![]() A lot of Middle Eastern people who normally have big parties, big weddings, huge events, just kept a low profile. And more recently, business was real slow for us during the war. “What American dancers are up against is that a lot of audiences immediately think striptease or sideshow when they think of belly-dancing. I haven’t taken a great survey, but my experience in talking to European dancers is that they view it as another form of art. “That’s real different from the European point of view. “As a rule, people-at least Americans-can have somewhat of a prejudicial view of belly-dancing and associate it with hoochie-coochie dancing, Little Egypt, things like that,” Cappa-Rotunno said during a break from rehearsal in the decidedly unexotic Van Nuys Multipurpose Center. But after-hours, they-and the other, just-joined Perfumes, Joanne Ro and Carrie Caldwell-drop their workaday personas and. Sherry Dariotes books reservations for cruise ships. Melodie Clark sells missile parts for an aerospace firm. Gloria Ameigeiras is a licensed medical technologist who analyzes hair samples for signs of drug abuse. Marta Inda and Bobbi Orndorff are computer operators for Chatsworth firms. ![]() Cappa-Rotunno, who works for a Valley branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, has an master’s degree in library science. Meek secretary by day-wild belly dancer by night! Heep is a student. It’s as if all the women have secret identities. My cat bites me about eight times a day.”) Yes, there is even a python dance-done by fearless Heep and her 6-foot pet, Wally. Accompanied by John Bilezikjian on the oud -an ancient mandolin-like instrument-they whirl about, yip-yipping with swords or candelabras balanced on their heads, veils orbiting arms that gesture gracefully and hips that twitch, gyrate, slowly grind. On stage, the Perfumes are a minor palette of pastels, what with swirling, silky, handmade costumes adorned with all manner of gold and silver baubles and coins (some of the members make their own, others are sewn by costume designer Kathy Sanders). Webber, who remains consulting artistic director, left in the mid-'70s to raise horses and Cappa-Rotunno, a member since 1972, succeeded her. Indeed, the San Fernando Valley-based Perfumes-not one of whose ancestors comes from anywhere near the Middle East-claim to be the longest-running professional belly-dance troupe in the United States.įounded in 1961 at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire by Diane Webber, now a belly-dancing teacher at Everywoman’s Village in Van Nuys (where Cappa-Rotunno also teaches), the troupe performs an annual revue each October (this year on the 13th at the Starlight Dinner Theater in Agoura) and lesser private shows, solo and collective, throughout the year. And you have to say, ‘No, just from down home! Just Americans!’ ” “Like they want to believe that you can’t belly dance unless you have some natural blood type. “A lot of times people will come up to you and say, ‘Oh, you must have some Arabic blood!’ ” said Denise Heep, a Perfume since 1975. Of course, the Perfumes (whose name comes from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” in which guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth says, “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”) all hail from dreamy, exotic oases in faraway, quasi-mythical settings-places with such other-worldly names as Van Nuys, Sepulveda, Sunland, Palmdale, Arleta, Canoga Park. at the Middle East Connection restaurant in Burbank). And that happened in one of the most expensive restaurants in the city!”Ĭappa-Rotunno is director of the Perfumes of Araby, a troupe of women usually engaged in gentler aspects of the art of the belly dance (who will appear Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. I grabbed him and I pushed my fingers into his throat and I said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, you can’t do that.’ And he’s going, ‘Eerrrkkkk, all right,’ and he just flopped down. “You’re wearing finger cymbals- metal discs -on your hands, right? I didn’t even think. “You know what? You’re wearing weapons ,” Cappa-Rotunno said, a trace of relish in her tone. He just lunged at me real fast, grabbed me and stuck his face in my belly! And I’m going, ‘Yech! What a slime!’ ” “I didn’t realize how drunk one of them was. “There were these two drunk guys,” said MaryAnn Cappa-Rotunno, a librarian-cum-belly dancer from Sepulveda. It’s a tough job, but somebelly’s gotta do it. Ah, the travails of a belly dancer! Giant snakes getting stuck under bra straps, bras that come unhinged, pants that plummet earthward in mid-shimmy, headaches from balancing a 10-pound candelabra on one’s head, touchy-feely old men, drunken lechers, jealous wives.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |