In the low light of Jarman auditorium, just slight enough to be comfortable, on a stage overcome with billows of incensed smoke, the Longwood Company of Belly Dance performed an hour’s worth of solos and group dances involving almost all of the company’s 30 members. The show took into account belly dance’s many styles of incorporated dance from Egyptian to cabaret, tribal and tribal fusion to Turkish dervish spinning.
Sometimes the music was traditional, sung in Arabic, pouring into Jarman through both sound and slow moving limbs. Other times, it was Massive Attack or Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” that accompanied the floating vales and tipping skirt corners of the belly dancers.
After the closing moments of the belly dance show, which sent off four members of the company who were either prepared to transfer back or graduate, two of its primary members Ashley Russell and Chantal Gamble were available to speak a little more about the event. Russell, a Longwood University alumna, is one of the company’s founding members. She’s been involved in the group for 12 semesters and was the company’s president for three years.
Noting the different styles of dancing, Egyptian, cabaret, tribal, tribal fusion and dervish spinning, Russell acknowledged, “a lot of [the dances] were tribal fusion because they bring in some modern aspect and fuse modern dance with actual tribal belly dance movements. [My solo] was tribal fusion.” When asked about the history of the belly dancing art, Russell said that its origins are “really debatable because depending on what you read, it’ll say Egypt or the Middle East. Most places will say Egypt is where it started, and it was a dance, just for women, to help with birthing ...you know the whole process of having a baby. So it was supposed to help with that. But some also said it was like a spiritual dance.”
The origins of belly dance at Longwood University proved to be a little less ambiguous though as “the club started in 2006 or 2007 ... with Lindsey Butler
Nicole Gonder [and some others] ... when I started the club was brand new.”
When discussing her own tribal fusion solo, Russell said, “It was made up on the spot. A lot of my dances are made up on the spot, and a lot of tribal fusion is improvised. Dances were rarely improvised, especially in our club, but solos are often improvised.”
When it comes to what the audience member may get out of belly dance, Russell said, “I think it’s important to learn about different cultures, and it’s really hard to want to do that through reading, research, things like that. We bring the belly dance show out and educate people at the same time as we entertain people. Education’s always so much more fun when you’re being entertained.
Senior criminal justice major and four year member, Gamble has served as its president in recent years and explained a bit more about the event. Gamble paid much credit to the stage moms, a group of behind the scenes mentors to the show who “make sure [the dancers] are ready for the performance, what the order’s going to be like. They make sure people are on stage when they need to be. They provide the script for the MC.”
Gamble also paid a lot of attention to the growth of the organization during her involvement from eight to 10 girls to 30 participants, two of which are male. She also expressed what belly dancing has meant to her, saying, “It’s my creative outlet. Involved in my major and memorizing all of the information, it’s a little hard to be creative. Dancing is such great exercise, and with belly dancing, it’s such control of so many different body movements.
Plus the community you meet. Our girls are absolutely fabulous.” Her own dance was performed with vales and is the first solo she’s ever done on stage, styled after a Moroccan dancer who also danced with vales.
Expressing the cultural backing of belly dance and its use of both masculine and feminine aspects is also important. “The guys and the girls who performed tonight worked so hard for this, hard ... and we don’t charge anything [for admission]. We want as many people as possible to come,” said Gamble.
