Origins and History of Floorwork for FCBD®Style

This month on fcbdU we’ve been focusing on floorwork so I thought it would be nice to spend today’s blog talking about the history and origins of this specialty concept.

I love chatting with Carolena about these topics because they always include stories or memories that take me back to photos, videos or articles I’ve seen and it feels like a little piece of the history puzzle fits perfectly in it’s spot to create the full picture.

During a recent chat with her about the origins of the FCBD®Style Floorwork, I asked her if this was something she learned from Masha, her teacher.
 

“Masha did not use floorwork. She was adamantly opposed to it because she didn’t want the audience to look down to see the dancer.”

This makes total sense based on the past stories we’ve heard about the presence and regality Masha always instilled in her dancers and their performances.

In fact, I went back and read an old Tribal Talk interview with Masha from 2001 and found this:
 

“Even though floorwork is pretty, it didn’t enhance her (the dancer) power – it was my responsibility to increase her power.”

She goes on to say, “The audience needs to feel that they are privileged to see something, they can’t think they have any power.The clubs demanded floorwork because it was what people came for. I wanted to eliminate my dancers from that scene. The scene did not increase their power, their ability to be appreciated.”

Masha also states that floorwork was so small that the best way to see it was to be on top of the dancer (looking down to see her).

Highly recommend reading the Tribal Talk Retrospective for history and cultural references compiled beginning almost 30 years ago

Then when and how did it get incorporated into FCBD®Style?

Carolena said back in the 90s, when FatChance was experimenting with various things, they just got curious about it. At one point there was a teachers get together at the Betty May studio in San Francisco where teachers from all styles got together, hung out and experimented with various movements.

She saw a dancer do the Berber (Knee) Walk and wanted to try it.

So floorwork came from experimenting, learning from other styles and then incorporating it while taking things like headdresses and layered costuming into consideration.

As an example, Carolena said she really loved what’s known as the Turkish Drop*, where the dancer spins and then drops to the floor, but our costuming and specifically the headdress just didn’t allow for that. So instead, she decided to lower to the floor from a layback instead of a spin.

Fascinating, right?! I love learning this kind of history of our dance style.

Terminology change from Berber walk to Knee Walk

During the summer of 2020 an Amazigh dancer and activist, Raïssa Leï, posted a video from a Raqs Sharqi dancer that was teaching the Berber walk. Leï went on to share that this movement had nothing to do with the Amazigh people and in fact, that term is derogatory.

I reached out to Carolena to try to understand where the term came from in hopes to find the true origins. She said that was the name when she learned it and that we can just call it a Knee Walk. Further research on this move led me to an article referencing a New York cabaret dancer in the 1970’s doing what she called a "Berber walk". 

The movement name was unofficially changed summer of 2020 and added to the later released Terminology change announcement which reads:

Out of respect for the Amazigh people and in solidarity with their struggle for self-determination, we are abandoning the movement name “Berber Walk” and replacing it with the more descriptive term “Knee Walk.”

Will we ever know the true origins? Unlikely. But I've thoroughly enjoyed researching it and going down a YouTube rabbit hole watching Raks al Seniyya (tea tray dance) videos.

If we remember our American belly dance history lesson from Abigail during this interview, she mentions how in the 1960's dancers from all over the world would perform in San Francisco clubs like the Bagdad and dancers would often copy what they saw, then perform them later when the dancer left town. Not saying it was right, but we're talking about sixty years ago...as the "kids these days" are saying, that was the mid 1900s! Perhaps is something that was copied or even misinterpreted. Either way, a "knee walk" is a much more appropriate and descriptive name.  

An image of The Bagdad from GildedSerpent.com

Floorwork is definitely a specialty feature in FCBD®Style. While it’s certainly not for everyone, it’s also not for every venue. Personally, I stay away from floorwork in performances where I’m on the floor, not on a stage, and the audience would need to look down (ok well there was that one time). I also will not do floorwork for an audience where it’s mostly men or where there is a large amount of alcohol being served. I simply don’t want the attention that tends to bring.

I go into the dos and don’ts of floorwork a little more in the courses on fcbdU including angles to perform at and why, so please check it out! I’d love to hear if you have any additional ones I’ve left out of the courses.

Happy dancing and (safe) floorwork everyone!

*The Turkish Drop is a movement Abigail Keyes attributes to Tabora Najim in her book The Salimpour School of Belly Dance Compendium