American Hero, Roy A. Cui

In the embedded video, career image retoucher Roy A. Cui explains the moral imperative behind his decision to endanger his livelihood, and no longer accept jobs digitally altering images of female bodies in advertising and entertainment. Roy is a softspoken guy, and this is a relatively long video: if your head is in quick-clicking instant-gratification web browsing mode right now, come back and watch the video later when you have 9 minutes to dedicate to listening to this courageous and inspiring story.


 

(Or, if you're REALLY impatient, here's a transcript you can read: http://royacui.com/2012/06/28/i-dont-know-what-happens-next/).

Commentary: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-danielle-crumpton/authenticity_b_1641905.html

More info on the film that inspired this decision: http://www.missrepresentation.org/

Thank you Roy!

Authentic Egyptian Dancing

I like the dancing in this video, but what I really like is the way it contradicts everything we "know" about Egyptian Oriental dance. (In fairness, that's because it's not really an Oriental piece. It would be most appropriate to call this an early theatrical, fusion, or nontraditional dance. But I doubt anyone would question the credibility, authenticity, legitimacy, or “Egyptianness” of the dancer, Egyptian great Naima Akef.) If you are impatient, dancing begins at 1:32.




 
So many "mistakes!"...

1:32 “Real” belly dance costumes would never have just shalwar. They are underwear! See-through “Harem pants” costumes are just a silly idea that came from I Dream of Jeannie. 

1:35 Egyptian dancers don't really do anything with their arms except frame their hips, flow through simple pathways (lift up to overhead, push down, repeat..), or maybe some shoulder rolls. They don't use arm movements to mark melodic passages.

1:42 Egyptian dancers don't play finger cymbals. [Okay, a lot of us know that in the old days they did. But this seems to be often forgotten...]

1:46 Egyptian dancers don't run around and use a lot of travel steps. They just stay in one spot and dance with torso isolations.

1:51 Fast turns aren't part of Egyptian vocabulary. Those are only for dancers doing Turkish or Turkic styles.

1:58 There is no use of turnout in Egyptian dance.

2:17 Egyptians consider floorwork to be vulgar. There is no floorwork in Egyptian dance.

2:26 Why do you Americans insist on doing gymnastics in belly dance? Egyptians dancers never use athletic, over-the-top, show-off moves. Egyptian dance is all about subtlety.

3:03 Tight choreography wasn't used by classic dancers.

3:34 There's no use of chainé turns in Egyptian dance. Well, okay, maybe there are some, but only because of Reda influence. But there certainly weren't any pre-Reda.

3:49 Here are more of those travel steps Egyptian dancers never use. They're really more representative of American Vintage vocabulary, adapted from Turkish style.

4:05 Hitting every nuance of the music is “trying too hard.” That's what American dancers do. Not Egyptians.

5:03 Egyptian dancers never mark accents with footwork.

5:35 Travel? Chainé turns? Hops!? Haven't you been paying attention? Absolutely not!

5:52 It's only correct to mark rhythm with hip or shoulder movements.

6:08 No one wants to see you do a lot of footwork. Kicks are okay for Turkish dancers, but if you do them in Egyptian dance every one will think you are too American or just plain unladylike.

6:35 Egyptian dance should always be very relaxed. Very grounded.

6:48 Don't put a barrel turn in your Egyptian dance! Especially don't use a series of fast barrel turns. They're not Egyptian at all and everyone will think you don't know what you're doing!

7:04 A Middle-Eastern audience is totally not going to get your wacky “fusion” dance that you just made up without paying attention to the correct way things are supposed to be done. Maybe random Americans will think that's okay, but you need to be more conservative if you want to be taken seriously by discriminating educated audiences.

I encourage new dancers to learn about the conventions that define traditional styles of belly dance, and obviously it's totally possible to create beautiful, complete, artistic dances within accepted conventions, so there's no reason to flout rules just for the sake of flouting them. But I also think authenticity and adherence to stylistic conventions aren't measures of artistic merit. (Honestly, it's MUCH harder to create a successful dance when you aren't constrained by the conventions of a traditional style.) So my point is: if you like dances created by “rules,” and want to dance within them, do it! You're likely to create a good performance piece. If you don't want to follow “rules,” don't! It will be harder to create a beautiful dance, but, as this video shows, it can be done. And, hopefully, this unimpeachable Egyptian dancer's having done it makes you feel that you have permission to do it too.


Thank you to Baltimore dancer Shems who uploaded this video to YouTube.

News Roundup: Brains, Noses, and Thai Food

In an interview, provocatively titled "The Wondrous World of Three Pounds of Meat" (in reference to the brain), author Jonah Lehrer discusses Imagine, his new book about the roots of creativity.  Highlight:

When it comes to creative problems, if you've got a feeling of knowing then you should keep on paying attention. You should drink that triple espresso, you should chain yourself to the desk. But in any creative process, at some point you hit a wall—you get stuck. At that point, you should go and take a long walk, let yourself daydream. Then a fresh insight is more likely to occur to you. You might even want to have a beer. A study came out showing that undergraduates who were too drunk to drive solved 30% more creative puzzles than those who were sober.

Link to story.

Elsewhere, the Daily Mail reports that nose jobs are on the decline among young Jewish women.  I'm happy for anyone who has a nose they feel good about, whether it's the nose they were born with or a nose they purchased from a surgeon, but I think this is a good sign that more people are accepting a wider definition of beauty.  The Mail suggests:

Today's stars and taste-makers are ethnically diverse and women are encouraged to value the features that make them stand out from the pack.

Finally, the New York Times reports on non-native chefs of ethnic cuisine.  While completely non-dance related, there are still some parallels to the experiences of native and non-native ethnic dancers that may be of interest to readers. 

Distance may allow a chef to explore traditions without the baggage of having to follow Mom’s recipes to the letter, even if the goal is to stay true to the original dishes. “My greatest gift is that I don’t have a Mexican grandmother,” Mr. Bayless said, “so I can look at all Mexican grandmothers as equal. If you grew up with this food, you’ll defend to the death the way your family makes a dish. So sometimes, with lots of experience, you can speak with a bit of a broader perspective.

Full Article:  Cuisines Mastered as Acquired Tastes.

Written from a different perspective, the author of the NYT piece (Francis Lam) follows up in a discussion with a Chinese-American colleague, offering equal, uh, "food for thought."

Francis: Well…would you prefer Stupak to say: "I'm doing food that's not really Mexican, it's a mashup of that and what's in my own head"?

Eddie: This is totally unfair of me to tell someone what to say. But, you asked me a question and I’ll answer it. If I could write his press release, I'd say, “I'm making modern New American food that borrows ingredients and techniques from a Mexican pantry.” Or, make fun of it like Danny Bowien [of Mission Chinese Food] does and basically say, “I love Chinese food. I don't know what I'm doing, but I respect this, that and the other Szechuan restaurant. Please don't consider me a master, I'm just a dude with a tea pot full of dirty girl drinks.” Danny Bowien is a guy who NAILS it in terms of messaging. He does funky hybrid party Chinese food that I think we're all honored to be the inspiration for. Danny hit me on twitter today wanting to put my Hainan Lobster Rice on the menu, do it! I love that people like Danny and Kareem Abdul Jabbar are interested in our culture in an inquisitive and honest way. I think Stupak is the same. His wife is Mexican and there’s a genuine passion, plus who am I to judge. I’m just saying, we need accurate messaging because it’s offensive to the diaspora. The culture needs to consider the villagers.

Link: Is it Fair for Chefs to Cook Other Cultures’ Foods?  Two immigrant sons hash out what it’s like to have your food shunned and celebrated in America by Francis Lam and Eddie Huang

Creativity in a "Post-Authentic" World

More inspiration from unlikely places...  The Daily News and Bruce Springsteen.  While obviously a discussion of music, readers of this blog and creators of nontraditional belly dance are likely to appreciate to the articles' observations about genre, creativity, self-expression, and creative constraints.

“We live in a post-authentic world,” Bruce announced to the young musical hopefuls. “The elements of what you’re using don’t matter. Purity of human experience and expression is not confined to guitars, to tubes, to turntables, to microchips. There is no right way, no pure way of doing. There is just doing.” 

[...]

Pronouncements like Bruce’s would seem eye-rollingly obvious to all those who’ve long felt there’s equal artistic expression in (still) often maligned art forms like rap, electronic music, teen pop or whatever unnameable new style arises to assault the conventions of song form and rhythm.

But for an old-school, hard-line rocker like Bruce to challenge musical divisions and hierarchies at this point says something key about where we are now and, perhaps, about where we might be heading.

Why Authenticity Is Hard; Why It's Essential

From the blogs at Forbes Magazine online:

Authenticity is hard because other people may seize on our weaknesses as proof of our unworthiness, rather than our humanity.

Authenticity is hard because we think what makes us human is our uniqueness, but it’s really our commonalities.

Authenticity is hard because we can lose track of our essence in daily compromises, accommodations, and dealings.

 Full post.

Downside to Authenticity

Authenticity is important because if you aren't true to yourself then you can’t be true to others. Plus, it’s more fun to be you. Unless you meet a girl who looks just like you and she’s a princess who’s tired of being rich and wants to switch places with you even though you’re a homeless vagrant who gets beaten every night.  Then I say go for switching places with the princess. Or better yet, kill the princess so you can take her place.

Full post contains profanity in the context of humor.  If you don't mind, read the full post here.