Talking through a frustration!

[gelishan]

In the fall, as you know, because I won't shut up about it, I will be teaching a Jewish bellydance class. The way my supervisor described it to me, it's supposed to be a body-positive, Jewish-oriented bellydance class titled "Dancing with the Moon: Rosh Chodesh and American Jewish Tribal Dancing

Comments

[swagmonkey]

Hmm. I knew that Rosh Chodesh was the "head of the month", or the first day, and that it was loosely a holiday. I didn't realize it had ever been more than the minor point of curiosity it is now, that only the most orthodox were likely to actually celebrate. It has been a big holiday in the past

[gelishan]

You missed option 3: that my supervisor wants to *make* belly dance a particularly Jewish style, with an emphasis on body positivity and Rosh Chodesh. And this is something I typically enjoy-- I like creativity! :D But I'm struggling with the Rosh Chodesh bit.

To my knowledge belly was not done on Rosh Chodesh! Typically! But music and dance stuff typically has been, and belly dance is historically a dance kind of by women for women-- especially ATS, which is all about community of women and not really about the audience (which I have mixed feelings about!) and the group that pioneered the style, Fat Chance Belly Dance, came up with the name as a reaction to common annoying questions they got from people who didn't understand their style was about the community of women and thought it was just to titillate. (Basically, "fat chance you can have a private showing!")

[swagmonkey]

I always thought it was funny that "fat chance" and "slim chance" meant basically the same thing. [/tangent]

Huh. I just don't quite understand why all those disparate elements were chosen to go together. I think the thing that doesn't quite fit for me is that the title doesn't seem self-aware that the connection isn't already there. It doesn't sound like "these are things that would go well together". It sounds like "these are closely related things, and I will teach you how they all go together historically". It sounds like, I'm going to teach you an American Jewish Tribal Dance (which doesn't actually describe belly dance as it is used in the modern world, or in its history), and it would bother me in a class to have it labeled as something that it isn't, even if you'd like it to become one.

[gelishan]

I never thought of that fat-chance slim-chance thing! Ha

[thegelf]

I was completely unaware of the female connection to rosh chodesh. I went to a Jewish private school, we said hallel on rosh chodesh, and that was about it to celebrate things. The best I've got for reconciling things is "this is a holiday, the only way it's celebrated is in a context that tends to marginalize women (saying hallel in the synagogue), lets take something awesome (bellydance) and use it to celebrate this holiday in a woman positive way."

Honestly, I'd be more comfortable tying the class to Miriam (Moses' sister) than to Rosh Chodesh.

[gelishan]

See, I would feel better tying it to Miriam too! That would be an easy connection, because there is dance already in there. But I have to do Rosh Chodesh, because it is in the title! Also, Rosh Chodesh is celebrated in a lot of ways, when it is celebrated at all-- see wikipedia for vague, unhelpful examples.

[thegelf]

Ugh, yeah. Good luck!

[lindseykuper]

Well, I don't know anything about Judaism or belly dancing, but I do know that the moon has been associated with women since ancient times. So it makes a certain amount of sense to associate a holiday that has to do with the cycles of the moon with women. A society that pays attention to the behavior of the moon is one that understands and respects cyclical behavior (say, for instance, menstrual cycles, which coincidentally have the same timing as the moon's cycles), rather than trying to repress it or make things appear like they're always the same.

I'm sure you've done a lot of Googling on this already, but have you seen this article?

[gelishan]

.......*BOOKMARKS* I mean, um, yes, clearly I had seen it before?

Man, my friendslist is AWESOME. I'm having much less trouble coming up with viable class topics now.

[gelishan]

I wish they'd given more information after the sentence "Many societies associate women's bellies with the moon," though. Oh well. More googling time.

[lindseykuper]

I know! That one tantalizing sentence is hanging out there in the middle of the article and then there's no more on the topic! Maybe you could write to the author.

[debka_notion]

As far as I know (although I haven't done any Serious historical research on the topic), Rosh Hodesh was never associated other than with women- or at the very least, that's the oldest association/special affiliation that I know of- the Kabbalists would fast I think the day before each Rosh Hodesh, as that day gets associated with repentance, and they go as far as to call it Yom Kippur Katan, each month- not something that gets done in the mainstream, just that ascetic underbelly that we mostly ignore. So- fasting before is a thing a small group of men do, celebrating and getting to abstain from doing laundry and other doesn't-have-to-be-done-today work on the day of is a female thing. That midrash, as far as I've learned it, has overtones of "you did well, and they screwed up, therefore you get a reward". I can look for the original text, if you'd like, and take a look, though

[gelishan]

...can I plagiarize one or more of those ideas (and/or give you credit for them)? Because those are all really, really good ideas.

[debka_notion]

For sure- that's why I shared them. This class of yours really interests me, and I am Very happy to help brainstorm, especially if I get to hear how it goes...