Willow Chang's image is reflected in a mirror as she teaches belly dancing. Chang is on her way to a mainland belly-dancing conference.
Starting a whirlwind
Belly dancing slow to catch on,
but undulating upward
No one begrudges Jasmine Trias her "American Idol" popularity, but the outpouring of support has some in the arts community scratching their heads in wonder: Where are all these music lovers when it comes to supporting the arts and the kinds of programs that would produce another Jasmine?
While it's easy to jump on the Trias bandwagon now, how many would turn out for a kiddie talent competition to encourage tomorrow's talent? For every star, there are hundreds of equally talented dancers, artists and musicians who pursue their craft without ever landing that big break. And when it comes to an art form as obscure as belly dancing, well, tough luck sister. But for Willow Chang, belly dancing is a passion worth pursuing, even without the accolades. For her, it's been 10 years of taking baby steps toward opening eyes and hearts to the dance.
"When I started, belly dancers were a fringe group, a very small subculture, but it's mushroomed into a bigger lifestyle that you can find in every pocket of the globe," she said. "It's huge in Germany, Japan, Brazil and Argentina."
Today, largely due to the success of Susan Evans' California-based International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance, which hosts workshops and concerts bringing international dancers together, the legion of undulating dancers is growing.
"The tools of the 21st century have really helped to create an awareness and appreciation for the dance," Chang said. "There are DVDs, videos, online magazines, travel, the Internet, so that it's grown at a fast rate.
"Ten years ago, all we had was the Clive Guide, a low-budget, newsprint catalog that we got once a year, that was our Bible. I would get it and study it for hours. These dancers today have it so easy, but that's a good thing."
In a dream come true, Chang was invited to perform in the academy's concert "Belly Dance Rocks!" taking place in Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, and highlighting "the stars of today and tomorrow." She's thrilled to be sharing the stage and studying with one of the icons of the belly dance world, Leyla Jouvana.
"Just like Jasmine Trias going to 'American Idol,' it's important for others to get out of being pigeon-holed as a regional dancer and to be seen by other people. Then it gives Hawaii the reputation of being a viable place for the arts, and that would create a bigger flow of opening doors, instead of being isolated."
She envisions workshops here large enough to draw dancers from the South Pacific and Asia, in the same way interest in hula has taken off overseas, and draws visitors interested in the culture of the isles.
Dancing behind Willow Chang at Body Balance on Ward Avenue are three of her students, Yasuko Hacking, left, Melinda Butler and Lucy Tsu. Chang gives free performances at the studio at 5:30 p.m. Fridays.
SO, HOW DID a nice local girl find herself dabbling in Middle Eastern dance?
A longtime student of dance, Chang's interest was hula when she traveled to Egypt in 1994. Before leaving Hawaii, she had seen a performance by the local group Arabesque and became intrigued by belly dance. Rather than return home with her hula troupe, she decided to stay in Egypt to learn the art form. She returned home after six months of reaching dead ends.
"In the Western mindset, if you want to learn something, you find a teacher. But over there, being a foreign female entertainer, there was a mixed association with illicit things, so I realized that if I wanted to learn, I had to return home."
In addition to taking classes, she read all she could, jetting off to the mainland for additional workshops with tutors from the Middle East.
Dancing, she said, "allowed me to incorporate a lot of things I have passion for already. I love the antiquity, the complexity of Middle Eastern cultures, the healing power of music, and also to legitimately indulge my rhinestone and sequin passion. My friends call it adult dress-up," she said, of her many handmade costumes, with their cascades of glass beads.
While the movements of Middle Eastern dance are different from hula, and hula has a narrative element not associated with belly dance, she says both arts have undergone a renaissance and have been dismissed as "hootchie-kootchie" by outside forces. "The exotic image is portrayed as reality, and what people miss are the fluidity and grace of Egyptian dance."
While she admits the dance can be sensual, she said dancers should be able to convey an array of emotions, from introspection to playfulness. Contemporary movements evolved from folkloric traditions marking occasions such as birthdays and weddings, she said, and steps became standardized with the growth of travel and cabaret culture of the '30s to '50s. That's when the theatrical, exotic image of the veiled belly dancer was born. Before that, she said, dancers wore a baladi dress, a simple, conservative tunic, accessorized with a hip scarf or belt to accentuate movement.
Today, almost anything goes in costume and music. Dancers in the United States have created their own pastiche of elements drawn from Indian, Afghani and American cultures, creating a nouveau hippie look dubbed "American tribal style."
"A younger generation of dancers are wearing dreadlocks with big zinnias and flowers, with pulses from San Francisco, where nightlife, rave culture, influences the dancers. You'll find nothing like it in Lebanon or Syria," said Chang, who considers herself a purist, but who acknowledges the need for self-expression.
According to Chang, it doesn't matter whether you are a man or woman, child or adult, have an ample belly or none of all; anyone can learn to love belly dancing. "The biggest audience is women because the dance speaks to them. Whenever I do demonstrations, it's important for me to hear people say, 'That was fun, it made me feel like dancing.'
"I've seen its transformative effects in some of my students," said Chang, who teaches 11 a.m. Wednesday and Friday classes at Body Balance, upstairs at 320 Ward Ave., and who will be giving free performances there at 5:30 p.m. Fridays. "The ones who start out shy, in baggy clothes, might start out standing 20 feet away from the other students; three weeks later, she's talking story with everyone, making a date to go to Ross' or to the movies.
"It also puts a human face on another culture and makes people more aware of the things happening in the world. When you start to humanize a group of people who have been dehumanized, that's a positive thing.
"I didn't start out doing this by design or logic, and I'm surprised and relieved it's taken off. It sure beats folding T-shirts."
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