The first Middle Eastern restaurant in the United States opened in Boston in 1952. With dinner came live entertainment.
“Aziza!” is a new Interlock Media (www.interlockmedia.com) documentary profiling the history of belly dance in the Boston area as it evolved and thrived within the Lebanese, Armenian and Greek communities that have settled here since the early 1900’s.
Boston became a melting pot of eastern Mediterranean music and dance. Artistic styles blended here in a way that could not ha
... (show all)
The first Middle Eastern restaurant in the United States opened in Boston in 1952. With dinner came live entertainment.
“Aziza!” is a new Interlock Media (www.interlockmedia.com) documentary profiling the history of belly dance in the Boston area as it evolved and thrived within the Lebanese, Armenian and Greek communities that have settled here since the early 1900’s.
Boston became a melting pot of eastern Mediterranean music and dance. Artistic styles blended here in a way that could not have happened back home in Lebanon, Armenia and Greece in the midst of economic hardship, ethnic conflict, and political strife.
The 1950s to the 1980s would become the “Nightclub Era” of belly dance. Because of the similarities of culture and cuisine, the Lebanese, Armenians and Greeks began mingling at each other’s restaurants and nightclubs.
During this time you could see belly dancing seven nights a week at several spots throughout the Boston area. Musicians played the Middle Eastern oud and the Greek bouzouki. Guests danced the Lebanese dabke, the Armenian line dances, and the Greek zembekiko.
Aziza! explores how music and dance played a vivid role in the immigrant experience of these communities, and how belly dance – an ethnic art form – gained popularity in mainstream America.
(collapse)
