2024년 9월 8일 19:00 상명대학교 내 상명아트센터의 대신홀..

엘사와 갈라쇼(EL Sa"awah Gala Show)가 펼쳐졌다. 

우리나라 락샤르키무용협회(대표 박지민)에서 벌써 10회 째 열고 있는 2024 EODF는 자리잡은 벨리댄스축제다.

EODF (El Sa"awah Oriental Dance Festival)

락샤르키(Raqs Sharki).. 생소한 말인 것 같지만 그리 생소하지 않다.

벨리댄스(Belly Dance)는 여성의 춤이고 상체와 골반의 움직임을 강조하여 자유롭게 추는 춤이다. 배꼽춤이라고 부르기도 하며 동양(동방)의 춤이라는 뜻을 가진 오리엔탈 댄스(Oriental dance)라고 부르기도 한다. 아랍 세계에서는 락샤르키(رقص شرقي, Raqs Sharqi), 튀르키예에서는 오리안탈 단스(Oryantal dans)라고 부르기도 한다. - Wikipedia _

일반인에게 어렵게 느껴젔던 벨리댄스 분야인데, 2024 EODF 갈라쇼를 보고 많이 친근해졌다.

 공부도 하게 된다.

다음은 Andrea Deagon 박사의 글 일부이다. 

 "In Search of the Origins of Dance" by Andrea Deagon, Ph.D.

On the other hand, once we acknowledge that the movements of Middle Eastern dance exist in many related dance traditions throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean rim, we may focus on more complex but better defined questions, for which answers may be possible.  One such question might be, what is the origin of raqs sharki (solo performance of Middle Eastern dance by a professional female dancer at celebratory functions) as we know it today?  This may in fact be what people mean when they ask, "How did belly dance begin?"  And it is a more answerable question.  Raqs sharki, like rock or jazz music, is a more definable phenomenon that a widespread folk art such as Middle Eastern dance or country music.  Similarly, specific elements of modern Middle Eastern dance, such as veils, sword dances, women"s cane dancing, and so on, have more approachable origins.

But even these more sophisticated questions of origins cannot be answered simply.  Any simple story is more likely myth than truth. The search for origins goes wide, and asks as many questions as it answers.  It seeks not a simple explanation but an elucidation of complex interrelationships.  To begin to explain the phenomenon of raqs sharki, one would need to investigate, among other things, the traditional role of women as professional performers; the roles of distinct ethnic groups such as the ghawazee; the social forces bearing on ordinary women in their dance expression in private and in public; the economic and artistic factors leading to key phenomena such as the formation of Badia Masabni"s club; the developments in music; the effects of recordings, radio, and film; influences from the West; the impact of influential artists; the roles of women in folk performance traditions.  The better we understand these phenomena, the better we will understand the development of raqs sharki in the Middle East, and the farther we will come from such simple explanations of origins as "in the harems" or "as a sacred dance."