- Title: LEBANON: MOUSBAH BAALBAKI IS LEBANON'S TOP MALE BELLY DANCER
- Date: 14th May 2005
- Summary: (MER1) BEIRUT, LEBANON (MAY 14, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF MOUSBAH BAALBAKI, MALE BELLY DANCER, PERFORMING AT MUSIC HALL NIGHTCLUB'S STAGE IN BEIRUT 0.20 2. VARIOUS OF BAALBAKI USING DANCING CANE ON STAGE 0.31 3. VARIOUS OF BAALBAKI DANCING/ AUDIENCE 0.43 4. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) BELLY DANCER, MOUSBAH BAALBAKI, SA
- Embargoed: 29th May 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Reuters ID: LVA7V1KDGB3WQ5VGPQMYBSZIOQ4D
- Story Text: Lebanon's top male belly dancer claims he is a
'ten-minute king' on stage.
As the ringing Arabic music picks up the pace, wild
cheers are heard as Mousbah Baalbaki, Lebanon's top male
belly dancer, twists his hips in sweeping circles and turns
to face his audience.
Baalbaki moves freely to the music and controls his
motions in a professional way, teasing his audience and
galvanises the stage. He knows how to master the show.
From pre-adolescence, the Lebanese boy always felt the
rhythm. Ever since his childhood, all he wanted to do was
dance.
"I always remember since I was a child, that people would gather
around me whenever I danced. When I started dancing, I felt I was
'odd', I felt wrong, but later on I found out that because I dance
very well, people are noticing me. I like to dance. I can't hear music - any kind
of music - without feeling it entering my body and then I
can't help expressing myself," said the 33-year-old male
belly dancer who started dancing at the age of 26.
Traditionally, belly dancing was reserved for women,
not ones from respectable families, and certainly not for
men.
In a country like Lebanon where strong masculine
character is considered a must for a man, some people see a
male belly dancer disfiguring the whole image. But Baalbaki
has successfully broken those rules.
Baalbaki says he was encouraged by his close friends.
His family, Baalbaki says, were not happy with the idea at
first, but they seem happy now with their son's belly
dancing fame.
"It is not wrong. Yes for Arabs it was wrong. We are
raised, especially through the old Egyptian movies, that we
only see women dancing Arabic belly dancing. So men - when
they expresses their bodies through dancing, it was weird
to think why would a guy want to move his body, so it was
wrong. I didn't feel wrong, but I felt 'odd', in the sense
that maybe I should not belly dance," he said.
The Lebanese belly dancer says he must work hard on
keeping his figure in shape and his physical appearance
well.
"I deprive myself from a lot of things. First of all, I
deprive myself from food, I like to eat a lot but I can't
eat everything I like. Then I have to work out three times
a week, for two and a half hours a day. I have to keep in
shape as much as possible. My clothes, for example, I must
get something new tailored because I never wear the same
outfit twice. So imagine, you have to think of the fashion,
get the material, give it to a tailor, and this is all
during the week. I have to work hard for what I do," said
Baalbaki wearing a striped black jacket with a silver
design on the chest.
Beside his astonishing dancing, Baalbaki always finds a
way to add some magic to the scene on stage, by holding a
cane, biting it with his teeth or whipping it in the air.
Although using a stick and shimmying shoulders is
purely a female belly dancer way to express her body
through music, Baalbaki says that he will use the same
techniques, not caring about gossip or criticism he may
face because of it.
Baalbaki, a communication arts graduate, worked as an
assistant director on several local television shows and as
a fashion editor in for a magazine.
Now he's only profession is belly dancing.
Baalbaki's act has proven a hit in cosmopolitan Beirut
where he has regular bookings at clubs and gives occasional
performances at wedding receptions. An album of music for
belly dance is soon to come out in his name.
Most of Baalbaki's fans are women, and many say that
they love him because he is better at the job than them.
"He is very cool, he shakes better than all of us,"
said Mirna Harb after watching one of his shows.
"This is the first time I saw Mousbah performing, I was
very happy with the show," said Tally Jraysati, another fan.
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