Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing
by Rosina-Fawzia B. Al-Rawi
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Description
"Come, sit by me," says Grandmother. "Take this chalk in your hand. Now draw a dot and concentrate all your energy into this one dot. It is the beginning and the end, the navel of the world."So Fawzia Al-Rawi describes her grandmother's first lesson about the ancient craft of Oriental dance. Grandmother's Secrets always circles back to this grandmother and this young girl, echoing the circular movements of the dance itself. Al-Rawi has written a strikingly graceful and original book that show more blends personal memoir with the history and theory of the dance known in the West as "belly dancing."It is the story of a young Arab girl as she is initiated into womanhood. It is a history of the dance from the earliest times through the days of the Pharaohs, the Roman Empire, to the Arab world of the last three centuries. It is a personal investigation into the effects of the dance's movements on individual parts of the body and the whole psyche. It is a guide to the actual techniques of the dance for those who are inspired to put down the book and move. Al-Rawi conveys in this book not only the history and technique of grieving and mourning dances, pregnancy and birth dances, but the spirit of these age-old rituals, and their possibilities for healing and empowering women today. show lessTags
Recommendations
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shiradotnet For those who are attracted to the spiritual and psychological aspects of this book, here's another in a similar genre.
shiradotnet Life in an Iraqi village in 1956-1958.
Member Reviews
i would give it a 9 if not for the biological-gender-essentialism. this is understandable within the frame of her materialist account of patriarchy, which i was persuaded by. but it would have been nice to have a caveat abt the divergence of the objective intention of patriarchy over time, attendant w the process of the global-comparative notion of "feminine/female".
I really, amazingly wanted to like this book. The first section is a little unbelievable, but a pleasant read, and who I am to say these weren't the author's experiences? I slogged through the so-called history section out of pure determination. Her 'history' was a self-serving collection of meaningless generalizations and unsubstantiated "facts".
I figured the section of exercises had to be worthwhile. Even if your history stinks, if you dance, how far wrong can you go in creating exercises for dancers? Right?
Wrong! This kind of pseudo-scientific semi-mystical crap is just not worth my time. Silly I could live with. Goofy I could live with. Blatantly false information (your spine is not actually ramrod straight unless you've been show more hideously injured) wrapped in pathetic attempts to ascribe all that is good and right in the world to an unbroken tradition of female dancing? I'm out. I'm done.
I'm sure this books speaks to someone. That someone is amazingly not me. show less
I figured the section of exercises had to be worthwhile. Even if your history stinks, if you dance, how far wrong can you go in creating exercises for dancers? Right?
Wrong! This kind of pseudo-scientific semi-mystical crap is just not worth my time. Silly I could live with. Goofy I could live with. Blatantly false information (your spine is not actually ramrod straight unless you've been show more hideously injured) wrapped in pathetic attempts to ascribe all that is good and right in the world to an unbroken tradition of female dancing? I'm out. I'm done.
I'm sure this books speaks to someone. That someone is amazingly not me. show less
The book opens with an appealing look at what it was like for the author to grow up in her Iraqi family, with a special emphasis on the lessons she learned from her formidable grandmother. The rest of the book examines the author's suggestions for how to use belly dancing for personal healing or spiritual expression. For my full-length review, please see http://www.shira.net/books/breviews/alrawi-grandmotherssecrets.htm .
There were some really great (verbal) images here and personal history but as a whole it did not hold my interest.
$4-$7
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2 Works 157 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1996
- Epigraph
- A woman is the guardian and hostess of the earth. As the bearer of life, she stands closest to birth and death, thus closest to life and to the earth. This linking, life itself, is a woman's true space.
- First words
- When I look back on my childhood, four characters catch my inner eye: my grandmother, my grandfather, and the two pillars of my childhood: Adiba and Amina.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)If our world were peopled with such beings of unity, it would be our paradise.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, Sexuality and Gender Studies, General Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, History
- DDC/MDS
- 793.3 — Arts & recreation Recreation, sports, and performing arts Games, Puzzles Social, folk, national dancing
- LCC
- GV1798.5 .A5 — Geography, Anthropology and Recreation Recreation. Leisure Recreation. Leisure
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 156
- Popularity
- 209,271
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.59)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
