Legends and Pioneers of Belly Dance - Dancer to Dancer with "Morocco"

I will never forget the first time I met Morocco (Auntie Rocky as many of us call her). We were walking across a parking lot - headed into Rakkasah. She was just back from Cairo - - home with what she called “The Cairo Crud”. Being sick, and coughing like crazy did not affect her energy or stamina in the least. The rest of us were nearly running to keep up with her.  It is this boundless energy and zest for life along with her incredible sense of humor, love for our art and the culture from where it is born, and her heart of gold. There are not enough words to describe how I feel about this amazing woman. I just hope to have done her justice - here in the pages of The “Belly Dancer” Magazine. . . Zaina Hart

We give you the incomparable: “MOROCCO”

BIOGRAPHY OF MOROCCO

Morocco (Carolina Varga Dinicu) is considered the leading performer & authority in her field in the U.S., Canada and abroad, evidenced by frequent invitations to teach master seminars and perform in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Australia, Israel, Egypt, England, Morocco, Brazil and Italy.

She was awarded two grants by the State Council on the Arts for her choreography in 1972 and 1981 - first in her field to be so honored and the only two-time recipient - 3 NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Community Service Grants, 3 Summer Program Grants, a Materials for the Arts Grant and an Arts Exposure Grant. She was one of the first inducted into the AAMED Mideastern Dance Hall of Fame as "World Class" for "International proliferation of her art, her myriad of talent and for her untiring pioneering in this, her chosen field of ethnic dance", was named 1997 Instructor of the Year by IAMED, was voted Best Dancer & Best Instructor + Casbah Dance Experience was named Best Troupe of the Year 2 years in a row by Mideastern Dancer magazine. Morocco was also voted Ethnic Dancer of the Year in '97, Instructor of the Year in '98 & given the Lifetime Achievement award in 2002 by Zaghareet Magazine.

Morocco's research video series (#s1-6) was given the Giza Award in 2000, an interview with her, describing her philosphy & some of her life's experiences, was commissioned by the Dance Division of the Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts in NYC to be placed its Oral History Archives for future researchers & she was nominated for the Dance Heritage Coalition's list of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures".

In July, 1999, Morocco was invited to Cairo, Egypt to present her paper (as a keynote speaker) on "Dance as Community Identity in Selected Berber Nations of Morocco" & to give 2 dance workshops, one in Raks Sharki (Oriental Dance) & the other in Moroccan Guedra & Schikhatt, at the international conference of the UNESCO organization ICHPER-SD (International Council on Health, Physical Ed., Recreation - Sport & Dance). In May, 2001, she was also honored for her more than 41 years' work in this field at the 2nd International Conference on Mideastern Dance at Orange County Community College in California. She lectured twice again in Cairo on apects of Oriental dance in 2000 & 2002, at Raqia Hassan's weeklong seminar & presented a paper ("Preserving Cultural Traditions: Difficulties Inherent in Adapting Guedra for Stage") at the International Federation of Theater Research's Congress, held at the University of

Amsterdam (Holland) in July, 2002.

Since 1964, Morocco has written regularly for several publications in her field and been reprinted in dance, medical and feminist publications in the U.S., Germany, Sweden, Finland and Norway. She continues her extensive performing career as a soloist and with her dance company, including Lincoln Center, the U.N. (General Assembly and Dag Hammerskjold Theater), Delacorte Dance Festival, Columbia University, Statue of Liberty, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, lecture/performances for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Asia Society and Museum of Natural History, in Moscow And Leningrad (USSR), on Broadway ("I Had A Ball"), her own TV Special: "Testspiele" (WDR#l/Koln, Germany), 1st Women's Festival of the Performing Arts, numerous U.S. TV shows and films, *4* 5-Lecture Series at the Museum of Natural History and innumerable clubs and ethnic/family celebrations.  Director/researcher/choreographer of Morocco & the Casbah Dance Experience (Mideastern and North African dance & music in concert), her award-winning non-profit, tax-exempt dance company and school [501 c]3] IRS Tax Code), which had its debut at Lincoln Center in '78 and was the only dance company to be presented five times at Riverside Dance Festival, which also honored CASBAH by placing a tape of their '83 concert in its permanent archive (1 of 4 shown at their '85 fundraiser!). Morocco created the Casbah Dance Experience to show the varied, fascinating ethnic dance forms of the Mideast and North Africa to the general public and give "a bit of home" to North Africans and Mideasterners in the West. She's spent over 39 years trying to find, recover, preserve and present them before they disappear, due to modernization and/or fundamentalism. It's a valuable heritage that must be saved from extinction!

DANCER TO DANCER * MOROCCO

BY OBERON

Reviews, Interviews, commentaries, Biographics, articles - the amount of print around Morocco, (Carolina Varg Dinicu) , (Performer, teacher, writer, research scientist, Mensa member, videographer, world traveler and guide and indeed student of the Universe) the Dancer, is dazzling in it's enormity. Grasping the essence of a legend is impossible, because of it's indefinableand ever changing borders.

The dictionary offers up this explanation of a legend - a story, or a group of stories, handed down. Sometimes it's good to scrape away the glitter and the gloss, scratch through the debris and get to the hard bare facts hiding in the nude underneath. During the weekend of my first 5 hour, "Morocco" work-shop, (during which she danced approximately 40 of us "under the table"), listening intently as she attempted to educate us with more than just the steps we were learning, then watching, as she performed two lengthy pieces in a large show that very same night. As she generously and without the least pretension, awarded me hours of her time to try to capture a fragment of her style, energy and vibrancy, I began to understand that I was right there, during the creation of the legend that is Morocco. If I pass along to you the merest hint of her unflinchingly forthright, independent and endlessly curious spirit, I'll try to be satisfied - in her own words………Visiting Morocco

O:        Since there is so much written about you Morocco, I am asking permission to repeat parts of the biographical information so that you won't have to repeat it.

M:       Certainly.

O:        In your opinion, in Middle Eastern Dance, who is your definition of a Legend. (While her answer was as follows, Morocco spoke with deep respect regarding Tahiya Carioca, Samia Gamal, Nahed Sabry and Mahmoud Reda - which I felt was of interest to mention).

M:       I decline to answer, because what is legendary to one, may not be to others. People, who are actually doing the real, dedicated work in this dance form, may not be self promoters and will remain virtually unknown outside of a small circle of the cognoscenti and there are those, who are continual self promoters, who may develop cults around themselves, to the determent of the dance.

The problem is that most people are more easily seduced by the fantasy versions of the dance, because they have finite borders and are much more easily learned. Realities leave more responsibility up to you, they are far more, wide - ranging and all encompassing, taking far more presence, artistically, mentally and physically. You are responsible for the result.

Also, some fantasies are physically injurious and can carry a lot of misinformation. Many of the fantasies stem from racism or are a result of sexism, i.e. colonialist / racist / puritanical visions of any dark races being "child-like", "sensual" reclining, submissive "harem honeys".  BALONEY ! As was also demonstrated with the totally erroneous colonial connotation placed on Hula by the body fearing missionaries, nothing to do with reality.

When colonials "moved in" on a culture, their #1 target was education system, the molding of young hearts and minds. Generations they have "molded", will "look down" on their own cultures, in the guise of "sophistication". In the book, "God of Small Things" by Satvajit Roy, one of the paragraphs explains it nicely.  "We spend all this time, ridding ourselves of Colonialism, only to find out, that we are left "looking down" on the same things about our culture that they did and we come to hate the very things about ourselves that make us who we are…".

So, charisma, creativity, determination and organization are all laudable, but with all that comes, responsibility, especially if you teach.

O:        So when, in your opinion, or what, makes a person ready to teach this dance.

M:       When I started teaching in this field, it was because I had two steps to rub together. No teaching was available really, nothing was written, and information was really still being passed down by the grandmothers, aunties, relatives. We, in America, invented courses and put ridiculous names on them. So, I really can't quantify a specific time-line.  Some people are ready after a relatively short time in the dance, others shouldn't teach after 40 years in the same dance. Our dance is a language. I try to teach the basic vocabulary, then the more advanced one… I teach the movements that are the letters to make up the words and phrases and sentences of the dance - and how to put them together, so that the expression ends up being ethnically correct, a musically correct interpretation and YOU, and not a clone of me. One of me is enough to feed. Thank You!

Some people go forward and write essays, some write poetry - but, what kind of essays and poetry? Some write sagas, some write Haiku. Whether or not they can transmit their story to me, to the audience, is another question. All I can say is that it took me a hell of a lot longer to learn how to teach, than it took me to learn how to dance.

O:        Are there things you believe a teacher should never do?

M:       Sure. Never humiliate, or inflict your "ego trip" upon a student. It's an honor if someone trusts you to teach them: it's not unlike a parent - child relationship when it comes to the trust. It's similar to child abuse or even rape, to abuse this trust, this honor.

O:        Are there things a teacher should always do?

M:       Encourage with positive re-enforcement. We work away at "this and that", continue to improve and hone and now you have something concrete, then we can "nit - pick" and perfect it further.  Here's a story of one of my teachers, my Flamenco teacher, Carmencita Lopez, knew that I didn't have the money for more than one lesson a week. She traded me the second lesson, for tutoring her fiancée in the English language. I later found out, her fiancée, had a PhD in English, from the University of Buenos Aires. He needed English lessons like a fish needs a bicycle. She just didn't want me to feel obligated.

O:        So, How did you learn the language of this dance.

M:       Because I had studied Flamenco and other dance forms already, I wanted to know everything about anything that captivates me. I knew what training was, and because I'm a "freakin' scientist", I'd see women and grannies dancing at the ethnic restaurant where I was performing - I'd see steps that I liked, I'd trap the women in the bathroom and ask if they'd teach me. They'd invite me to their homes and teach me the steps.  Around 1963, I learned there would be a Moroccan Pavilion at the World Fair. I researched and obtained a phone number, and called the people involved. "Hi! You don't know me - I'm an oriental dancer and my name is Morocco. Don't you think it would be great publicity, for you to have a dancer named Morocco performing at the Moroccan Pavilion". The male voice on the phone asked me to wait, and then assuming that I couldn't speak French, said (in French), "Rashid, get over here - you gotta hear this!" I repeated my suggestion for Rashid. The phone was dropped and hysterical laughter ensued. However, when they were composed enough to continue our conversation, they did invite me to the preliminary rehearsals of many real Moroccan performers that the King was sending over. It led to life long friendships, to my going "over there" to see and learn the real stuff in real places, starting with Goulmime in 1963. The wife of Hassan, the man that answered that phone call, later took me to witness a child-birth ceremony I wrote about in my article "Roots".

O:        Why did you choose the dance name Morocco?

M:       I didn't.

(This part is taken from Wind and Spirit Bio'. by Linda Solomon. It saves re-telling by, but is sanctioned by Morocco). "I was a Flamenco Dancer with the Ballet Espanol Ximenez-Vargas and we were rehearsing at a Manhattan Studio.  There was no pay for rehearsals and I was getting skinny. A Greek Priest, who was a friend, told me he had a job for me paying $125.00 a week. I went with my guitarist to the restaurant, "Arabian Nights", (unfortunately no longer in existence).

(Shortening the story here - Carolina, wearing full flamenco flounced dress, auditioned for the owner of the restaurant who then says….Morocco adds the accent)….

"We don't want Spanish dancers - we want "bally dancers".  I said "WHAT? Had never seen it…Never heard of it…did not know from nothing! She sits me down on all my ruffles and frills and says "Watch"! Out came a Klutz with a capital "K", she "danced" as if she had palsy. She wasn't blessed in any other way either, with rolls of fat where no human has them and not only an appendix scar that looked like it was done with a can opener, but caesarean and gall bladder scars as well. None of which she attempted in any way to hide with make-up, sequins or anything else. I looked at the owner and said, "if I can't do better than that, I would hand in my feet"! I had more guts than brains at that time.

(Morocco auditioned again, in the previous dancer's HUMUNGOUS bra, and a "teeny – weeny little belt and skirt, "which in my ignorance, I wore backwards. I got out there and slunk from one end of the dance floor to the other…I thought I was "hot shit"! No-one threw rotten eggs, yes they even threw some money").

(The owner admitted that, although she was not a Middle Eastern Dancer, Carolina was a Dancer. She hired her and it was she who named her).  She said I looked Moroccan so my name was to be Morocco. I thought…"YUK".

O:        So did you have any memorable experiences from those early years that you'd care to share with us?

M:        There was the time in 1961 that I was onstage, which jutted out only 8" or so away from the first table of diners. I was moving along dancing, stopping for a moment then moving again…and just as I felt something "Squishy" between my toes, some guy yells up at me, "Hey Morri (it's Greek for baby), you step in my mash potato". I looked down to see that I had indeed traveled into his dinner. I apologized, wiped my feet off with his napkin and returned to the stage. Now, when I'm asked for high-lights of my career, I can say that one of them was, "doing the mashed potato".

O:        Didn't you ever experience, performance anxiety… get nervous?

M:       If there is never any "stage fright", it's because you're "looped", or you just don't give a damn about the quality of your performance. Seriously, when you care about what you're sending out to your audience, your natural adrenaline kicks in, and you're "on" natural speed! Of course you're gonna feel weird! You want it to be perfect, wonderful.

My advice is, take a moment, and focus on breathing slowly. The butterflies will begin to fly in a nice "V" formation. In other words, you will be in control of them.

O:        What is the role of students in this dance who choose not to perform, or who do not fit the profile of a commercial performer?

M:       Any student, seriously studying this dance, fits into one niche or another. "Commercial" isn't the only category / standard. I am reminded of Rod Sterling's, "Eye of the Beholder", where people are observed as shadows through gauze, lamenting the "ugliness" of a patient that can not be made "beautiful". As it turns out, the patient is beautiful by human standards, while the "lamenters" would be considered, "freakish". I am saying, this is a "Folk Dance", folks come in all ages, shapes and sizes. There is a place for everyone, not just professionals. There is a place for those who dance for fun or just want to take classes for exercise.

O:        So what thrills you about a performance… moves you to tears or joy?

M:       Someone who can "become" the movement because they feel and love the music. They can share it with me because they've learned the language of the dance and have developed their communication skills.

O:        In this dance, what in your opinion is the relationship between Musician and Dancer?

M:       "Over There" the Musicians work for the dancers. They are abundantly available, and they played exactly what the dancer asks for, or they are replaced. Not everyone here, who thinks he can play Middle Eastern Music is a great musician, or in fact, even competent. I'm at an advantage, because I can tell the incompetent or power tripping ones in their own language, "Don't screw with me!" They could then play "Come to Jesus" in "Cha-cha Rhythm", and I could dance to it.  There are some wonderful musicians here, with whom it is a privilege to work and I'd walk through fire to dance to their music. They know who they are and how I feel about them.

O:        So, do you have favorite choices in Music?

M:       No, because I refuse to be limited. I enjoy a good solid beat, or, something dreamy and romantic…maybe even plaintive, or a great "kick-ass" drum.

O:        You teach and dance extensively on both American coasts - do you see differences in style of dance even here?

M:       Oh sure. To me, East Coast has a much faster paced energy - I think it's due to the pace of life there - more time working, less to spend on dance - so faster pace, and more wanting the real thing. Real technique, real facts, but for most, classes are more of leisure activity on the way home from work. The West Coast is more "car mobile", so more communication, and with Hollywood closer…more fantasy, more varieties of fantasy. The much better weather is also a factor… 

O:        What are the differences between American Dance and "Over There"?

M:        Oh - for one thing, there is no such label as, "Belly Dance". In the Middle East, it's Raks Sharki, or in Lebanon it is sometimes called Raks Farrah, "Happiness Dance". In Turkey, it's called Oryantal Tansi or Raks I Shahane …There is nothing called "belly" anything EXCEPT for a comic Turkish wedding "gobek" dance, where two men chase each other all over with faces painted on their abdomens, one male and one female…until at the end of the dance the bellies meet and "kiss". There aren't the labels or the ridiculous categories we invent and apply here. 

For example; Cabaret. No! It's a total fraud that was deliberately created to delineate between one group of fantasists and another who choose to wear professional costumes with beads and sequins. There is no such discussion over there. In fact, in the Middle East and the rest of the world, a cabaret is a low class dump, a dive - like the whorehouse dive in the movie "Cabaret".  We want labels for everything - it's not real and often opens us up to ridicule as a result.  There's a whole lot of theatre going on here too. I enjoy the heck out of good theatre, but you should know the difference between authentic and imagined, folklore and fakelore...

O:        My friend Joumana asks you, "Has Hollywood influenced the dance in the Middle East, has the "ping-pong" effect between the two countries blurred the lines between "real" and fantasy?"

M:       The first night club, the Opera Casino, was started in the 1930's in Cairo by Badia Masabni.  It was based on British Music Halls to attract colonial upper class and their Ottoman collaborators.  Another example is veilwork. I've seen performances with veil that made me cry, but veil is not and never was used this way in Oriental dance. Waving fabric around artistically began with Lois Fuller in the USA.

O:        Far'ha asks your opinion. Are future generations carrying the dance, forward. Is there any "pure" folkloric dance left?

M:       Unfortunately, because folkloric traditions are now considered backwards, (thanks to the aforementioned colonialist brainwashing passing as "education"), not many up-coming generations choose to become involved. About the only "real" group left is Abderrahman Es Shaffei's group, Firqua Masr el Samer, and it is far smaller than it used to be due to the lack of funding.

Also, with the advance of religious fundamentalism, people like, the Sinti "Gypsies", the Gahwazee have seen their way of life, out-lawed.  The dances of the Ouled Nail of Algeria, were totally suppressed after the socialist revolution overthrew the French Colonialists in the mid 1960's.

O:        Are there things about the way the dance has developed, here in America, you would change if you could?

M:       Mmmm…the average level of skill now is far, far higher than it was when I started, (there were some great dancers but they were few and far between). What used to be considered a good professional wouldn't even get a job as a beginner now-days. This is great!!!!  But there are still an awful lot of people, who think Oriental dance is showing off calisthenics or strutting around and posing instead of dancing, or being "belly bunnies" - catering to the fantasist cliché instead of doing the real dance. Every Art comes with license, but you have to know when to apply it, when not too and to admit it when you do.

O:        And so Morocco, is there a particular question that I've failed to ask you - that you wish was in this interview.

M:       How should I know…….as it's probably about something I haven't done…..YET!