Double Edit: Folks, this happened at a Fashion Show in Manchester, not at any event to do with burlesque or anyone on here!!! That would never happen!

Yes, thats wat happend to me, Cherry Noir and Vienna Velvet at Strut Fashion show at lammars in the Northern quarter in Manchester tonight! Early in the night, the organiser came and told us to be "tasteful" cos her boss was worried about it....After I went on, apparently the funder complained saying that this kind of thing was not what the event was about! Despite the fact that most of the models were going on stage at one point more scantily clad...

That said, the girls running it did try really hard and were nice, and the crowd while I was on were very receptive, sad that one or two people have to spoil it for all. And we were doing it for free too!

In case you were curious, below is the act that was "too risque"...lol

Edit: It wasnt that they were offended by someone putting a twist on bellydance, they were offended by the concept of burlesque, and actually complained before they had even seen us or our costumes!

YouTube - autumn kisses at slippery belle

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What was it about? Not having a clue about the difference between strippers and a genius piece of properly entertaining burlesque. That was brilliant.

I say they don't know what they are talking about and surely if they were THAT worried about it - wouldn't they want to see a showreel or something?

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Feckin eejits. All I can say is, they must have very exciting lives...not. If that's not tasteful my name's Marjory. I see 18 year olds wearing far less and looking far less 'tasteful' every night of the week! Great video :0)

Perhaps they should've booked Pam Ayres to read some of her poetry whilst wearing a polo-necked jumper instead!

I agree with Lois Glasspool, Feckin eejits.

Loved your performance, and the knickers bit was just fab.

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I wonder who complained?

From the footage in the video it looks like the performer was combining traditional raqs sharqi moves with cheesecake burlesque moves and this makes me wonder whether an Arab / Muslim person might have taken great offense in a way they might not have done had the performer just delivered a more traditional burlesque performance?

I've met a lot of Arab raqs sharqi performers over the years and, as you must be aware, any diversion from 'modest' dress and traditional dance moves are viewed with outrage by the more traditional performers.

Western people often don't realise just how seriously Arab people, and especially Arab performers, take their raqs sharqi. They feel that they are fighting an ongoing battle against the sexualisation and exoticisation (are they words? - well you know what I mean) of their traditional dance, which has historically been a dance performed by women for other women to help tone the muscles that will be used in childbirth.

The fact that the cabaret style of Oriental dance has been sexualised and corrupted via a western influence is a source of constant outrage and hurt to professional oriental dancers who, given the chance, will lecture anyone who will listen on how and why their dance is nothing like stripping or burlesque.

In Egypt there have been massive scandals when raqs sharqi performers have worn clothing that exposes the navel (Egyptian performers by law must cover their belly with net or place a large jewel inside the navel to conceal it), wore 'immodest' clothing such as lycra cycling shorts or bikinis to perform in or danced using movements considered obscene or vulgar.

I was speaking to a Turkish bellydancer a couple of weeks ago about my favourive performer Rachel Brice, founder of the Indigo dance troupe in SF, and this Turkish woman went ballistic about how Rachel had corrupted bellydance and ws a bad influence of the scene. If you've ever seen Rachel perform, her dance looks like a Gothic inspired raqs sharqi / yoga hybrid, which is pretty much what it is, nothing overtly sexual about it.

So, I suppose what I'm saying is that, to my knowledge, to perform traditional belly dance combined with what are seen as erotic movements as the performer in the video does, is going to create massive offense to an audience wholly or partly consisting of some Arabs and / or Turks and Egyptians.

Anyway, I just wondered if this might be an issue. I know that if a traditional belly dancer had seen the performance in the video there would have been sparks flying (at the very least - possibly and actual fight at the end). Seriously.

Next time you might want to do something less provocative, like burn an effigy of the Prophet Mohammad

You might want to check out some links
Preservation of belly dance history.

and here's a video of Rachel, just so you can see how outrageous her performance is
YouTube - Rachel Brice performs at Tribal Fest 6

Ophelia xx

edited to add

I've just noticed where the event took place
Manchester - that well known city with no Muslims living there LOL
What were you thinking OP?

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something wicked this way comes

Wow
thanks for that I had not even thought of that as I have a routine that incorporates Belly dancing to.
Diva x

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Thank you for the link to Rachel Brice, she really is amazing!

I love belly dance myself and I combine raqs sharqi moves with Jamaican dancehall moves, not as a professional performer, but just because when I hear filthy basslines my body takes over and I have to submit to the bass and all the dance moves I've learned just somehow click into place without me thinking about it. I wouldn't dance like this in a belly dance costume though, for all the reasons I've described in my earlier post.

I do think you have to be extremely careful, especially in such sensitive times, not to cause offense by taking a dance form that is cherished as a symbol of national and religious pride and making it into something else that people will experience as an attacking and disrespectful parody.

On the other hand, if you're performing at a burlesque event, it's less likely that anyone who might be offended will be there. I wonder if the OP's problem was performing at a fashion event where the likelihood of people being offended was pretty high

Ophelia xx

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something wicked this way comes

My pleasure

she's an inspiration isn't she?

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something wicked this way comes

She really is, I can't get her out of my mind now, she is breathtaking.