Dancing Fear and Desire: Race, Sexuality, and Imperial Politics in Middle Eastern Dance

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

Dancing Fear and Desire bridges “the discourse of postcolonial dance
and queer theory.” Through its examination of “the politics of dance
-tsifteleli, belly dance [and] Oriental dance,” the book will appeal
to serious students of the dance as a cultural phenomenon.

From his highly personalized introduction to the history, politics,
social, and sexual aspects of Greek dance, the author proceeds to a more
incisive academic examination of the writings of “two imperial
males,” Gustave Flaubert and American journalist George William
Curtis, as they present their written reactions to the dances of
courtesan Kuchuk Hanem. Karayanni then focuses on the performances of
male dancers in relation to imperial politics and the white European
audiences’ attendant emotions of fear and disgust.

Next he discusses Salome as portrayed in several representations, in
particular in Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name. From there he moves
on to a discussion of the political overtones of Dora Stratou’s
“rewriting of dance traditions in modern Greece” and the subsequent
impacts of Oriental immigrants on cultural activities in Greece. His
concluding remarks summarize his reflections from earlier chapters and
raise a number of issues for further study. His somewhat confessional
epilogue ends with an inventive series of journalistic entries that
record his travels for his “Geographies of Dance.”

An interesting mix of personal observations, subjective conclusions,
and scholarly research, Karayanni’s study advances our understanding
of and appreciation for Middle Eastern dance forms.