BELLY DANCING IN NEW ZEALAND: IDENTITY, HYBRIDITY, TRANSCULTURE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Cultural Studies in the University of Canterbury by Brigid Kelly 2008 Abstract This thesis explores ways in which some New Zealanders draw on and negotiate both belly dancing and local cultural norms to construct multiple local and global identities. Drawing upon discourse analysis, post-structuralist and post-colonial theory, it argues that belly dancing outside its cultures of origin has become globalised, with its own synthetic culture arising from complex networks of activities, objects and texts focused around the act of belly dancing. This is demonstrated through analysis of New Zealand newspaper accounts, interviews, focus group discussion, the Oasis Dance Camp belly dance event in Tongariro and the work of fusion belly dance troupe Kiwi Iwi in Christchurch. Bringing New Zealand into the field of belly dance study can offer deeper insights into the processes of globalisation and hybridity, and offers possibilities for examination of the variety of ways in which belly dance is practiced around the world. The thesis fills a gap in the literature about ‘Western’ understandings and uses of the dance, which has thus far heavily emphasised the United States and notions of performing as an ‘exotic Other’. It also shifts away from a sole focus on representation to analyse participants’ experiences of belly dance as dance, rather than only as performative play. The talk of the belly dancers involved in this research demonstrates the complex and contradictory ways in which they articulate ideas about New Zealand identities and cultural conventions. Some of their reflections on belly dancing appear to reflect consciousness of and dis-ease around issues of indigeneity and multiculturalism in wider New Zealand society. Participants in this study also talk about how they explore and perform ideas about femininity, which includes both acceptance and rejection of belly dancing as innately feminine. Looking at New Zealand identities through belly dance, and vice-versa, highlights developing, nuanced and multiple articulations of self and other in a globalised world. i ii Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to thank my supervisors, Rosemary Du Plessis and Nabila Jaber, whose ideas, critiques, suggestions and support have made researching and writing this thesis a challenging, rich and very satisfying endeavour. In particular, I wish to acknowledge Nabila’s insights into belly dancing’s Middle Eastern cultural contexts and the underplayed role of migrants in disseminating the dance internationally, and Rosemary’s help in connecting the specificities of this topic to much larger social and theoretical concerns. I would like to thank my friends and colleagues at the School of Contemporary Belly Dance, who both supported my research and covered for me when I have been less able to carry out my usual teacher’s tasks. Special thanks are due to Judith Varga and Anne Kalnins for their provision of additional local research materials, to Yurie Matsui Somerville for Japanese translation, to Auckland City Libraries Special Collections for permission to reprint photographs, and to the University of Canterbury Scholarships Programme for financial assistance. I would especially like to thank my teacher, Gendi Tanner Te Keepa, for introducing me to belly dance, inspiring, encouraging and challenging me, and my parents and brothers for supporting my choice to undertake this demanding project. I am particularly grateful to the academic and general staff of the University of Canterbury School of Sociology and Anthropology, not only for use of the school’s graduate facilities, but for welcoming me, a Cultural Studies student, into the department. My fellow students, especially Annette Wilkes, Aline Taylor, Elaine Donovan, Roslyn Kerr, Rebecca Ream, Rochelle Bailey, Wan Munira Wan Jaafar, Lydia Yu, Angel Bright, Anna-Maria Covich, Brenda Mackie, Jo Tondo, Deborah Rhode, Lois Tonkin, Karen Due Theilade, Benjamin Lindt, Hazel Ashton and the late Steve Luke, have provided endless insights and new ideas. Their willingness to discuss and share their own research projects and observations was invaluable. Finally, to all the people who willingly became participants in this project, and the dancers, past and present, in countries all around the world but especially in New Zealand, whose ideas and opinions have informed the ideas in it: shukran, kia ora koutou, thank you! iii iv Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. iii Dancing on grass at the Brookland's Gala: a preamble ..................................................................... 1 Glossary of terms .................................................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER ONE Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Defining the field: fantasy, the Orient and the body ..................................................................... 9 Moving towards a globalised model of belly dance .................................................................... 13 Belly dance as globalised practice ............................................................................................... 16 Global identities ........................................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER TWO "When you first start it's real hard work": participants, rationales and strategies ................... 24 Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 27 Insider-outsider status and issues of anonymity .......................................................................... 29 Preliminary data, formulation of questions and participant selection ....................................... 30 Talking belly dance: the interviews ............................................................................................. 35 Globalised belly dance: Oasis Dance Camp ............................................................................... 38 Embodied responses: focus group/personal dance analysis ....................................................... 39 Analytic process ............................................................................................................................ 40 Conclusions................................................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER THREE: "What lies under what is, is what was once": the development of a New Zealand belly dance culture ................................................................................................................................ 43 Oasis Dance Camp: globalised belly dance in action ................................................................. 44 Priestesses, gypsies and mothers: belly dance as women's culture ............................................ 45 Contextualising New Zealand belly dance: a partial history ...................................................... 48 Before belly dance: the exotic in New Zealand and beyond .................................................. 49 Contemporary belly dance begins: Egypt and the United States .......................................... 51 Belly dance in New Zealand ................................................................................................... 54 New Zealand in the global belly dance world ........................................................................ 60 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER FOUR "It's almost like, you knew you could dance like that but you're not really allowed to in Western society": dancing bodies, self-image and identity in New Zealand belly dance ............. 63 Feminine selves ............................................................................................................................. 64 Exotic bodies ................................................................................................................................. 67 The re-imagined harem, nourishment and care of the self .......................................................... 70 Sensual dancing bodies ................................................................................................................ 73 Signifying bodies........................................................................................................................... 78 Harem, revisited ........................................................................................................................... 79 CHAPTER FIVE "I mean, what is a Pakeha New Zealander's national dance? We don't have one": belly dance and transculturation ............................................................................................................................. 84 Belly dance: a New Zealand thing? ............................................................................................