Dancing With the Devil in the Pale Moonlight (A Brief History of Scandalous Dances)

Witches and devils dancing in a circle (1720)

 

 

Although some trendy vicars and heretical hymn writers may pretend that Jesus is the Lord of the Dance [1], we all know that, historically, dance has long been problematic within Christianity. 

 

Indeed, numerous records exist of prohibitions issued by Church leaders, usually on the grounds that dance, as a physical (non-spiritual) activity, is associated with paganism and/or promiscuity; the sort of sensual and sinful practice that witches engage in accompanied by devils (see the woodcut image above).    

 

Unsurprisingly therefore, 17th-century Puritans in England and New England who believed it was their duty to enforce moral standards and who opposed drunkenness, gambling, blood sports, and extra-marital sexual relations, also vehemently opposed dancing - particularly around a Maypole or a Christmas tree. 

 

At best they thought dancing to be a frivolous distraction from the serious business of worshipping God and at worst a dangerous form of immoralism in and of itself [2] - which, arguably, it is; or, let us say rather, it's an activity that has always been controversial at some level and often invited misunderstanding and disapproval (even harsh penalties and punishments).

 

For the fact is, the way that men and women move and shake their bodies to music has always had the potential to challenge the conventions of the day, thereby concerning the authorities and scandalising the more conservative members of what we used to term polite society.    

 

Thus, when Miley Cyrus (and Robin Thicke) sparked media outrage with a routine in 2013 which showcased twerking (see below), this was merely the latest dance to set tongues (and fingers) wagging. Earlier dances which were seen to threaten social conventions of gender, race, and/or class include:

 

 

La Volta [click here]

 

La volta is a dance for couples that was popular during the later Renaissance period. Associated with the galliard, it was performed to the same kind of music. La volta was considered to be risqué in the royal courts of England and France, as it required close bodily contact between the sexes and was very much in contrast to the slow, stately routines usually performed at court:

      

"In the dance, the man pushes the woman forwards with his thigh, one hand grasping her waist and the other below her corseted bodice as she leaps into the air. Opponents thought this quick, energetic dance to be immodest and even dangerous for women, fearing it could cause miscarriages." [3]   

 

The Waltz [click here]

 

In the early 19th-century a new dance craze took off in Britain - the waltz. 

 

Performed face to face, with the man holding his female partner tight in his arms as they whirled rapidly and shamelessly around the floor, it caused quite a stir and even though Queen Victoria danced the waltz it was in the minds of many critics associated with lewd behaviour, including Lord Byron who wrote a satirical poem about the dance, in 1812, which is suprisingly censorious considering the mad, bad, and dangerous reputation of the author [4].    

 

 

The Cancan [click here]

 

In the late 1820s working class Parisians began dancing an improvised quadrille by kicking their legs in the air ... Et voilà! the cancan was born - much to the outrage of middle-class citizens who thought it lacked both decency and dignity (as did members of the English press, when it was introduced to London audiences in 1868).

 

An energetic, physically demanding dance that became popular in the music-halls of the 1840s, it is now almost exclusively associated with a chorus line of showgirls lifting their skirts and petticoats and performing high kicks, splits, and cartwheels.  

 

 

The Tango [click here]

 

Even though in the Edwardian era social conventions were gradually beginning to relax, a new dance - the tango - was to test boundaries of what was and was not acceptable behaviour to their limit. 

 

The tango arrived in Britain (via France) around 1913, although its roots lie in the ports of Buenos Aires. Lurid descriptions soon apeared in the press, where it was condemened as a dance only fit for prostitutes and their pimps to perform. Unfortunately, this only excited the attention of young dancers keen to scandalise their elders. 

 

Its reliance on sexy Latin rhythyms and the fact that the tango also allowed for individual interpretation only added to its popularity. 

 

 

The Charleston [click here]

 

The Charleston emerged in the so-called Jazz Age (aka the Roaring Twenties) in the USA, allowing young women - known as flappers - to express themselves on the dance floor for the first time without having to follow the lead of a male partner.    

 

It had evolved from the music and dances of African-Americans living in South Carolina and marked the beginning of what would become a crucial feature of popular culture in the 20th-century; i.e., black influence on white arts and entertainments.

 

As with the other dances we have mentioned above, thanks to its fancy footwork the Charleston was considered by all the usual suspects - parents, teachers, church leaders, etc. - as immoral and provocative.

 

 

The Jitterbug [click here]

 

First popular in the US in the 1930s, American soldiers exported the jitterbug to Britain during World War Two. Like the Charleston, it was based on an earlier African-American dance (the lindy hop).  Again, concerns were voiced for both the physical and moral well-being of those who jitterbugged to the new sound of swing music (and, later, in the '50s, rock 'n' roll). 

 

With its underwear exposing lifts, twists, and other improvided moves, the jitterbug left the English ballroom dancer Alex Moore spluttering in his tea, calling it disgusting and degrading (although he eventually allowed a sanitised version - known as the jive - into the ballroom repertoire).  

 

 

The Twist [click here]

 

Before the 1960s really began to swing, they twisted thanks to Chubby Checker and other rock 'n' rollers. Whilst dancers barely move their feet (and hardly touch one another), they sway their upper bodies back and forward whilst twisting their hips and shoulders and making odd mechanical movements with their arms. 

 

Despite the usual controversies and medical concerns, the twist was a worldwide dance craze which inspired many other dances (including the jerk, the mashed potato, and the funky chicken).

 

 

The Lambada [click here]

 

Originally banned by the Brazillian president when it emerged in the 1930s, because he was shocked by its immorality, the lambada didn't really take off in a big way outside of South America until the late 1980s (largely due to the huge hit single released by the French group Kaoma in the summer of 1989) [5].  

 

Just as once the tango had scandalised by bringing couples closer than the waltz, the lambada also shocked some by insisting that hips were pressed together as dancers performed a series of spinning steps. 

 

 

Twerking [click here] 

 

Finally, let us return to twerking - another dance which is to a large extent all about hip action (and booty shaking). It is summarised thus on a BBC website:

 

"Originating in West African dance moves, twerking is believed to have arrived in the USA via Jamaican dancehalls. The dance was mostly performed in the African-American community but former child star Miley Cyrus's performance at the MTV Video Music Awards (2013) pushed it into the mainstream. She caused a social media meltdown. Her performance divided opinion, raising many questions on sexual exploitation, cultural appropriation by white artists, as well as artistic freedom and feminism." [6]

 

I have to admit, this is a dance that seems almost designed to bring out the inner Puritan; one that might make even the Devil himself look away ... Make up your own mind by clicking on the link above.

 

 

Notes

 

[1] See the recent post on Sydney Carter: click here.  

 

[2] To be fair, the Puritans only banned mixed dancing (i.e., dancing which involved close physical contact between both sexes) - something described by Cotton Mather as promiscuous dancing - because it was thought this would lead to fornication. Folk dance that did not involve such intimate contact between men and women was considered acceptable. 

      It is also worth noting that conservative Islamic and orthodox Jewish traditions still prohibit contact between the sexes in public and thus in these societies men and women either dance separately or not at all.

 

[3] See 'Dirty dances: A timeline of the moves that shocked' (BBC Teach): click here. 

      Readers should note that a lot of the following information in this post concerning dances that have scandalised was adapted from this site.

 

[4] It has been suggested that Byron disliked most forms of dancing due to a physical malformation affecting his right foot that made such activity almost impossible; he could walk, ride, swim, and even run with difficulty, but he couldn't dance. On the other hand, Byron was a strange mix of conservative and radical - said to be prudish even in his libertinism - so his dislike of the waltz may have had nothing to do with his disability. Readers who are interested can read Byron's poem here.

 

[5] 'Lambada', by Kaoma, was released as a single from the album World Beat, (CBS Records, 1989). It featured guest vocals by Brazilian vocalist Loalwa Braz and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide in the year of its release. The accompanying music video featured the Brazilian child dance duo Chico & Roberta. Just don't mention the lawsuits ...

 

[6]  'Dirty dances: A timeline of the moves that shocked' (BBC Teach): click here. 

 

Beyond Good and Alcohol

Alcoholic drinks do not agree with me. A single glass of wine 

or beer is amply sufficient to turn life into a valley of tears.

 

Nietzsche didn't just despise the moral narcotic of Christianity; he also hated alcohol and often wrote of the negative effect that booze has on the character.

Thus, although he'd enjoyed a drink or two in his student days, Nietzsche was pretty much a teetotaler all his adult life and insisted that for free spirits, such as himself, a refreshing drink of water was enough (or, on special occasions, maybe a small glass of milk). 

 

Alcohol, he insisted, dulled intellectual and emotional intensity and those who consume it - like the beer-swilling Germans - do so at their peril; they wilfully make themselves stupid as well as obese.      

 

Having said that, it's hard to imagine Nietzsche lending his support to the temperance movement of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, which is clearly a form of finger-wagging puritanism that coincided with Christian revivalism and women's suffrage (something else that Nietzsche was not a fan of).

Thankfully, Nietzsche is liberal enough to call for individual decision making on the basis of personal need, rather than a general prohibition on the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol; for this saves him from falling into fanaticism on the subject.     

 

 

Notes on the Sex Appeal of Belly Dancing (With Reference to the Case of Johara)

Ekaterina Andreeva (aka Johara)
Seems like a nice girl ...

I have to admit that, unlike Flaubert, I'm not a great fan of Eastern dance - or, as it is commonly known, belly dancing [1]. It's too obscenely sensual for my tastes I'm afraid and always makes me think of that old expression about jelly and jam.

Having said that, I quite like the costumes that some of the young women wear [2] and have no objection to them wiggling, wriggling and jiggling across a dance floor in order to earn a living if that's what they want to do. It clearly requires skill and discipline and performers deserve to be recognised as professional artistes continuing a long tradition of shimmy and shake.       

Although this style of dancing is found across the Arab world, Egypt has a special claim to be the home of belly dancing and the modern form (and modern outfits) originated in the nightclubs of Cairo. Many of the performers, however, are non-native; despite concerns that foreign-born dancers lack authenticity and didn't fully appreciate the folk traditions associated with the dance.

Unfortunately, as a more conservative form of Islam has taken hold across the Middle East in the contemporary period, dancers - as well as other female performers, including singers and actresses - have increasingly been villified by the authorities on the grounds that their immodest displays of flesh are haram.

In Egypt, for example, there are strict laws in place governing what dancers can and cannot wear; can and cannot do. Whether they wear a traditional bedlah or a more modern dress design with mesh-filled cutouts, is up to them. But they must cover their lower bodies, breasts and stomachs and retain their modesty (including modesty of movement and gesture) at all times.

Many dancers in Cairo ignore these rules, however, and they are rarely enforced. Having said that, there are multiple instances of foreign dancers being arrested - which brings us to the case of Russian-born Ekaterina Andreeva, known by the stage name Johara, meaning Jewel, who has been sentenced to a year behind bars in an Egyptian jail after she was filmed giving a performance which, the authorities claim, incited debauchery.

Not only was she said to be working without a licence, but, worse, she was clearly dancing without underwear! The ruling follows a video clip of her performance - on a boat sailing along the Nile - going viral and gaining her a large global following on social media: click here.         

Obviously, she's expected to appeal the sentence. And obviously I hope Miss Andreeva's conviction will be quashed. Though, equally obvious, is the fact that her performance is sexually provocative - what would be the point of belly dancing if it were not erotically charged? 

Not that there's anything wrong with that ... Indeed, I'm tempted to remind readers of Lawrence's view that sex and beauty are essentially one and the same thing, like flame and fire: "If you hate sex you hate beauty. If you love living beauty, you have a reverence for sex." [3] 

The greatest disaster that can befall any civilisation is a morbid fear of the body, its forces, its flows, its mysterious openings, and its desires. For this causes the instinctive-intuitive life within us to slowly atrophy. What we call sex appeal is really just the communicating of a sense of beauty and it will always invoke an answer of some kind:    

"It may only kindle a sense of warmth and optimism. Then you say: I like that girl, she's a real good sort. It may kindle a glow, that makes the world look kindlier, and life feel better. Then you say: She's an attractive woman, by Jove, I like her. Or she may rouse a flame that lights up her own face first, before it lights up the universe. Then you say: She's a lovely woman. She looks lovely to me. Let's say no more."

I'll let readers decide for themselves what level of heat Miss Andreeva produces and whether the fire of sex that she rouses is pure and fine, or something of which we should be ashamed ... 

Notes

[1] The term, belly dance, is a translation of the French danse du ventre, coined by an art critic in response to a controversial painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme entitled La danse de l'almée (1863). The picture is a classic example of pervy Orientalism, depicting a woman dancing, accompanied by musicians, before an audience of soldiers sitting with their legs spread in a fantasy setting. Eventually, this term came to be used for all dances of Middle Eastern origin in which a woman displayed her charms. It first entered into English in 1889.

[2] The costume most commonly associated with belly dance is the bedlah, which typically includes a fitted top or bra, a hip belt, and a full-length skirt or harem pants. The bra and belt are often decorated with beads, sequins, crystals, or coins. The modern bedlah style which originated in the early twentieth-century, is an amusing example of (Arabic) life imitating (Western) art, in as much as it took inspiration from Hollywood. I suspect my own forndness for the harem-look is due to childhood memories of Barbara Eden in I dream of Jeannie. 

[3] D. H. Lawrence, 'Sex Appeal', in Late Essays and Articles, ed. James T. Boulton, (Cambridge University Press, 2004), lines quoted are on pp. 145 and 147. 

It's important to note that Lawrence doesn't always approve of women exploiting their sex appeal: "There is, of course, the other side of sex appeal - it can be the destruction of the one appealed to. When a woman starts using her sex appeal for her own advantage, it is usually a bad moment for some poor devil." [148] Such thinking - clearly sexist in character - is unfortunate; as is his branding of these women as prostitutes and vamps.     

See also 'Pornography and Obscenity' in the above collection of essays and articles, where Lawrence develops his notion of sex appeal and admits "No matter how hard we may pretend otherwise, most of us rather like a moderate rousing of our sex. It warms us, stimulates us like sunshine on a grey day." [239] Those who deny this and are genuinely repelled by even the simplest and most natural stirring of sexual feeling, are, he says, perverts and puritans "who have fallen into hatred of their fellow men" [239]. That nicely sums up the theocratic morons who have brought the case against Miss Andreeva. 
 
To watch Johara doing her thing in another video on YouTube, click here.

This post is dedicated to my favourite Arab girl about town, Nahla Al-Ageli, creator and writer of the wonderful online journal Nahla Ink.

Notes on the Case of Andrew Dobson and the Chinese Sex Doll

The doll in the Andrew Dobson case: 

thoughtfully pixelated by the British Press 

so as not to cause offence or arouse illicit desire    

Following the prosecution and jailing last month of 49-year-old Andrew Dobson for attempting to import a supposedly childlike mannequin - deemed to be an indecent object - into the UK from Hong Kong, moral and legal experts have been debating the ethics of non-consensual relations with increasingly sophisticated and apparently soon-to-be sentient sex dolls - particularly when designed to appear underage.

Seeing as this is a subject on which I have previously written at some length, I feel entitled to offer my own thoughts here ...

Firstly, I'd like to point out that - contrary to what's been claimed in some quarters - this is not the first time that an item of this nature have been stopped from entering the country. In fact, sex dolls were banned from doing so back in 1876 on the grounds that as objects used primarily to facilitate human sexual pleasure they were inherently obscene.

However, this ban was lifted in 1987 under European free trade agreements, so I'm not sure on what grounds border force officials at East Midlands Airport were entitled to intercept the doll addressed to Dobson and alert the police who subsequently arrested him at his home.   

Secondly, as Dobson's defence counsel Simon Parry pointed out during his trial at Chester Crown Court, although the prosecution insisted on describing the doll as childlike it was more accurate to describe it as child sized. Even the forensic physician and paediatric consultant who examined the doll on behalf of the prosecution, only agreed its size would be consistent with that of a girl aged between four and six were it a child - but, of course, it's not a child; it's a doll that hasn't been manufactured to a realistic adult scale.

Parry also mentioned the mitigating fact that there was nothing in the online promotional material or sales description, indicating that it should be thought of as a child sex doll.

Now - just to be clear - I'm not saying that Dobson isn't the twisted pervert that some in the media have made him out to be; he was discovered to have pornographic images of children on his computer and pleaded guilty to both making and possessing such images. However, I do not think buying a silicone doll on ebay for sexual gratification - be it in the form of a child, an animal, or an alien entity - should be a criminal offence.

Members of the Cheshire constabulary and tabloid journalists may find it sickening that some individuals choose to indulge dark masturbatory fantasies involving perverse acts and illicit paraphilias, but it's surely important to realise that real acts with objects simply aren't the same as actual acts with bodies.

Ultimately, I suspect that in addition to the legitimate concerns surrounding paedophilia there are other forms of puritanism and prejudice at play here. Thus it is, for example, that in closing Judge Nathanial Berkson said he was disgusted to think that such dolls even existed: "The user would be, in effect, able to simulate sex with a child" - and heaven forbid that should be allowed, for, as Baudrillard provocatively suggested, simulation is the gravest sin of all in the eyes of those defenders of the Real.

The authorities, in other words, find a self-consciously simulated act or virtual crime far more disconcerting and dangerous than a real one. If you rape a child, you clearly transgress the law and thus paradoxically reaffirm the criminal justice system. But if you simulate the rape of a child, it throws a spanner in the works and you expose the essential immorality - and absurdity - of a system that rests on a set of values that are ultimately null and void.

Of course, this doesn't mean the authorities won't respond exactly as if you committed a real crime - indeed, as Dobson has now discovered, they may very well come down even harder upon you.

And all the while I can hear David Bowie singing ... 

Flappers

The playful flapper here we see, 

the fairest of the fair.

One of the reasons that I still very much love the flappers is because they continue to piss off puritans of all stripes who, as the critic H. L. Mencken put it so wonderfully, are those persons forever gripped by the terrible fear that someone, somewhere may be happier or having more fun than they are.

Unfortunately, this seems to include followers of D. H. Lawrence, one of whom wrote in response to a question I asked about the latter’s antipathy to the young women of the Jazz Age, that flappers were almost as bad as bunny girls. When pressed to explain this rather surprising comparison, this former editor of the D. H. Lawrence Society Newsletter sent the following text:

"Flappers are ridiculous and degrading. Lawrence hated them as he (rightly) hated the vulgar songs of Bessie Smith. Who wouldn’t look on flappers as anything but women exploiting their sexuality and being exploited? Essentially, it’s the absurd falsity of them that is so objectionable. They have been industrialised; mass produced – it’s repulsive! And all that phony joie de vivre is equally nauseating; I don’t for a second believe in their kind of good time. I won’t even mention their physical appearance – the boyishness that Lawrence commented on and so despised."

Where does one begin with this astonishing attempt to channel the spirit of Lawrence at its most malevolently misogynistic?

Well, firstly, it’s true that Lawrence on one occasion became so incensed with Frieda repeatedly playing a recording by the great American blues singer Bessie Smith, that he smashed the gramophone record over her head in an act often portrayed by commentators as violent domestic comedy, but which might better be construed as humourless domestic violence.

I also have to admit that the writer of the above pretty much manages to summarise the main reasons for Lawrence’s antipathy towards the flappers: their independence, their hedonism, their promiscuity, their artificiality and their superficiality (in dress, manner, and behaviour).

I think the really crucial point, however, is the one he leaves to last and wishes not to mention - but nevertheless can’t help mentioning: what Lawrence most dislikes about the flappers is their physical appearance. And by this we refer not so much to the short skirts they liked to wear (though doubtless Lawrence objected to these too), but to the actual bodies of the flappers, in shape, in size, and in their somewhat androgynous character.

In brief, the flappers, with their bobbed hair, flattened chests, narrow hips, and pert little bottoms, weren’t womanly enough for Lawrence, who, as is evident from his choice of wife, his descriptions of Constance Chatterley, and his paintings, clearly had a penchant for plump, curvaceous, fleshy females.

His attempt to body shame the flappers - something that, shockingly, is still being carried on by some of his followers even today - is rooted therefore not only in his puritanism and problematic gender politics, but also in his own sexual preference for BBW.

Ultimately, the slim and sophisticated figure of the flapper left him limp - and Lawrence resented them for it.