Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing [Hardcover]

Rosina-Fawzia B. Al-Rawi (Author), Monique Arav (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1999

Come, sit next to me, says Grandmother. Take this chalk in your hand. Now draw a dot and concentrate all your energy into this one dot. It is the beginning and the end, the navel of the world. So Fawzia Al-Rawi describes her grandmother's first lesson about the ancient craft of Oriental dance. Grandmother's Secrets always circles back to this grandmother and this young girl, echoing the circular movements of the dance itself. Al-Rawi has written a strikingly graceful and original book that blends personal memoir with the history and theory of the dance known in the West as belly dancing. It is the story of a young Arab girl as she is initiated into womanhood. It is a history of the dance from the earliest times through the days of the Pharoahs, the Roman Empire, to the Arab world of the last three centuries. It is a personal investigation into the effects of the dance's movements on individual parts of the body and the whole psyche. It is a guide to the actual techniques of the dance for those who are inspired to put down the book and move. Al-Rawi conveys in this book not only the history and technique of grieving and mourning dances, pregnancy and birth dances, but the spirit of these age-old rituals, and their possibilities for healing and empowering women today. Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi grew up in Iraq and Lebanon and was educated at the Universities of Cairo and Vienna. She is an expert in Arabic studies and ethnology, and the author of Golden Sky, Red Earth: Women's Lives in Palestine. She lives in Jerusalem and Vienna, where she teaches belly dancing.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

After recounting her own childhood and coming of age in the Arab world, Al-Rawi reviews the history of women's dancing and reflects on the individual movements used in this ancient art form. In a section titled "Variations and Rituals," she describes nine different dances (e.g., the Wedding Dance, the Birth Dance) and sets them in context. Photographs evoke the mood of each dance, suggesting a general impression rather than step-by-step instruction. The narrative, however, supplies enough detail that the interested reader may wish to try a dance. Throughout, Al-Rawi relates movement to ideas and art to philosophy so that, in her words, "belly dancing becomes a source of inspiration, a means of collecting and strengthening oneself, and a clear and dynamic way of discovering...and understanding oneself." An interesting glimpse into a culture, an art form, and a means for women's healing and self-expression; suitable for most circulating collections, especially those whose readers are interested in Arab culture, dance, and women's studies.ACarolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Hardcover: 158 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Inc; 1st American ed edition (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156656302X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566563024
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #331,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Dance > Reference

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Theory and Heart of Belly Dancing, June 6, 2000

By 

Linda Shepherd (Issaquah, Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing (Hardcover)

Step into a women's world of black abayas, large gatherings of women and children chatting, drinking tea, eating Arabic sweets-and dancing. "Excitement always reached its peak when one of the women got up to turn on the music, tie a scarf around her hips, and slowly sway into another world, dancing for us. All attention focused on her, tension grew in the bodies of the other women. They stood up, their eyes filling with an old, so far forgotten knowledge as they began to spur on the dancer-'How beautiful is the shape of her eyes, blessed be Allah!' 'Hold your head high, proud Fatima!' 'Look how softly her hips are circling!' The onlookers clapped in rhythm and trilled shrilly, conveying their enthusiasm...."

Written by a woman raised in the Middle Eastern culture of Baghdad, the book begins with Rosina's stories of how her grandmother introduced her to dance as a young girl, where dance pervaded their lives. She gives a fascinating multi-cultural history of women's dancing, advocates attaining awareness through dancing (doing any movement), and then describes each movement with its benefits, from head to toe. "The art of expressing moods, states of mind, and experiences through dancing is based on movements and shapes that are meant to strengthen the body, keep it flexible, and prepare the dancer for life."

The content is excellent and the writing style is engaging. There are black-and-white photos throughout. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

65 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Using belly dance for personal growth and healing, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing (Hardcover)

As a veteran belly dancer (since 1981) and a teacher of the dance, I had mixed feelings about this book.

The opening section, consisting of anecdotes about the author's childhood, was fascinating to read. Each anecdote was told to present a lesson.

The second section, on the history of women's dance, was light in content. It was okay, but anyone who wants to know about the history of the dance won't find much here.

The third and fourth sections, suggesting how to use belly dance movements for personal growth, healing, and spiritual fulfillment, are the real meat of this book. The author provided new ways of looking at familiar movements.

An experienced dancer who is looking for new dimensions to the dance will probably enjoy this book very much, as I did. The exercises provide a source of creative inspiration as well as contributing to an overall feeling of well being.

However, a beginner who is hoping to find a book that will teach her how to become a belly dance performer will find this book disappointing. While some of the exercises are based on moves that would be used in a performance, others are not. There is no information about what kind of music to use, and no suggestion of how to combine moves into a show.

The biggest negative to this book is that it doesn't differentiate between the author's ideas about historical fact and how various moves might be used in ritual. For example, when describing "The Veil Dance", the author says "A woman dances the knowledge of the new living creature that can be born from her. She dances the eternal return of life; even without children, she dances this awareness of life that comes to her from the rhythms inside. She dances Eros beyond the loving embrace; she dances the place in-between, the time between birth and death that is called life." Interesting. The historical fact is that the modern Egyptian practice of beginning one's raqs sharqi performance holding a flowing piece of fabric (ie, veil) arose when a Russian dance coach named Ivanova instructed Samia Gamal to enter with a piece of fabric as a way of improving her arm carriage.

The author's narrative can provide fertile inspiration for a dancer seeking new sources of creative inspiration for her performance, so it's legitimate to put these ideas out there. But I wish she would have acknowledged them to be her own interpretation rather than letting the reader believe she's stating historical fact.

I actually enjoyed the book very much, but I gave it only 3 stars because of my concern it will mislead readers about the history and ethnic context of the dance.

63 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars enh., August 10, 2000

By 

Nadira Jamal of the Improvisation Toolkit (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing (Hardcover)

This book has its good points and its bad points.

The firstsection (stories from the author's childhood) is lovely. I only wish it were longer.

The second (the "history" of women's dancing) was a weakly-argued and poorly-supported rant. And while I am inclined to agree with many of her conclusions due to my own opinions and biases, the author didn't make much of a case on her own. Most of what she presents as fact is really conjecture.

The third section attempts to introduce middle eastern dance movements, but the descriptions are not specific enough to follow unless you already know the move. Pictures would have helped; the book has several, but they don't illustrate the moves (with the exeption of the hand posture photo, which was excellent). Not that you can learn any dance form from a book, but this one is unusually unhelpful. This section isn't entirely useless, though. If you're already enrolled in a class, it can give you another perspective on the movements you're learning. I've always found it helpful to have them explained another way.

The fourth section is a description of some dance occasions (birth, weddings, etc.) and the dances that accompany them. However, the descriptions are short and vague, and by this point in the book, I don't quite trust the author anymore, so I'm wary of the authenticity of what she has to say.

I seemed to have bashed this book, but it has its place. The stories in the first section were certainly worth reading. And while it didn't actually teach me anything, this book helped me to add a sort of meaning to my dancing; it gave me a focus and attitude that helped transform what I was doing from just exercising to actually dancing. And that is a valuable and important thing. However, the language is VERY New-Agey. I've hugged my share of trees, but it got to me after a while. If you don't have a good tolerance for that kind of thing, skip this book or only read one section at a time ... END