Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing by Rosina-Fawzia B. Al-Rawi
Reviewed by Anala Rabari
As a reader you need to understand that this book is not really a history book or an instructional book. This is the type of book that Anthropologists call Ethnography. It's a more personal account of how the author views the history and meaning behind the dance and of course the author's view is colored by the way she was raised, her personal living experiences, her living environment and various other elements. It is also a book that explains how she has incorporated the dance into her life for physical benefits, personal growth, and spirituality.
The book is divided into 4 sections and throughout the book these sections are divided into shorter segments which make it easy to find a stopping place which is nice if you have the type of lifestyle where you can only grab a quick minute here or there to read. One criticism I have for the whole book is the lack of information about the photos. Credit is giving to the photographers; however, credit is not giving to the subjects in the photos and I would dearly love to know who some of these dancers are in the photographs because they are all striking women that I would like to see more photos and perhaps video footage of.
Section 1 - How it all began
This section is simple memories of childhood life lessons written eloquently. Most of the these stories feature an adult in the author's life, mostly women. It starts with remembering how her grandmother taught her the letters of the alphabet in terms of body carriage and movement. The lesson starts with drawing a dot that is the navel of the world and moves onto the first letter of the Arabic alphabet which is the alif, for English speakers it kind of resembles a lower case "L." As the author states "The alif is three dots sitting on top of each other, it is the dot's longing to show itself." Soon the author sees the alif in everything including her body as a living alif. I can't say how much I wished I had these simple alphabet lessons when I was taking Arabic classes. The chapter concludes with the author becoming a young woman and being invited to dance at the women's only party to celebrate her rite of passage. I love this chapter because of the great vignettes of Middle Eastern life through the eyes of a child. I find myself enchanted by the similarities and differences of her childhood to mine. My only criticism of this chapter is that there is only one visual aid. I think this section could have benefited from more family photos or other photos of normal Middle Eastern life.
Section 2 - A history of women's dancing
This section offers a very brief, easy to read history section hitting all the important highlights of the history of women's dancing, and that is the history of women's dancing not just the history of belly dance. I think this section is good for people that are a little curious about the history of the dance, but who also aren't real history buffs. If you are a history buff this will just wet your whistle or be a re-hash of things you may already know, presented in a very simplistic straight forward style. Covering the history of women's dancing is a very broad topic and other books offer more in depth exploration of the topic for those interested. This section also benefits from pretty good visual aids of artifacts, photographs, and artwork.
Section 3 - From Head to Toe
This is the more exercise, instructional part of the book. Like with any book, reading instructions for movement is hard. For dancers with some experience it will be easier to understand these directions; however, beginners may struggle. I like the fact that she covers parts of the body that many other books/DVDs leave out such as eyes, ears, nose, and feet. Some of these exercises are more in the vein of body awareness and wellness instead of actually belly dance, but I feel that these exercises can be useful to dancers as a way to become more aware of how their body works which will improve the way you move your body and thus improve your dance. And these activities exercise the body both physically and mentally. This section also offers lovely photos of dancers and candid shots of Middle Eastern cultures.
Section 4 - Variations and Rituals
The dances discussed in this section are the floor dance, stick dance, veil dance, walking and whirling, menstruation dance, wedding dance, birth dance, trance dance, and mourning (or death) dance. This is the chapter that I think can be the most confusing for some readers. This is the chapter that mixes fact and personal opinion the most. But I love this chapter. I love reading how this author has taken the historical nature of these dances and mixed her own feelings with them to make the dance more meaningful to her. Visual aids for this chapter include photos of dancers and these dancers are of all ages and body types. I think this chapter means the most to me because I learned the most from it about how I can make this dance mean so much more in so many aspects of my life and how I can use it to help me through dramatic changes, both good and bad, in my life.
So if you are looking for an accurate history of the dance or actually instruction on how TO belly dance this book is probably not the book you want to buy. If you ARE looking for a book that will let you peak into what the dance means to another dancer and how she incorporates the dance into all aspects of her life and suggestions on how you too can incorporate the dance into more aspects of your life this is the book for you.