A belly dance ensemble founded by a rock promoter to perform at Lollapalooza is bound to be a rebel in the dance world. To Moria Chappell, a member of Bellydance Superstars, the troupe's twist on an ancient art form allows the dancers to stretch limits offstage as well.
Tribal fusion belly dance is a choreography Chappell describes as an American interpretation of Middle Eastern dance put to break beat, avant-garde music. Add to that Cirque du Soleil-style costuming and props, lots of antique jewelry, materials and textiles from the Middle East.
The group was conceived and developed by new wave impresario Miles Copeland, who managed The Police and founded I.R.S. Records, the label that launched R.E.M. Copeland is still the producer of the troupe.
Chappell, an Atlantan, joined the troupe in 2005 with a dance style and a personal philosophy that gels with Copeland's unusual vision, which has been described as doing for belly dancing what Riverdance did for Irish step dancing. In a recent phone call from the tour bus, Chappell talked about the benefits of breaking the rules.
Q: Your website says your training ranges from public speaking to cabaret work and fire performance. How did you develop so many unusual skills?
A: It all comes from my parents. They hate when I call them hippies. They’d rather I say Bohemians because they weren’t burnout, society-dropouts, but more philosophical hippies who came from well-to-do Southern families from Buford, S.C. My dad was valedictorian and my mom was head of the pep squad, but they decided there was another way to live.
Q: What was your childhood like?
A: My parents got married and moved to the mountains of Tennessee. We didn’t have TV. There were campfires in the backyard every night and people would play music. My mom and her friends belly danced with hand cymbals in the living room. My dad practiced yoga and played African drums. When I was very little, my dad built a replica of the gypsy wagon from “The Wind in the Willows” and we hooked it up behind our car and went to all 50 states. My dad would make jewelry and sell drums and my mom gave tarot readings and lectured about palmistry at universities. ... I’m sure my grandmother prayed for our souls!
Q: What did your days belly dancing in Atlanta restaurants teach you?
A: I remember dancing at The Casbah on Sept. 11, 2002. It was such a strange feeling, doing Middle Eastern dance on that date. I really got to know the families in the Persian and Moroccan restaurants around then. ... I got to see a side of Middle Eastern culture I wish everyone could see.
Q: What are the benefits of bringing a performance into the limelight that’s based on an ancient art form meant to be performed in private?
A: It takes that idea of the mystery of the sensual woman under a veil -- and in the closet -- and puts it out and says no, we’re not going to be stuck in back rooms, and we’re going to dance.
It’s been a man’s world for a long, long time, and there are all kinds of glass ceilings that make women feel they have to put on business suits and compete in a very square world full of square things they’ve been trying to negotiate for a long time. Women’s brains don’t work that way. Belly dancing is decidedly a woman’s dance, so bringing it to the public sphere gives women a chance to be women in a place of power.
Bellydance Superstars present "Bombay Bellywood"
8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14. $32-$45. 14th Street Playhouse, 173 14th St., Atlanta. www.woodruffcentertickets.org .
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