Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont Pomona Faculty Publications and Research Pomona Faculty Scholarship 1-1-2006 The aleM Dancer in the Middle East and Central Asia Anthony Shay Pomona College Recommended Citation Shay, Anthony. “The aleM Dancer in the Middle East and Central Asia,” Dance Research Journal 38, nos. 1 & 2 (Winter, 2006), pp. 137-162. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Pomona Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pomona Faculty Publications and Research by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Male Dancer in the Middle East and Central Asia Anthony Shay That night ‘Abdi Jan’s troupe had been called so that the harem occupants could watch the show. Of course, you remember ‘Abdi well. Let me, nonetheless, give you a description of his looks. He was a lad of about twelve or thirteen, with large black eyes, languid and incredibly beautiful and attractive. His face was tanned and good-looking, his lips crimson, and his hair black and thick. Renowned throughout the town, the boy had a thousand adoring lovers. Being a dancer, however, he was unworthy of being anyone’s beloved. (Taj Al-Sultana 1993, 163) ithin this quotation the reader may find a rich description of historical and even W contemporary Middle Eastern attitudes toward dance and male dancers in par- ticular, penned from a native point of view.1 In this article I address those attitudes, but more importantly challenge several cherished, long-held assumptions and theoretical stances expressed by native elites and Westerners interested in Middle Eastern dance and dancers.