If you thought belly dancing was just for women you were wrong
IF A person I am about to interview grabs my interest over the phone then a proper interview over a hot chocolate is a must. Stavros Stavrou Karayianni is a remarkable person who has a lot of things most men don’t. He can dance, he’s polite, smart, he’s got a PhD, he just wrote a book and he isn’t afraid to speak his mind. Now, when I say he can dance, I don’t mean he can do a good imitation of Michael Jackson. I mean this is a guy who can move to the rhythms of belly dancing.
It might sound amazing and rather impossible but that was something Stavros thought as well. “I actually considered belly dancing was out of my reach because it wasn’t for men and it has a Turkish background,” explained Stavros, “but it has been a secret fascination and so after 32 years I decided to go for it.” So, eight years ago, Stavros began belly-dancing classes in Canada, where he also studied for his PhD. Although, Stavros teaches English literature for a living, he also gives belly-dancing classes. “I teach Zills, which are the finger symbols that are used together with belly dancing,” said Stavros, “but unfortunately, most of my students are women, if not all.”
To a man like Stavros, who has written a book called Dancing Fear and Desire; Race, Sexuality, and Imperial Politics in Middle Eastern Dance, the fact that belly dancing is thought to be a female dance is something he can’t come to terms with. “There is a patriarchal concept intended to perpetuate the oppression of women,” Stavros explained, “but really belly dancing is misunderstood and abused by sexism. We don’t know how to watch it and this only happens in Cyprus and Greece because I know for a fact that there are male dancers in Turkey and Egypt.” But apparently, what is thought wrong and misunderstood is something that used to be a common and natural activity centuries ago. “In the old days men used to dance for men and women used to dance for women,” Stavros said, “but now society has taught us that dancing is only for women. Women apparently dance to please a man and a man is not expected to use his body but he can if he wants to.”
Belly dancing has hit Cyprus like a storm in the last two years and more and more women are running to learn the Middle Eastern moves. “I know belly dancing is a lot about hip movement but there are masculine versions of belly dancing as well,” Stavros explained, “but over all the moves are the same, they only look different on a man and a woman.” Stavros has managed to break free from the mould that society has set upon men and even dances in public but as every wonderful thing, you don’t see it often but when you do, you are one of the lucky ones.
SEVEN DEADLY QUESTIONS
What car do you drive?
A Mazda 323
Describe your perfect weekend
Being with friends, eating and listening to music
Assuming you believe in reincarnation, who or what would you come back as?
I would come back as a dancer in pharaoh’s palace
What is your greatest fear?
Falling in love and being disappointed
What is your earliest memory?
My earliest memory is from the summers I spent with my family in Ayios Memnonas in Varosia in the very early 1970s. I remember heading to the beach on foot and feeling the soil and the grainy sand on my feet.
What did you have for breakfast?
I had some cereal and some coffee
What was the last item of clothing you bought?
A linen shirt from Vancouver, Canada
