Mousbah Baalbaki

Mousbah Baalbaki is a contemporary male belly dancer from Lebanon. He has been compared to Hassan el-Balbeissi (who Gustav Flaubert called the finest of all dancers, male or female).[1]

The New York Times described Baalbaki as "sinuous and seductive...in a gauzy black caftan over Bedouin-style white robe, [as] he undulated on stage with a faraway look in his eyes and a bodyguard close at hand".[2] The New York Times article was criticised by Stavros Karayanni for an Orientalist "sadly anticipated tone that ranges between sardonic and superior—an efficient and popular technique for relating information about something titillating, enticing and 'different'".[3]

Baalbaki has said that he wishes to break societal taboos: "Here we grow up thinking men shouldn't dance Arabic."[4]

Biography and family

Baalbaki was raised in a conservative Sunni Muslim household in Sidon.[4] He attended the Lebanese American University. Baalbaki is gay and identifies as male: "I'm trying to prove that a man can do it, can dance in this society."[4]

References
  1. Shay, Anthony (2016). Ethno Identity Dance for Sex, Fun and Profit: Staging Popular Dances Around the World. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137593184.
  2. Sachs, Sara (May 4, 2000). "He's No Salome, but It's Straight From the Heart". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  3. Karayanni, Stavros Stavrou (2004). Dancing Fear & Desire: Race, Sexuality and Imperial Politics in Middle Eastern Dance. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 92.
  4. "Lebanon's Only Male Belly Dancer Hopes to Break Some Taboos". Retrieved 10 September 2021.
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