A Movement of Beauty and Depth
Dancer Hanan Uses Her Art for Social Change

By Natalia Maldonado

	Hana, whose real name is Tiffany Madera, is out to dispel the myths about belly dance Photo by Cara Pastore

First exposed to Middle Eastern dance in the south of France where she studied as an undergraduate, Hanan, who is Cuban descent, became immersed in the Arabic culture and community present there. Upon returning to Miami, Hanan started taking classes at the Mid-Eastern Dance Exchange.

“I said to myself, ‘Within eight weeks, I'm going to make a decision' and within two weeks I knew that [belly dance] was my path,” she says.

The path Hanan took, however, extends beyond the dance world.

She became heavily involved in Arts of St. Johns, a mission-based organization to foster spiritual growth in the community, which she credits as one of the major forces in her artistic growth.

Her years spent abroad have given her an international framework for everything she does, including the Hanan Arts Cooperative, a humanitarian arts cooperative organization that aims to empower, educate, and further peace and social justice.

HAC brings together artists of all disciplines and areas, with a board of directors in Miami, Washington D.C., and New York. Currently, HAC has ongoing programs in Miami including Dance Empowerment, The Habibi Project, Bellydance Cuba in Havana, and programs in development for 2006 in New York City and Haiti, with an initiative for a program in Africa by 2007.

“The object [of HAC] is to affect our local community using the resources of our community,” Hanan says. “For me, it's using Middle Eastern Dance to affect women positively.”

One of the ways that Hanan has done this is through the Dance Empowerment Project, a program that teaches belly dance to abused women and uses the dance as a part of the healing process.

“It wasn't just stand behind me and follow me and dance,” she says. “There was a lot of articulation of growth and evolution. I saw a lot of women share with each other and that was beautiful.”

The program eventually opened up to women of all backgrounds, not just those overcoming difficult situations in their lives.

“Everyone in society deals with battery from the media and images,” Hanan says. “Middle Eastern dance is one of the most powerful vehicles of transformation in any woman's life. It goes to the core of their experience in their body.”

On-stage, Hanan takes the dance past entertainment purposes and uses it to convey political messages, such as in Habibi, a film and theatre project that features hip-hop and belly dance. The story, which tells of a female heroine who saves society from war and patriarchy, centers around the theme of having two different cultures co-exist and consequently discover their similarities.

“Habibi was challenging, but that's why Habibi was born, to address the challenge,” Hanan says. “The theory of Habibi works because of the political ideology, the thesis, of using two ethnic art forms that derive from a political and social underclass.”

In addition, both are art forms that have been and are still largely misunderstood. In Middle Eastern dance, artists such as Hanan constantly struggle with the stereotypes associated with the dance.

“The biggest misconception is that it's called belly dance, and that it's sexual enticement for men,” she says. “I think that's one aspect of its history, and it's a very small aspect that can't be ignored, but the rest of the history has to be included.”

There are many theories regarding the origin of Middle Eastern dance, which can be traced back to thousands of years ago, when it was first developed by women as a way to prepare the body for childbirth. Like any other art form, belly dance has evolved, from being a social dance performed amongst women, to an exotic and somewhat scandalous form when first introduced to the United States in the late 1890s, and even at times to a dance that was seen as entertainment for men. However, its origins, as well as the message that many dancers still try to convey today, take root in the celebration of the feminine.

With the recent upsurge in popularity of the dance, Hanan stresses that there is also an important responsibility attached.

“I would like to see that everyone take responsibility to carry the name appropriately and to learn its truth and history, even the contradictions of it. It's important to be armed with that knowledge,” she says. “Dancers should present themselves with a full spectrum of knowledge, not become a caricature of the stereotype.”

Currently, Hanan is pursuing a Masters Degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Florida International University and creating new dance theories for the regions using Middle Eastern dance in creative political frameworks.