In a dancer's changing room

Dear readers!

  Maged el Mohandes dancers

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Guess where I was in new year's eve? In Sharm el Sheikh, dancing! I was invited to work for Maged El Mohandes and Daniela. They have a beautiful latin show in tourist hotels in Sharm and Im very thankful to be part of their team. We did 5 shows during 5 hours! The fastest 5 hours of my life! As soon as one show ended we had to drive to the next hotel within 10 minutes and had 5 minutes to get ready for the next one. The funny thing is, because the costume changes are so quick, there is no time to talk or share emotions with other dancers during the show. The only time I could take my breath and have a chat was in the minibus taking us to the next show. I learned that I have good stamina and fresh look for 4 non-stop shows, after that energy drops and my hair starts to look like waking up in the mornings:)
A few blisters on the feet and sore muscles come with the job. But overall a great experience!

But what I really want to focus on in this story is the amazingly different cultural rules and habits of dancers in the changing room :)
In my long road as a dancer I have danced alongside many different people, women and men from different countries. Egypt is and will always be special because dominated by arabic culture and Islam. To put it short, female and male dancers MUST BE separated when changing. That's because in Islam a decent woman cannot expose herself to anyone not her husband or closest family members and that rule also applyes to foreigners, otherwise we would be looked badly upon.

I remember one year ago when I went to Sharm el Sheikh first time and was dancing folklore and bellydance, the girls were changing in the toilet and suddenly one of the Egyptian male staff cleaners stepped in with a broom and pocket of water. He had broken THE RULE! In that time I didn't know how seriously this should be handled and I watched and learned how a fellow dancer, a Russian lady handled the situation. She almost attacked him, screaming and threatening him. The man very shyly left and was probably praying we would not call the manager. I was kind of surprised of her overwhelming reaction to the cleaner, I mean, we were never naked - our stage underwear consists of the bra and long boxers to cover the thighs. But I learn't, the dancer's changing room is a complete off-limit area for men.

You see, I come from a very different sexually free society - Estonia :)! I danced in our national folkloric dance company "Sõleke", where times and times again we were sharing changing rooms with guys in many occasions. I remember one was considered to be a wussy it they were shy to share the changing room with guys. The only "rule" was - change quickly and turn your back to the guys. It was part of being professional.
It got even more "worse" in my university ;) I was taught, my body can also be public, not to be ashamed of or closed from the outside. I went to see contemporary dance performances with fully naked dancers on the stage, I did lots of dance projects in very minimalistic and revealing costumes and last but not least, on so many occasions, shared the dressing room with guys.
So it became a normal working condition. Im sure many dancers can relate to this ;)

But Egypt always has those funny controvercial twists that make me wonder, how does it really work here!? I will give you a good example from my new year's show in Sharm el Sheikh:

Maged's company girls had just finished getting into our Flamenco costumes when an Egyprian bellydancer stepped into the room. We politely greeted one another and she started taking her costume out of her bag.  Then she took off her jeans, but was still wearing her T-shirt and black leggings (the night was very chilly and we all had extra layers under the costumes). The Egyptian women actually love wearing leggings, many styles, colours and designs, you can see many on the streets. So she was wearing a classic non-transparent black ones. 2 minutes before the bellydancer walked in our guys from outside asked if we were ready, because they needed to enter. Our room was the only entrance to the stage. So by the time the bellydancer came we forgot to tell the guys. So as she was standing in the middle of the room one of our guys walked in. The guy and the bellydancer were both shocked and surprised. The guy, because he did not know there is a new woman chaning in the room and the bellydancer, because guys should not eneter without asking and she was half way to getting into her costume (but still totally covered).
Our guy apologized and left.

Now the end of that story will really make you wonder! The bellydancer finally got into her sexy revealing costume (big cleavage, open belly and a long split in the skirt). The guys knocked again and asked if they can enter. I looked to the bellydancer and asked if the guys can come. She smiled and nodded. It was OK for her for the guys to see her in her costume that shows way more skin than her T-shirt and leggings.  Maybe for her the costume was her (public) working clothes, everyone will see her on the stage anyway. But the leggings is a private thing !? In this case I couldn't really see the connection between the rules and the practice. Go figure :)

I guess a lot depends on the kind of people Im working with or who I have to share my changing room with - will they be polite and respectful when changing. But rules are rules and meant to be kept, only sometimes broken ;)