Decolonizing Dance (3):

Beyond “Oriental Dance”

Soraya Baccouche

Should we move beyond the term “Oriental dance”? Associated with Orientalism and an eroticized conception of femininity, the category is rooted in a colonial, Western, and exoticizing imagination and is increasingly being challenged. In the third and final installment of CN D Magazine’s Decolonizing Dance series, scholar and choreographer Soraya Baccouche interrogates the term and invites us to reconsider our perspectives.

Even today, when we hear the term “Oriental dance,” many of us still picture an Orient reduced to “belly dance” and the stereotypes surrounding it, before even considering the region's choreographic diversity. This reductive perspective contributes to the racialized eroticization of the bodies that perform these dances, which are still often associated with an exoticized and sexually available femininity. Moreover, these forms of expression are more readily perceived as entertainment than art.

In reality, this category encompasses a plethora of practices and aesthetics, yet these have been shaped and constrained by persistent colonial and neo-colonial representations of the “Orient.” The contemporary critique of Orientalism as a social process of domination has allowed us to understand the historical construction of these representations. This interrogation has become vital, but in itself can also become a form of reductivity, particularly when these dances are considered only in terms of their relationship to the Western world.

Making space for a diversity of perspectives on “Oriental dance” can help the dance world move beyond the dynamics of othering that are constantly being reproduced, as well as the ongoing invisibilization of its creative potential. So, how can we decolonize and sharpen our perspective on so-called “Oriental” dances without defining them purely through the history of the Western gaze?

A first step forward could be to break these dances’ connection to an “Oriental” category altogether. There are no neutral categories in dance, nor any without consequences. (This is particularly evident in current critiques of the categorisation of contemporary dance, which has been accused of privileging white, Western styles while overlooking contemporary dance propositions from the Global South.) Sometimes, I use the term “Oriental North-African dances” when trying to make my writing accessible to non-specialists, yet it can still contribute to positioning these expressions as “other.” The same is true for the term “ANASOH Dances” (“danses d’Afrique du Nord à l’Asie du Sud-Ouest et leurs Hybridations” – North African to Southwest Asian dances and their hybridizations) which I also use in my academic research. While imperfect, these terms can be considered a first step towards better accounting for the plurality and dynamism of these practices, while also contributing to efforts towards their institutional recognition.

Another step could be to read choreographic development in another way, and perceive creation beyond the mainstream category of Oriental dance (meaning, its most popular and commercial iteration). The latter is no longer enough to designate what is at stake on contemporary stages, even if the history of these practices is indissociable from Orientalism and the prevalence of “Oriental dance” in representations (also named raqs sharqi in Arabic, oryantal dansı in Turkish or tsifteteli in Greek).

Since the 1980s, artists such as  Elhadi Cheriffa, Melisdjane Sezer, Saliha Bachiri, Assia Guemra, Djamila Henni-Chebra and Amin Sebaha have sought to establish themselves on the French dance scene while moving away from an Orientalist perspective. They have performed in Parisian venues such as Mandapa, the Institut du Monde Arabe, Divan du Monde, and Cabaret Sauvage, which have been receptive to their experimental and transformative projects, in contrast to other established institutions and dance venues more strongly oriented towards “Euro-contemporary” approaches.

Despite these efforts, mainstream “Oriental dance” has remained visible due to its popularization in cinema, TV and development of performances during public events throughout the second half of the 20^th century. This trend can be considered the starting point for the development of notions like the cultural illegitimacy of expressions linked to “Oriental dance,” which are devalued because they are mostly performed by women and connected to racial minorities. Inflected by class, gender and race dynamics, they appear as forms of entertainment and assigned to a community rather than a universal form of artistic expression. Faced with these persistent representations, the self-production of some forty Festivals since the 2000s (Visages d’Orient, Al Shimmy, Illoriental, Jawhara…) and musicals like Nel Haroun cabaret oriental 1920, Elegant Universe, Ramy et Julietta… has slipped under the radar.

Over the past fifteen years, however, things have been shifting. In a world where people are now more sensitive to colonial legacies and the practice of exoticization, many artists from the North-African, Turkish and Middle Eastern diasporas in France are trying to reclaim the narrative of dance forms from their respective contexts. Choreographers like Saâdia Souyah, Myriam Khouane, Saïda Naït-Bouda, Hayet Amar, as well as Raïssa Leï and the Kif-Kif Bledi collective, have brought the popular expression and social dimensions of traditional dances back to the fore. They reject the idea of adhering to a fixed notion of “original authenticity,” instead demonstrating that practices from their regions are evolving and transformative spaces, deeply rooted in our time.

Some artists claim that mainstream Oriental dance is a popular mode of expression that is shared between Arabic-speaking communities. By placing an importance on improvisation, mimetic learning and community-making, they have broadened and redefined what Oriental dance can represent. Hind Taoufiq, LaLa Moon or Negma (who talks about baladi dance) – among others – have shown that challenging the way people perceive “Oriental dance” is not just about subverting the genre, but reshaping its meaning in order to break with the stereotypes it carries. 

All of these endeavors open the way to overcoming a reductive and limiting perception of “Oriental dance.” Decolonizing our gaze means shifting our attention so that we do not simply interrogate what these dances represent for Western audiences. Instead, we need to pay attention to what artists from the respective regions are doing with these practices, and to the plurality of choreographic worlds they are contributing to creating.

Soraya Baccouche holds a PhD in sociology and is also a choreographer. She works from a postcolonial and decolonial perspective on the social and cultural history of North African dances and Southeast Asian dances and their hybridizations (ANASOH), as well as the way they are disseminated and their legitimization process in France. She also works on the ways traditional dances are being transformed in Tunisia. As a dancer, choreographer and instructor, she has developed creative projects (Insoumise∙s, 2018; Des∙orientalisme∙s, 2022) and outreach projects around these practices. Baccouche is the founder of Jawna Academy (2025) and the cofounder of the Centre Artistique et de Recherche des Arts Maghrébo-Orientaux (CARAMO, 2017- “Artistic and Research Center for Oriental and North African Arts”), which combines research, creation and dissemination and outreach projects around these dances.

Soraya Baccouche's website  
en savoir + 

Decolonizing Dance (1): Filling in the Gaps in History From France and Belgium by Marie Pons for CN D Magazine
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When Black Women Dream: Dance at Spelman College
by Rainy C. Demerson for CN D Magazine
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Des clichés au possible rejet : quelle place pour les arts issus des migrations en France ?
by Soraya Baccouche, published in NECTART, 2016.
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Les danses exotiques en france (1880-1940)
Anne Décoret-Ahiha, Editions CND, collection recherches, 2004.
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