We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Heather Ward. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Heather below.
Hi Heather, thanks for joining us today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
There are a lot of misconceptions about belly dance among the general public – what it is, where it comes from, its history, and more. In the US, at least, “belly dancer” implies a pretty girl dressed up like Princess Jasmine, jiggling her hips and rolling her belly in order to entice and titillate the men in her audience. A lot of Americans do not realize that belly dance is in fact a cultural dance whose main variants originate in the Middle East and North Africa. And most Americans have no idea that in the cultures of origin, this is a dance that is practiced socially by all ages and genders. These misconceptions are rooted in deeply held stereotypes of the peoples and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, and they are shaped by decades of misrepresentation in popular media. I work very hard to educate folks about the cultural origins of the dance, the important role that it plays in festive occasions in places like Egypt, Lebanon, and Turkey, and the accessibility of the dance to all ages and genders.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started belly dance on a whim when I was in graduate school. It was an extremely stressful time in my life, and I needed some kind of outlet. I thought belly dance would fit the bill, so I found a local teacher and started private lessons. At the time, I didn’t really know anything about it – the cultural background, history, etc. What’s more, I didn’t bring any of my academic background (in anthropology and history) to bear on my dance training, so I had some huge gaps in my knowledge. As time went by, I started to notice a deep disconnect between what I thought I knew about belly dance and what I discovered as I interacted more deeply and meaningfully with people from the cultures of origin in the Middle East and North Africa. I realized that my “academic brain” and my “dance brain” needed to be reconciled, and I needed to correct a lot of misconceptions and expand my knowledge. This set me on a path to rediscover belly dance as a cultural dance and a gateway into a deeper understanding of the peoples and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa. Eventually, I started traveling to Egypt – the real homeland of this dance form – to conduct research and to add to the body of knowledge. Now, I am doing my best to be the sort of resource that I wish I had had when I was starting out with belly dance. Besides my classes and workshops (both in-person and online), I have written a book on the history of Egyptian belly dance (Egyptian Belly Dance in Transition: The Raqs Sharqi Revolution, 1890-1930), and I also share a lot of my research on the history and culture of belly dance through my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/bellydancewithnisaa).
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
For me, it’s absolutely critical to educate the public about the cultural context and factual history of belly dance. In my teaching, my performances, and my research, I am always striving towards this goal. It’s because of this that I’ve already written one book on the history of Egyptian belly dance, and I’m currently in the process of completing my second.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The pandemic has been a challenging time, to put it mildly. For the bulk of 2020, I wasn’t sure whether my physical studio would survive. Although I had already done a bit of online teaching prior to this time, 2020 forced me to move the bulk of my instruction online. While this move was initially a survival strategy, it ended up being a blessing in disguise. There were lots of dancers outside my local area who had read “Egyptian Belly Dance in Transition” and who wanted to study with me, but who didn’t have the resources either to travel to me or to bring me to them. Once I started offering classes and workshops online, I found that they were attracting participants from all over the world. I’ve had students from Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan, just to name a few! My physical studio did survive the pandemic, but I’ve continued offering online classes and workshop and building connections with belly dance practitioners worldwide.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bellydancewithnisaa.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nisaasaintlouis/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bellydancewithnisaa/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/nisaasaintlouis
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/bellydancewithnisaa
Image Credits
The Dancer’s Eye Misfit Hue Photography