Iovino’s unveils another night of belly dancing and live music from Ala Nar

By Jake TenPas
The Entertainer

Corvallis — In the great scheme of the local belly dancing scene, Iovino’s belly dancing night is the new kid on the block. Compared to the nearly 20 years Old World Deli has been hosting the artform, or the long history of performances by Kameal and the late, great Joseph Pusey at The Beanery, Iovino’s has barely removed its first veil.

Still, while it might lose out in the category of tradition, Iovino’s has something going for it that Old World doesn’t: A killer live band.

Oh yeah, and a little thing called fire dancing.

Eugene group Ala Nar provides the soundtrack for dancers Astryd, Janikea, Salome and others one Friday of each month. Fire dancers from the FIREality troupe also join in, spinning their flaming wares on the waterfront outside Iovino’s downtown location.

This month, the soft parade takes place at 9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26. The cost is $5.

Janikea

Sitting outside Bare Naked Tanning on Monroe Avenue, Janikea sips coffee and talks about the the orgins of the monthly event. It started about six months ago when Iovino’s bartender Katy January approached Janikea about the possibility of getting something going.

“Heck yeah! Let’s do it,” she remembers responding.

Janikea has been dancing for 12 years now, first getting her start with Joseph and Kameal at the downtown Beanery. Since then, she’s been studying with fellow dancer Astryd, taking in particularly the music and movement of Egypt, which she describes as softer, more refined, curvier and even “yummier” than some other forms of belly dancing. Similarly, the costumes vary to reflect the propensities of the dancers.

“Astryd brings back the good juiciness from Cairo,” she says of her mentor, who lives in Egypt for six month out of the year.

Janikea also dances as part of the Corvallis Belly Dance Performance Guild’s weekly event from 8 p.m. to 9:30 or 10 every Wednesday at Old World, and she teaches classes such as Egyptian Fundamentals at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany.

“It’s like being a body therapist,” she says, describing part of her instruction as “teaching them to appreciate themselves.”

“I’m creating a vulnerable place in myself by being soft,” she adds, enthusiastically extolling the ability of belly dancing to help women get in touch with their own femininity, become more comfortable with their body and even improve their psychological well-being.

Salome

Janikea’s Egyptian style is contrasted nicely by fellow performer Salome, who practices American Oriental, a fusion of disparate ethnic styles descended from the dancers that first put the artform on the map back in the 1950s and ’60s with their small, intimate cabaret shows.

In a way, American Oriental is to belly dancing what Mixed Martial Arts is to other fighting disciplines. Like a life-affirming version of the cage fighter who can pick between kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Salome is free to use any ethnic tradition to best express the pulse and harmonies in the music. In this way, the band becomes her opponent, challenging her to greater heights of rhythmic intensity.

“The thing that tells me what I’m going to do is the music,” she says.

Tips for tipping

While most belly dancers, including Salome and Janikea, play down any associations between their artform and exotic dancing, both dancers agree that local audiences would do well to remember that tipping is an integral part of showing appreciation for a particularly moving professional piece.

How exactly to show that appreciation is something they’re less in agreement on. Janikea suggests that if a dancer moves her hip or shoulder toward an audience member, it might be an invitation to put a bill in her wasteband. Salome, however, frowns upon this practice and says she prefers people to fold the money into a necklace or shower her with it. In the event you don’t have enough money for such displays, she says a bracelet or even a Japanese crane would do just fine.

Both dancers agree, however, that the live music of Ala Nar greatly enhances not only the experience for the audience, but also the challenge for the dancer.

“Live music brings a whole other level of energy,” Salome says.

“It’s monumental, Janikea says. “It’s full spectrum. You have this range of audio and visual. It’s like karaoke versus a live band.”

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