calmer now
After pillaging and having lunch yesterday with Anysia I feel much calmer now. I am still saddened by the behaviour of supposedly grown women in the bellydance community. However, I am not going to let it stop me, in fact it has made me even more determined to go on. We had a lovely response from a Lady who teaches in the Rockingham area and will be getting more involved with her I think. Still no response from any of the "mainstream" dancers (would like to call them other things but that would be rude). The silence is deafening. Oh well, at least I have said my piece:
Hi
I was looking at emails etc. this afternoon and
happened to check out DTOL and I found this included
in the newsletter. I understand that cattiness is
part of the "Bellydance Scene" and I think that it is
a great shame. It is very sad that some performers
and teachers of bellydance are so insecure and petty
that they feel the need to lash out in this way.
Teachers of bellydance, or indeed any discipline, are
supposed to be supportive and encouraging. It would
be nice if we could extend this beyond our students
and be supportive of each other. If this were the
case I think that a lot more women would be attracted
to bellydance and continue to dance. I am not saying
that we should all have a love in or anything but I
think that some co-operation and mutual respect would
go a long way. As it is the bellydance community is a
divided and catty one and this does not reflect well
on the dance form or those that are involved. Sandra
and I are extremely passionate about ATS Bellydance in
particular and we want to share that with as many
people as we can. This is our motivation for teaching
and performing on our own, outside of general
bellydance circles. We do not feel any malice towards
the bellydance community as a whole. I have met many
wonderful women through learning and teaching
bellydance and my and Sandra's experience of a few
catty dancers does not change that. I have copied the
offending paragraph for your information as I feel
that you should be made aware of it. Thanks :)
"Alaine Haddon-Casey (scasey@iinet.net.au) is a DTOL
member from Western Australia:
This is a problem that seems to span every dance form.
In community and ethnic dance forms it is not unheard
of for a student who has only danced a few months to
set up classes. On top of their patent lack of
knowledge, they are generally ignorant of safe dance
guidelines, professional indemnity insurance and
copyright licences. Problem is, often the general
public is uneducated. I had one student that I taught
for 8 months at beginner-intermediate level who
purchased some instructional videos and set herself up
as a teacher! What is worse, although it is
convention for all teachers in my dance form to
themselves have a teacher (I travel to and live in the
USA annually for 3 - 4 weeks to access my teachers and
to ensure my continued standards) she has none, so her
knowledge is limited to 8 moths of classes and 5
videos. What offends me is the cavalier message this
behaviour sends about community dance forms."
There it is.
Hi
I was looking at emails etc. this afternoon and
happened to check out DTOL and I found this included
in the newsletter. I understand that cattiness is
part of the "Bellydance Scene" and I think that it is
a great shame. It is very sad that some performers
and teachers of bellydance are so insecure and petty
that they feel the need to lash out in this way.
Teachers of bellydance, or indeed any discipline, are
supposed to be supportive and encouraging. It would
be nice if we could extend this beyond our students
and be supportive of each other. If this were the
case I think that a lot more women would be attracted
to bellydance and continue to dance. I am not saying
that we should all have a love in or anything but I
think that some co-operation and mutual respect would
go a long way. As it is the bellydance community is a
divided and catty one and this does not reflect well
on the dance form or those that are involved. Sandra
and I are extremely passionate about ATS Bellydance in
particular and we want to share that with as many
people as we can. This is our motivation for teaching
and performing on our own, outside of general
bellydance circles. We do not feel any malice towards
the bellydance community as a whole. I have met many
wonderful women through learning and teaching
bellydance and my and Sandra's experience of a few
catty dancers does not change that. I have copied the
offending paragraph for your information as I feel
that you should be made aware of it. Thanks :)
"Alaine Haddon-Casey (scasey@iinet.net.au) is a DTOL
member from Western Australia:
This is a problem that seems to span every dance form.
In community and ethnic dance forms it is not unheard
of for a student who has only danced a few months to
set up classes. On top of their patent lack of
knowledge, they are generally ignorant of safe dance
guidelines, professional indemnity insurance and
copyright licences. Problem is, often the general
public is uneducated. I had one student that I taught
for 8 months at beginner-intermediate level who
purchased some instructional videos and set herself up
as a teacher! What is worse, although it is
convention for all teachers in my dance form to
themselves have a teacher (I travel to and live in the
USA annually for 3 - 4 weeks to access my teachers and
to ensure my continued standards) she has none, so her
knowledge is limited to 8 moths of classes and 5
videos. What offends me is the cavalier message this
behaviour sends about community dance forms."
There it is.