stage in a theater in Paris, performing The Dance of the Seven Veils liked my performance and wrote half
solo of 90 minutes with 5 musicians
12
The Belly Dance Chronicles
October 2015