LEBANON-MALE BELLY DANCER Lebanese male belly dancer captivates Beiruti audience

Record ID: 154707

  • Title: LEBANON-MALE BELLY DANCER Lebanese male belly dancer captivates Beiruti audience
  • Date: 20th May 2015
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MEMBER OF THE AUDIENCE, LEBANESE WOMAN FAYYOUZ, SAYING: "It was very nice. The atmosphere was decent, and his dance is amazing, he is dancing with emotions. With regard to the idea that only women dance and men are not allowed to, I say this is a talent that one has and you can not stop it."
  • Embargoed: 4th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3ZMJTC0CNQEJKPY15DA4PSNJB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Thirty three-year-old Lebanese male belly dancer, Alexandre Paulikevitch, moves his body to the rhythm of Lebanese and Egyptian songs, performed live, during his new cabaret-like show called 'Baladi Ya Wad', an Egyptian term for popular art of belly dancing.
    Paulikevitch's great ancestors left what is now known as Croatia in 1860 to settle in the Levant region then, now Lebanon.
    "This show is for me a tribute to all the female dancers who made me love this dance, to all the black-and-white Egyptian movies, to all Cairo's cabarets in the thirties, forties and fifties, and to all Lebanon's cabarets in the nineties, because we are losing something. We are losing a certain common culture, there is a lack of folk art because it is being considered as a deficient art, and I am so happy to be performing this deficient art because if you perform it in a genuine way, it can be more beautiful than classic ballet and the opera," said Paulikevitch from Beirut's Metro al-Madina theatre before taking to the stage.
    Paulikevitch, who has been dancing professionally for 14 years, was known in his previous work to have a contemporary approach to belly dancing. But 'Baladi Ya Wad' comes to present him in a different, more original form, during the over 80-minute long show.
    ''This was a challenge for me. Yes, ok, I have a contemporary approach and I am doing something no one in the world is doing but I come from here, I come from a cabaret culture. First, why wouldn't I give it its importance? And second, the latest period was tiring for me with all the wars and events happening in the region. I think people have had enough from politics, heavy conceptual issues, they want to take a breath. We are tired," Paulikevitch said about the difference between 'Baladi Ya Wad' and his first four shows.
    Paulikevitch is accompanied on stage throughout the show by a group of musicians, a singer and a performer who interact with the audience from time to time. 'Baladi Ya Wad''s guest singer Ranine Chaar also joins Paulikevitch for a performance at one point, for which the audience showed their appreciation with loud cheers.
    "I found it so new and very beautiful. Honestly and not to exaggerate, but this was never done in the Arab World before. If you look at all dance performances, there was never a male wearing a dancing suit accompanied by a female professional singer singing for him. The way I describe it is that I am dancing for him with my voice and he is singing to me with his body. I am very happy about this experience and even more proud to be part of it, I am very proud," 33-year-old Chaar, who described Paulikevitch as 'an exceptional case', told Reuters TV.
    Paulikevitch has been attracting audience to sold out shows for weeks in Lebanon, where people mostly associate belly dancing with women.
    "It was very nice. The atmosphere was decent, and his dance is amazing, he is dancing with emotions. With regard to the idea that only women dance and men are not allowed to, I say this is a talent that one has and you can not stop it," said a member of the audience, Lebanese housewife Fayyouz.
    And just like Fayyouz, Lebanese businessman Charbel, in his thirties, loved the show and agreed it was time to consider male belly dancing as just another form of art.
    "First of all, it was amazing. Second, we should overcome this taboo about the combination of a male and belly dancing being considered wrong; on the contrary, he is showing us that dance is an art," Charbel commented.
    'Baladi Ya Wad' shows have been extended due to public demand. It runs in Beirut's Metro al-Madina theatre on weekly shows until the third of June, but Paulikevich expects it may be extended for a second time.
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