Melissa Dearey
‘Dark am I, yet lovely’: Tracing diabolical evil and femininities in gothic fusion tribal belly dance
Dearey, Melissa
Authors
Abstract
While belly dance as a dance genre has been recognised for its ‘ambivalence’ (Downey et al, 2010: 379) in terms of its empowerment of women’s identities and body types and essentialising of narrowly constructed femininities, it has nonetheless in the research literature generally been regarded positively in its influence on women’s spiritualities, corporalities, sexualities and overall well-being. But what about its attraction and allure in its ‘darker’ forms, as a way of empowering women, especially older women, and enabling them to negotiate and traverse a range of difficult, deviant, damaged and/or otherwise negative experiences? Based primarily on a participant observation of a six-week series of dance workshops held in the north of England and drawing on my other experiences as a dancer of other belly dance forms, this paper references Julia Kristeva’s psychoanalytic theory of horror and the monstrous feminine to explore the meanings, experiences and performances of ‘darkness’ in what is belly dance’s darkest genre, Gothic Fusion Belly Dance (GFBD).
Citation
Dearey, M. (2014). ‘Dark am I, yet lovely’: Tracing diabolical evil and femininities in gothic fusion tribal belly dance. Dance, movement & spiritualities, 1(3), 373-391. https://doi.org/10.1386/dmas.1.3.373_1
Acceptance Date | Nov 25, 2014 |
---|---|
Publication Date | Dec 1, 2014 |
Deposit Date | Dec 18, 2015 |
Publicly Available Date | Nov 23, 2017 |
Journal | Dance, movement and spiritualities |
Electronic ISSN | 2051-7068 |
Publisher | Intellect |
Peer Reviewed | Not Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 1 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 373-391 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1386/dmas.1.3.373_1 |
Keywords | Diabolical evil; Bellydance; Femininities; Goth subculture; Body; Dark spiritualities; Wellbeing |
Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/383164 |
Publisher URL | http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/dmas/2014/00000001/00000003/art00003 |
Additional Information | This is an authors accepted manuscript of an article published in Dance, movement and spiritualities, 2014, v.1 issue 3. |
Contract Date | Nov 23, 2017 |
Files
Article.pdf
(325 Kb)
PDF
Copyright Statement
©2015 the Author
You might also like
Betty Friedan
(2008)
Digital Artefact
A constant burden: The reconstitution of family life
(2008)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Repository@Hull
Administrator e-mail: repository@hull.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search