The world of Istanbul male belly dancers

Everyone cheered when Siegel danced. His hips tilt and then shake; The muscles in his abdomen trembled with the coin belt around his waist. The drums are getting faster and faster. The flashlight on his chest and the golden ribbon around his neck attracted the spotlight, reflecting the light back to hundreds of viewers, including men and women, craning their necks to look at the stage.

The lights are dim. He blew kisses. He put his hand to his heart. He made a bow.

Chanta Music, a gorgeous velvet-lined nightclub on Istanbul's bustling Istiklal Street, belly dancing-and praised by admirers-is not limited to women. Segah is a man who calls himself zenne. He is one of several male dancers in Turkey's largest city. He made a living by performing what the Turks called "Oriental Dance", adopting traditional women's costumes, roles and postures, and adjusting them to the taste of the city. In Turkey,

Male belly dancing is not a new phenomenon. Most Thern dancers can be traced back to the Sultan's court in the last centuries of the Ottoman Empire, when women were basically forbidden to perform on the stage. Just like Shakespeare's plays in Elizabethan times, boys play the role of women. Young people from non-imperial populations-usually Greeks, Armenians or Roma-are often reluctant to receive dance training, put on androgynous or feminine clothes and make-up, and in many cases-play aristocrats in the moonlight.

As the scholar Serkan Górkemli explained, in the traditional Ottoman custom, the words "homosexuality" and "heterosexuality" did not exist to a great extent. Sexual behavior is usually defined as a question of status/rank and sexual role. Of course, a higher-level aristocrat will define himself as an active or permeable * * *, and in other cases, he will sleep with women; A Thern dancer will be expected to play a more "feminine" gender and social role. Thern dance (and its appreciation) is regarded as a part of the "mainstream" male culture, regardless of whether there is sexual relationship between the dancer and the audience.

However, after the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the secularist Ataturk, Thern dance and its often complicated sexual politics were no longer popular.

Therefore, Thern lingers, mainly living in rural areas, including the religious conservative eastern provinces of Turkey. Filmmaker Mohammed Binet.Alfred. Alfred said that there, Thern often performed for heterosexual male audiences (without sexual elements), and his 20 12 monograph Zenne Dancer explored the friendship between Thern dancers, German photographers and conservative gay "bears" in Urfa province of Thern. Binet.Alfred. Alfred said, "It will happen in a closed room, where ten or twelve men sit around drinking and watch a male dancer dance." . He said that taking part in traditional oriental dances is something that both men and women do. "We have all done belly dancing at some point-even straight men-at least we have."

As early as 2006 when Binet.Alfred. Alfred and his collaborator Caner Alper began to study zenne, which they thought was a "disappearing culture"-only found in rural areas of Istanbul and some underground gay clubs.

"We are deeply influenced by western entertainment, culture and performing arts," Binet.Alfred said. Alfred said. "Oriental" dance is not as popular in Turkey as it used to be. Even in Istanbul's large gay community, zenne's dancing may cause a special sensation. "People would rather watch cross-dressing performances than boys. Male belly dancing has become a thing of the past.

But in the past five years, zenne dance in Istanbul has become the mainstream: in the media, Binay and Alper's film A and Chanta's success of gay cross clubs: their zenne show is mainly aimed at heterosexual and female clients. "Thern dancers are on the verge of extinction," Alper said, "but now they are back. When we Google zenne, we will find some people-there are hundreds now. Then, the word [Thern] is an insult, and it is now …

"Fashion," Binet.Alfred. Alfred interjected.

"Yes, fashion." . The male belly dance we see in contemporary clubs has actually evolved. It's not just oriental belly dancing anymore.

Zenne dance is becoming more and more popular, which is good news for dancers like Segah. He has been performing in Chanta for two years and has appeared on TV programs in Turkey and Cyprus.

Like many zenne dancers, Segah studied art in a family environment, not a formal teacher. "[Growing up], whenever my sister did housework, she would play music and dance in the background. Dancing is a part of our daily life.

His mother is a song and dance singer. When he goes to Istanbul nightclubs to see her, he often sees the performances of female belly dancers. He said, "I always imagine myself dancing like them-I wonder what it would be like to dance like that." . When he was 15 or 16 years old, a friend encouraged him to start dancing in public, but the only job he could find was a shabby gay nightclub in Aksara minefield in Istanbul. He said, "I only wore a belt with coins when I danced, but once they paid me, I used the money to buy my first suit."

Like many Turkish gay men, Seeger found a certain degree of freedom in Istanbul, because there is an active and open gay community in Istanbul, but this does not necessarily exist outside the city. Although Turkey has not criminalized homosexuality, nor provided any formal protection for homosexuals and bisexuals from discrimination, Turkey's cultural attitude towards homosexuality is basically negative. According to a poll conducted by 20 1 1 World Values Survey, 84% of Turks think homosexuality is their least popular neighbor. This contempt often turns into violence; Binet.Alfred's film The Zener Dancer. Alfred and Alper described one of the most concerned cases in Turkey: the "honor murder" of Hamat Yildiz in 2007. He and two filmmakers are close friends, and it is believed that his father did it. Istanbul's annual gay pride is the biggest among countries with Turkey as the main body. In 20 13, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then Prime Minister of Turkey, criticized a Dutch lesbian couple for adopting a Turkish Dutch boy, publicly calling homosexuality a "sexual preference that runs counter to * * * culture".

The attitude of the Turkish military towards homosexuality reflects this cultural contradiction. Gay men are considered to be exempt from compulsory military service because of mental illness. In practice, they are often forced to provide degrading information or undergo rectal examination to "prove" their homosexuality.

Segah himself served in the army for eight months. He said that he had intended to be exempted, but he was not fit to be with his father, who sent him to the conscription office, so he stayed in the army for eight months and was quietly released. "I don't mind," he said. "I have more lovers there than anywhere else."

Now, Segah performs in Chanta every night, also in private occasions such as bachelor parties, and appears on TV, next to some of Turkey's greatest stars.

Nevertheless, Segah's family is not satisfied with his career. When they first saw his Thern dance on TV, they immediately called him and begged him to stop, telling him that his job was a "moral shame". "I come from a traditional Turkish family," Sieger said. "I basically cross-dress-imagine my father and my father's friends seeing me in this cross-dress like dancing? This is really not easy to accept.

Although his family reluctantly accepted his career choice, they have never seen his performance. His brother once came to Shanta to watch Segah's opening performance. He admired the singer very much, but Segah sent him away before he performed.

Segah said that he had never officially dated his parents. "They realized (that I was gay)," he said, but that's not what they talked about openly.

However, in free Istanbul, Segah had almost no negative experience. He recalled being asked by a homophobic audience only once.

"When I heard this, I turned around and said,' Thank you, sir,'" Siegel said with a smile. "He was so surprised that he gave me a tip of nearly 200 lira!

Segah is proud that he can drive the audience out of the fortress area. He said that, unlike traditional Ottoman Thern, Saiga dances like to perform exactly the same movements as female belly dancers, while traditional Ottoman Thern's stylized movements are slower and more difficult than their contemporaries. "In most cases, Thern will not affect people. But when I dance, I create a kind of "gender confusion". I am a man with a beard! But I dance like a woman. This is really shocking. They fell in love with it in shock.