From Little Egypt to Hollywood
"She walks, she talks, she crawls on her belly like a reptile."
Those were some of the words from the song “Little Egypt” https://youtu.be/QTbZqj-dlqk written in 1961 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for the R&B group the Coasters. I got to see the Coasters when they came to San Francisco and images of Little Egypt "strutting and wearing nothing but a button and a bow...with a "ruby on her tummy" made a big impression on this young female looking to discover her feminine powers. It also impressed other singers such as Elvis Presley who eventually also covered the song. In the song "Little Egypt," the Coasters continue with "She let her hair down and she did the hoochie-koochie real slow." What exactly does the word hootchie kootchie conjure up to you? In French the word hochequeue means to shake a tail, like shake a tail feather is much like "hiz ya wiz" or shake the goose. Egyptian audiences and bystanders often yell out "hiz ya wiz" when watching a belly dancer. It encourages the dancer to shake her booty.
As early as the 1890's the hootchie koochie referred to a sexually provocative dance done at carnival sideshows. It is also associated with the song "There's a place in France where the ladies wear no pants" that, in my childhood, kids used to hum whenever they'd see a sexy girl walk by. In 1893 Sol Bloom an entrepreneur who later became a U.S. Congressman published “The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid” song to go along with the Street in Cairo pavilion at the Chicago Columbian Exposition aka the World's Fair. https://youtu.be/THcamJ5WSFQ
"Poor little maid.
She never saw the streets of Cairo,
On the Midway she had never strayed,
She never saw the kutchy, kutchy,"
In this pavilion there were acrobats, snake charmers, camel rides and a scandalous dance performed by a Syrian woman named Farida Mazar Spyropoulos. She danced to “The “Streets of Cairo” song and this is probably why she was referred to as "Little Egypt."
The Street in Cairo pavilion was probably one of the most popular exhibits at this World's Fair and it certainly introduced the exotic element. In the dictionary exotic means originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country as in the exotic East. This would bring to mind images of Rudolph Valentino as the Sheikh of Araby or Theda Bara as a scantily clad Cleopatra. And so the word exotic brought on new connotations until finally today when it is also paired with the word dancer, we think "stripteaser." A stripteaser can be someone who slowly takes their clothes off in a sexually exciting way usually accompanied by music. But really an exotic dancer can be someone who takes pride in the art of stripping and turns it into an art form. And sometimes, actually often, the dance can take on a different spin and it can be burlesque. The word burlesque comes from the Italian (and Spanish) word burla meaning joke or mock. And so burlesco turned into burlesque and in theater went on to be a parody of something. In the United States burlesque acts were popular from clubs to theaters and often were striptease acts, even kind of funny.
At the same time, vaudeville which also had comedic undertones was quite popular in American venues. A typical vaudeville act included circus type trained animals, acrobats, jugglers, musicians, singers and dancers. Here is a clip showing vaudeville dancers described as burlesque. The first dancer in this clip could have been at the Street in Cairo pavilion. I believe she may have been a ghawazee. https://youtu.be/PsVQ9e8nWx0
Around the turn of the twentieth century there were three dancers actively making a mark by inventing new dance styles. At this time most popular and well known dances in the U.S. came from either ballet or vaudeville genres. However these three dancers, American born Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis and Mata Hari (Margaretha MacLeod) of the Netherlands all introduced America and the western world to what we now call modern and creative dance through their interests in the exotic. Isadora Duncan, influenced by Greek art, brought freedom through the fluidity of the veil and Ruth St. Denis and Mata Hari influenced by visions of the near, middle and far east, brought poetic license to borrow and change. All three paved the way to experimenting with dances foreign and unfamiliar in style and movement and music.
At first as controversial as the Little Egypt dances from the Chicago Exposition's Street in Cairo pavilion was, this new style of dance soon was revolutionizing the dance world. Here was modern dance. Here were dances from exotic lands. And it was now OK to experiment, to have poetic freedom and to create new dance styles.
Post World War 2 America saw three dancers from three very different backgrounds but with similar goals - to entertain and to pass on their knowledge. These three dancers Serena Willson of New York City, Bert Balladine of Yugoslavia/Germany and Magana Baptiste of El Salvador all perfected their Middle Eastern dance skills in the U.S.
Serena came from a vaudeville family, studied with Ruth St. Denis as a child, married a musician, was influenced by the Greek and Turkish dancers on Eighth Ave. and ended up working as a dancer in Arabic clubs in New York City. She also wrote one of the first "How to Belly Dance" books and her son is now carrying on the music and dance tradition..
As a child Bert grew up with his grandfather working in the circus and then traveling throughout Europe and Asia doing everything from ballet, comedy, Flamenco, character dance, eating fire and working with Egyptian belly dancers and burlesque dancers - basically vaudeville. Then he moved to America and ended up teaching belly dance and performing on Broadway in black light body paint as one of two people in a psychedelic nude love dance. .
Magana married a former Mr. America, opened a yoga and fitness gym and partnered with Jack LaLanne, the Godfather of modern fitness. The three would travel to conventions and Magana would lure them in as a Oriental dancer. Besides studying Hindu and Balinese dance with Devi Dja and Ruth St. Denis, she maintained a friendship with Miss St.Denis and later with Katherine Dunham also. Through all these influences she created a unique dance style of belly dance that also included dancing with snakes.
Those three dancers/teachers did a great deal to pave the way for what we would call American style Cabaret belly dance. All three did travel to the Middle East/Egypt and study with the dancers of Egypt's golden era and come back to the United States and in turn pass on their knowledge. But all three passed it on with a very uniquely American, vaudevillian, burlesque-ian and/or goddess/spiritual way due to their own personal influences. And this to me, is our American belly dance roots.
"Poor little maid.
She never saw the streets of Cairo,
On the Midway she had never strayed,
She never saw the kutchy, kutchy,"
"She let her hair down and she did the hoochie-koochie real slow, wo wo
When she did her special number on a zebra skin I thought she'd stop the show, wo wo
Singing, yeah-yeah
Yeah-yeah (a-gitcha-gitcha-gitcha)
Yeah-yeah
Yeah-yeah
She did a triple somersault and when she hit the ground
She winked at the audience and then she turned around"
"All the girls in France do the hootchie kootchie dance
And the way they shake, it would kill a rattlesnake."
So in conclusion, when I think of belly dance in America, I realize that this is where I think I found my roots. It was with American dancers and film stars. Here is a clip with Debra Paget, the all American girl, 1950's blockbuster film star turned born again Christian. https://youtu.be/eWKeSgv3oDw
But by the time I started dancing in the 1960's things had changed even more. The ten years between the 1950's to the 1960's were really the formative years for belly dancing that we know today. In my next blog I hope to continue this little history of belly dance in America and hope to include a lot of first hand observations and experiences.
The Aswan Dancers in Little Egypt at Cairo Cabaret 7