Belly dance? Can I do it? The ICONIC Mums Program, launched by Multiculturalism
in Action Project 2017, organized its third workshop “Body Autonomy: Belly
Dance Workshop” on 19 July 2017, and gave us a totally different view of our
body.
肚皮舞？我能跳嗎？由“多元文化行動計劃2017”開展的ICONIC媽媽課程，於2017年7月29日舉辦了第三次工作坊“身體自主：肚皮舞工作坊”，讓我們重新體會和理解自己的身體。
The morning workshop began with our Indian participant teaching us how
to greet each other in Hindi: putting on hands together and say “namaste”. Our
instructor Ms. Devi Novianti then invited us to introduce ourselves and say
something about our own habits. Through this we discovered some interesting and
unexpected commonalities among us despite our diverse cultural backgrounds. For
example, a few of us loved coffee whether we were Chinese or Nepali, or a
couple of us insisted on putting eyeliner whether we were Indonesian or
Pakistani. We also found similarities among different cultures as they shared
very similar moves in their dances.
工作坊以印度裔朋友介紹如何以印度語打招呼（雙手合十說“namaste”）揭開序幕。然後， Devi
Novianti老師讓我們分享生活的小習慣。我們發現：雖然大家來自不同的文化背景，但卻有不少有趣和意想不到的共通之處。例如，不論是華裔或尼泊爾裔，大家都喜歡喝咖啡；也有印尼裔和巴基斯坦裔朋友不約而同地表示每天出門前必須畫好眼線。然後，我們透過比較不同舞蹈的舞步，繼續發掘不同文化之間相似的地方。
The most exciting part of the belly dance workshop was, of course, BELLY
DANCING! Since we were all new to belly dance (and dance in general), most of
us struggled to master the movements at the very beginning. The hip and waist
movements were the hardest – it was like re-activating some long-lost muscles! Personally,
it was also a bit of a challenge to look at myself in the mirror at first as my
chubby body twitched unrhythmically as if electrocuted ☹. Gradually, however, everyone got better at the steps with practice.
More importantly, Ms. Novianti kept reminding us of what beauty should be: it
isn’t about having a slender body, but being thankful and confident with who
you are; only by seeing the beauty in yourself can you dance with beauty. With
that in mind, despite remaining clumsy, I was able to truly immerse myself in
the passionate music and enjoy the fun of my first ever belly dance experience
like my fellow participants did. In fact, I think we all did quite well as
newbies.
緊接下來就是最期待的肚皮舞環節！由於大家對肚皮舞以至舞蹈都比較陌生，部分動作做起來還挺具挑戰性。相信大部分參加者都會認同腰臀的動作是最吃力的，做起來就像要使勁把身上退化已久的肌肉長回來似的。對我個人來說，看著鏡中的自己毫無章法地甩著身上的贅肉還挺難為情的☹。但跳著跳著，大家很快便掌握到竅門，漸入佳境。Novianti 老師亦傳授了我們一個跳肚皮舞的秘訣：要展現出美麗的舞姿，必先要發現自身的美，而美並非要有天使面孔加魔鬼身材，而是自我欣賞、自信的光彩。聽罷，雖然我還是跳得有點四肢僵硬，但總算開始接受自己，並在熱情洋溢的音樂伴隨下，享受舞蹈的樂趣。其實就第一次接觸肚皮舞來說，我們還是跳得蠻不錯的。
Learning the basic
steps of belly dance 學習肚皮舞基本步
Group dancing to vibrant music隨著強勁的音樂舞動起來
The workshop was completed with a follow-up discussion on body autonomy.
During the discussion, many of us reported having had negative images of our
own bodies, often due to comparing ourselves against some commercial beauty
standards advocated by the beauty industry. Regarding the constant pressure
from ubiquitous advertisements of beauty products and services, Ms. Novianti
again emphasised the significance of self-embrace as the key to discovering
one’s own beauty. We have the autonomy
over our own bodies, so instead of feeling insufficient or even guilty for
not being like what others think we should be, we should choose to appreciate
ourselves and shine in confidence, just like we did when doing belly dance. She
used two belly dancers as example, showing that even though they have different
body shapes, both of them dance beautifully. True beauty is not in your body,
but it is the light shining from your heart.
最後，Novianti老師引導我們透過這次跳肚皮舞的經過，思考身體自主的概念。在討論期間，不少人都提及到對自己體型的不滿，覺得自己太胖或太瘦。而這些不滿，很多時候都是源於把自身與他人作過份比較。面對這個瘦身美容風氣盛行的社會，Novianti老師提醒我們：我們才是自己身體的擁有者，應自由追尋我們心中理想的自己，而非盲目跟從某些商業化的美的標準，由別人決定我們該成為怎樣的人。她又以她認識的兩位肚皮舞者為例，指她們雖然體型各異，但都能自信地跳出美麗的舞步，強調美應是由心而發，而非單純指體型上的。
Discussing the concept of body autonomy討論身體自主的概念
Our attention was also drawn to the importance of defending body
autonomy as a means of safeguarding gender equality. As our body belong to us, WE are the rightful persons to decide how to
present or express ourselves with our body without being judged or even
harassed. This was an especially powerful message for us as ladies who are
often subject to the imposition of various unfair standards regarding how to
dress and behave. For instance, if we dress in a sexy way, we are considered to
be inviting sexual harassment; but all the while we rarely hear people say,
“Well, this man chose to put on those sexy pants. He deserved to be touched!”.
An interesting little episode to share here: To help us and our ethnic minority
friends to protect ourselves in case of sexual harassment, we all practised
shouting fei1 lai5 aa3!, literally
“sexual assault!”. It was an empowering experience for many of us!
Novianti老師繼而引導我們以身體自主的概念為起點，思考性別平等的問題。她強調：我們擁有我們身體的自主權，我們有權決定如何以自己的身體表達自己(如個性和喜好)而不受他人的批判和滋擾。這對作為女性的我們而言尤其重要，因為比起男性，女性更常面對各種針對衣著和行為的不公平標籤。例如女性衣著性感會被視為自招麻煩，被性騷擾也認為是活該。但我們卻甚少聽到針對男性衣著性感的批評。在此分享一個有趣的小插曲：為幫助我們和少數族裔朋友在面對性騷擾時保護自己，我們一同練習喊 “非禮呀!” 。這個練習對我們大部分人來說也是一個充權的體驗呢！
To conclude, the workshop wasn’t just a fun experience of belly dancing,
but also a lesson of self-love, which, together with the sustainable lifestyle
and practice of physical and mental health we learnt from the previous
workshops, is the first step to better living and self-empowerment.
總括而言，這次的工作坊不但讓我們體驗到跳肚皮舞的樂趣，更提醒了我們自愛的重要，這跟我們在之前工作坊學到的、重視環境可持續性以及個人身心健康的生活方式結合起來，正正是自我充權、乃至互相充權的第一步。
Reporter 記者: Holly Fung 馮詩皓
No comments:
Post a Comment