“My hips are
weapons of mass destruction”
Article
by Estacios Valoi
Pictures:
Rob Piper and Karol studio
17/01/15
I had to see
Zolani Mohala and her baby; I was an uncle again! And also wanted to visit Marilyn
Thompson, Jenny Fletcher, Sylvia Vollenhonvense, Bazil Appolis and many others.
Sorry but is a big list and I do not intend to fill a phone directory with
everyone I intended to see.
I certainly had
to pass by “Long Street”, enjoy its atmosphere, hang out there the entire night
until sunrise, for a second hangover. However travelling on the Jazz roads
halls, Mahogany, Crypt, Mercury, Camisa, which were some of the places I had
come to know to look out for when looking for good sound. But it just wasn’t my lucky day.
With Hazel and Rob in tow we end up in “Aldi
wan-Café restaurant” where I was introduced to Karol the Belly Dancer and the
best way of capturing her dancing was through my tape recorder. It luckily still
had space for one more conversation between two people.
The place is situated on the main road
of Sea Point, on the end side of Green point, by the Promenade.
Oh Karol, she danced and talked to me,
all at the same time.
Karol is a professional belly dancer,
who has been dancing for more than twelve years. Influenced by her mother’s
dancing which included Jazz, Flamenco, Karol started learning dancing from
DVD’s and other available tools, supported by some South African and
international teachers at workshops, but for the most part she is self-taught.
Her dance style ranges from Egyptian, Lebanese,
Arabic and Turkish styles but she has a deep passion and love for the Egyptian
style though. She is not a veteran but she has been performing in and outside South
Africa such as Iraq and other places. Before her performance she told me her “hips
are weapons of massive destruction”.
The next time I saw her, she was dancing.
And inside those clothes she was somebody different and I was so astonished.
The way she dances, her hips gyrating along with the sound of the drum, her
body imitatating the music that plays.
In 2014 during the Miss Belly Dance South Africa Competition in Johannesburg
she met some three or four Mozambican Belly dancers and they were very good. One
of them won the drum solo category.
“So
you really have some great talent in your country.” she tells me. At the time
however Carol was just a spectator and she hopes to participate in this year’s
competition.
EV-Where did you grow up, where are you from?
KS- I
grew up in Johannesburg and I was introduced to dance by my mum. She did
ballet, jazz and modern dancing. I started ballet at the age of three, followed
by flamenco, Spanish dance and tap-dance. I actually had my debut in a Spanish
dance company at the tender age of five. I think I was the youngest dancer in
the company at that time. I have always loved dance.
I didn’t feel ballet was for
me, I was slender but, I always thought I was too fat for ballet, since all the
girls were so skinny but ballet gave me a good foundation where dance training
was concerned. When I started high school, I sort of became fascinated with everything
Arabic, the language, the music and its culture.
EV- Dancing
is either like the first or the last movement of a human being. What is it for
you?
KS- Movement is freedom. Dance is freedom. If I didn’t have dance, I would
die. I become depressed when I don’t dance for a certain amount of time. Dance
is an outlet, an expression. We can put any emotion into it, whether it’s anger
or sadness. Anything can be expressed through dance and movement.
EV- On the
stage do you dance better when expressing anger, happiness…or which?
KS- I think it depends on each performance. According to some of my friends,
I apparently dance better when I’m angry. I find that quite funny. But anything
you feel at the time, you just put it into the dance. And belly dance is all
about showing your audience what the music sounds like visually, so your body
imitates the instruments that are playing in the music. Your dance is a visual
explanation of the music and with that, you tell a story to your audience.
EV- What
kind of stories?
KS-
It all depends on the music. If it is something that is slow and sensual, you
convey that to them. If it is fast and cheeky, like in a drum solo, which is also
very energetic, then that is what you portray through your movements. Drum
solos are definitely my favorites. I quite enjoy the more cheeky kind of music.
EV- You were
dancing with different props and you came with a drum. Tell us about that.
KS-In belly or Arabic dance sometimes you can use different props during
your performance. What I did last night was a modern fusion. Instead of just
using my body, you make use of other props to entertain the audience. I do
believe however that a good dancer should be able to entertain the audience
without any props or extras. Yesterday I used a blue silk fan, veils and the
sword, balancing it on my head and hips. So my performance was definitely a
fusion of Egyptian style with modern fusion. It’s very exciting and captivating
for the audience. It’s kind of like magic and it is interesting for the
audience, it is something different.
EV-Talking about the sword and the
different audiences. Someone who almost had a heart attack or fainted while you
were dancing for them?
KS-I danced at a function for a man who was turning 80 years old. And I
was joking with my colleagues, saying I wonder if his wife wanted him to have a
heart attack. Luckily he did survive the performance; he seemed to enjoy it
quite a lot. I haven’t really had any bad experience with any audience members,
like heart attacks or those things. But belly dance is a very sensual dance,
very feminine and sometimes you can’t help but be sort of sexy. But I think it’s
sexy in a very sophisticated, modest kind of way.
EV- You have
performed in several places. Where?
KS- Obviously I have been performing as the resident dancer at Al Diwan
in Sea Point. I have been there for almost seven years. I have also performed
as a guest performer at Mesopotamia in Long Street, and I do private functions,
some of which have been at the Hilton, Fire & Ice hotel in Cape Town. All
over Cape Town and South Africa and overseas. Few months ago I performed in the
Middle East, in Jordan, at a wedding. It was only for ladies as it was
appropriate in terms of the culture there.
EV-And the different kinds of dresses
you wear? Yesterday’s one and the black one in your pictures do they describe a
special, stunning movement and a different kind of style?
KS-Obviously the costume depends on the style of the belly dance you are
doing. Last night was a modern Egyptian style with a bit of fusion and the
costume that I wore was a tight fitting skirt with lots of bead work and a bra
that was also very heavily embellished with beads. Also the costume depicts the
style of dance. So you saw the photos of the black dress? That was for an Iraqi
gypsy dance that I performed at the International Oriental Dance Festival last
October.
You
get Egyptian style belly dance and within that is a whole bunch of folkloric
dance styles like Said, Gawazee and a lot of other different styles. Then you
have Lebanese belly dance, from Lebanon, that is a different style altogether.
Usually the dancer wears high-heeled shoes and very sort of chunky beadwork
that embellish the costumes. You have Turkish style originating in Turkey, also
with different kinds of costumes which tend to be a little bit more risqué than
the Egyptian style costumes. The movements also differ.
EV- Can you
explain a bit more about the costumes, the skirt with tiers of small beads?
KS-The beads are there to emphasize the movement of the hips. We use
skirts with heavy bead work around the hip area. So when you doing the shimmy,
that’s when you are standing and shaking your body, the audience can easily see
the movements of the hips. Nowadays the Egyptian costumes are becoming less
embellished, using more shiny materials and less beadwork.
EV-So we are here sitting and talking.
Meanwhile you moving your shoulders, your head, hands... It’s something special;
in fact it’s exceptional!
KS-Like I said when a dancer listens to the music, you visually show the
piece of music, you are telling a story. I didn’t choreograph last night’s performance,
I was free styling, I just went for it. It’s always important to use the music
that you are familiar with, especially music that you can feel. If you don’t
feel the music it will be a disaster. This is something very important when it
comes to Arabic music and dance. I dance for a lot of Arabic people that come
to the restaurant, so it’s very important to use the right music because you
also have an educated audience and belly dance originated from the Middle East.
If
you have this kind of clientele, in terms of music, you must make sure that
your music has lyrics, you must know what the lyrics mean. Be sure you are not
dancing something that might offend your audience and the music must also be
authentic. If the audience enjoys it, it makes it a lot easier to dance,
because you can feel the energy of your crowd.
EV- In what
kind of audience you feel more comfortable. Familial one?
KS-To give you a bit of background on Arabic dance, which is originally
from the Middle East; it was a dance which was performed by women for other
women, as a dance of fertility. So in the Middle East today, it is still
performed as such. Like in the Jordan when I was dancing at the wedding, the
audience was only female. In Egypt and Lebanon it’s more acceptable to dance in
front of a mixed audience.
It’s
often perceived by the Western world as a cultural thing or part of Arab
culture, but belly dance is actually quite frowned upon like the set up at Al
Diwan. Traditionally in the Middle East, a lot of men go to shisha lounges, so
sometimes the audience at Al Diwan can be more male dominant. It is definitely
nice to dance for a mixed crowd, men and women. It makes it a lot more
comfortable for the dancer.
EV- Puppet leaders and dictators like
Mugabe, king Swati III, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.. have their own forms of
weapons.. mentality of mass destruction. In your case your “weapons of mass
destruction” are your hips and how do you use them?
KS-I joke about my hips being weapons of mass destruction, I suppose some
would say weapons of mass seduction. It’s just a funny thing. People perceive
belly dance in different ways. Some people see it as something funny, others as
something sexy, like the joke with the performance at the 80-year old man’s
birthday. You know, you don’t want to give your audience a heart attack, should
they be on the sort of elderly side. I mean it’s something that can be
perceived as sexy. Perhaps that’s where the hips being weapons of mass destruction
or seduction comes from. Depending on how you see it.
EV- Apart
from dancing what are you hobbies?
KS- I’m always dancing and without it I would be empty. I’m very boring as
a person and I think the most exciting thing I do is belly dancing. I’m quite the
party pooper, I don’t go out, in fact I hate going out. My friends have to drag
me out of my house. But in my free time I like just to chill out, relax. I love
food, and eating, so thank goodness I dance a lot! Otherwise I would be 5 times
bigger than what I am now.
EV-The way you
cook, is it the same way in which you like your dance?
KS- I like to listen to music when I cook. We’ve had some interesting
experiences in my kitchen when I had my mother and grandmother with me. We had
three generations in the kitchen, all together and depending on the music we do
actually dance when we cook, it’s very interesting.
EV- What is
your favorite food to cook?
KS- I really like Middle Eastern food but for dinner I could even cook
pasta. My food can be as colorful as my costumes. I don’t really go by recipes,
it comes as free style, just like with some of my dances and I just put a
little bit of everything in there and wait for the results. Hopefully it’s
something good.
Professional performer & instructor
Studio Tarab Middle Eastern Belly Dance
Visit online at www.raqsbellydance.wix.com/karol
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