Some days ago I was in my bedroom when my dad called me from the living room: there was some bellydancing on TV. I got there a bit late so I missed the performance, but I could still see this guys talking to the TV presenter, and that was enough to make me angry. I don't want to create a bad atmosphere, but I considered what I saw disrespectful, and I would like to invite you to think about it.
Well, in Spain a new music band was born short time back. They sing in English, according to their expectations to be known world-wide. What upset me was that they are called ‘Bhangra’, and that on screen I could see many things but nothing related to what I think of as Bhangra. On the other hand, the girls were wearing the commonly used belly dancing belts and tops which we find nowadays in every shop…
No matter what they were wearing -I also do have those sort of belts!-, the point is that that weird mixture reminded me about how full this world is of people who don’t even respect what they do. If someone is fortunate enough to devote his/her life to singing and wants to be creative, that’s great and that’s what it all about. But I think that one must be coherent, and even more when what you are representing doesn’t belong to your own culture.
What I didn’t like was that I could see a mixture of everything which ‘sells’ today… Yeah, it’s true, nothing stays out from the market nowadays, but I vote for making efforts so that at least this doesn’t happen in such a degrading way. The name of the band didn’t have anything to do with the girls’ outfit, nor with what they were saying to the presenter. So Bhangra is fashionable now… well, it certainly is a very cheerful and enjoyable dance, but I wonder if these people have bothered to know about the origins of the name they have chosen.
What my Indian dance teacher told me is that Bhangra was the dance of the peasants from Punjab. They danced it (they probably still do it) to celebrate the good harvests, that’s why it’s so cheerful, full of jumping and so energetic. It used to be a male dance, although today it’s very popular in India and it’s danced by males and females alike, also making fusions with other dancing styles.
As a market product I do find some coherence on this, since our society doesn’t care about anything and won’t care if there’s any difference between certain things. However, my reaction when seeing that was anger. I saw a market product which had forgotten about any cultural background… well, maybe I’m the only freak who doesn’t feel fulfilled by shiny coin belts when there’s nothing else behind them than a temporary fashion. A fashion which grabs every glossy thing that finds on its way to use it with no criteria, and which it is so shiny that it hurts your eyes!
Maybe I’m wrong about these people, and they don’t deserve me using them as a reference to criticize, in that case I ask them sorry beforehand. I have just described my impression, and I wish I was wrong!
There’s beautiful aesthetics all over the world, so let’s respect its beauty! I will always remember something my hair dresser told me, and I think its the best message to finish with: ‘From something beautiful to something sublime there’s only a step. But if you take too many, then you risk going towards the ridiculous’.
