I’ve
decided to lay off the politics for a while and get back to writing about
dance. Though admittedly, there's not
much of a difference…
I’ve been wanting to write about
Egyptian dance festivals for a while, but have refrained for fear of pissing
people off. Now, I no longer care. I've realized that no matter what you do, people
will be pissed, so you might as well give them a reason. Like telling the truth. Which is exactly what I will do in this
post. I want to talk about what really
goes on in the world of dance festivals.
Not that we don’t all already know.
But after 5 years of witnessing this stuff, I feel like sharing it. Because what I’ve discovered is that the
policies, practices, and philosophies that go into creating festivals have
nothing to do with art, and everything to do with greed. And it’s high time someone called it
out.
The original idea of creating A
dance festival in Egypt was brilliant. It
was intended to be an annual event in
which the best of Egypt’s folklore and belly dancers would teach foreign dance
enthusiasts. Licensed foreigners
performing in Egypt would also be featured.
The mission was to promote Egyptian dance. The rationale was that since belly dance originated
in Egypt, who better to teach it than Egyptians and foreigners licensed to
dance in Egypt?
