Cultivating Professionalism
by Laurel Victoria Gray
HABIBI MAGAZINE
Volume 16, Number
2, Spring 1997
PHOTO: The legendary dancer Tamara Khanum and Qizlarhon
Dusmuhamedova, her student, Laurel Victoria Gray, and Dancer Helen Noreen. taken in amara Khanum's home.
Tashkent,October 1989.
http://thebestofhabibi.com/vol-16-no-2-spring-1997/professionalism
Presented to the International Conference on Middle Eastern
Dance, Orange Coast Community College, Costa Mesa, CA, on May 17, 1997
I have four basic suggestions for cultivating professionalism within our dance
community. We need not reinvent the wheel; we can look at other professions and
study the ethics by which their members conduct themselves.
For example, in my field, the discipline of history, a scholar would have little credibility
without the citations which show the source of knowledge, information and ideas
she has used in her work. Footnotes and bibliographies not only show that a
researcher has thoroughly investigated her topic, but they are ways of honoring
the efforts of those who have already contributed to the field. The same holds
true for other established art forms. Composers of symphonies or choreographers
of ballets are always cited, always acknowledged, when their works are
performed.
Foster a Culture of Gratitude
We need to foster a culture of gratitude. After all we did not, like Athena, spring fully grown from Zeus’ brow. We are the product of the teachers who have shaped us. We are
part of a glorious lineage, a genealogy of dance which extends back to the long-dead, long forgotten women who first created these movements. My first Uzbek teacher was Kizlarkhon Dustmukhamedova.1 She was a student of the celebrated Bukharan dance family of Isakhar and Margarita Akilov. Margarita’s grandmother danced at the court of the Emir of Bukhara. And here I am, a “foreign devil” who can trace my dance lineage back to the Emirate of Bukhara. What a sense of honor and connection this knowledge brings.
That is the Central Asian side of my dance family. But another branch goes right back to
the Los Angeles area. When I first started taking Middle Eastern dance in 1974 and 1975 at an Experimental College course offered at Occidental College, one of the instructors, Sally Ju, had studied with Marta Schill.
When I moved to Seattle and joined the Jalaal Middle Eastern Dancers, one of the members, Betty Bigelow, traced the group’s connection to a Seattle teacher named Mary Dossett who had studied with Jamila Salimpour. Betty recited our lineage in biblical fashion: “In the beginning there was Bal Anat, and Bal Anat was good. And lo, Bal Anat begat the Baladi Center Dancers, and the Baladi Center Dancers begat Tamzara and Jalaal.”2 And the line has continued: Jalaal begat Shahrazad and Shahrazad begat Binaat Shahrazad and Binaat Shahrazad begat Tanavar and Tanavar begat the Silk Road Dance Company—which is the dance ensemble I currently direct.
When we fail to acknowledge our teachers, we shame ourselves. We cut ourselves off from the very source of our dance. But when we honor our teachers, we honor our dance, we prove that our art is honorable. We show that our artists deserve respect. And we feel joy and pleasure in expressing our gratitude.
Read entire article:
http://thebestofhabibi.com/vol-16-no-2-spring-1997/professionalism
Volume 16, Number
2, Spring 1997
PHOTO: The legendary dancer Tamara Khanum and Qizlarhon
Dusmuhamedova, her student, Laurel Victoria Gray, and Dancer Helen Noreen. taken in amara Khanum's home.
Tashkent,October 1989.
http://thebestofhabibi.com/vol-16-no-2-spring-1997/professionalism
Presented to the International Conference on Middle Eastern
Dance, Orange Coast Community College, Costa Mesa, CA, on May 17, 1997
I have four basic suggestions for cultivating professionalism within our dance
community. We need not reinvent the wheel; we can look at other professions and
study the ethics by which their members conduct themselves.
For example, in my field, the discipline of history, a scholar would have little credibility
without the citations which show the source of knowledge, information and ideas
she has used in her work. Footnotes and bibliographies not only show that a
researcher has thoroughly investigated her topic, but they are ways of honoring
the efforts of those who have already contributed to the field. The same holds
true for other established art forms. Composers of symphonies or choreographers
of ballets are always cited, always acknowledged, when their works are
performed.
Foster a Culture of Gratitude
We need to foster a culture of gratitude. After all we did not, like Athena, spring fully grown from Zeus’ brow. We are the product of the teachers who have shaped us. We are
part of a glorious lineage, a genealogy of dance which extends back to the long-dead, long forgotten women who first created these movements. My first Uzbek teacher was Kizlarkhon Dustmukhamedova.1 She was a student of the celebrated Bukharan dance family of Isakhar and Margarita Akilov. Margarita’s grandmother danced at the court of the Emir of Bukhara. And here I am, a “foreign devil” who can trace my dance lineage back to the Emirate of Bukhara. What a sense of honor and connection this knowledge brings.
That is the Central Asian side of my dance family. But another branch goes right back to
the Los Angeles area. When I first started taking Middle Eastern dance in 1974 and 1975 at an Experimental College course offered at Occidental College, one of the instructors, Sally Ju, had studied with Marta Schill.
When I moved to Seattle and joined the Jalaal Middle Eastern Dancers, one of the members, Betty Bigelow, traced the group’s connection to a Seattle teacher named Mary Dossett who had studied with Jamila Salimpour. Betty recited our lineage in biblical fashion: “In the beginning there was Bal Anat, and Bal Anat was good. And lo, Bal Anat begat the Baladi Center Dancers, and the Baladi Center Dancers begat Tamzara and Jalaal.”2 And the line has continued: Jalaal begat Shahrazad and Shahrazad begat Binaat Shahrazad and Binaat Shahrazad begat Tanavar and Tanavar begat the Silk Road Dance Company—which is the dance ensemble I currently direct.
When we fail to acknowledge our teachers, we shame ourselves. We cut ourselves off from the very source of our dance. But when we honor our teachers, we honor our dance, we prove that our art is honorable. We show that our artists deserve respect. And we feel joy and pleasure in expressing our gratitude.
Read entire article:
http://thebestofhabibi.com/vol-16-no-2-spring-1997/professionalism
