Title:
Music Promoter Turns American Women Into 'Bellydance
Superstars'
Description: This is
a VOA Special English General News Report.
See text below
Text:
Miles Copeland is best known for his work with rock
bands like R.E.M. and The Police.
MILES COPELAND: "I really started trying to promote
Arabic music. I did a big single with Sting called
'Desert Rose' and it proved that Americans will buy
music coming from the Middle East if it's put in the
right context. So I started releasing records by
Andy, who is an Iranian artist living in L.A. I put
a lot of Arabic artists out."
Eight years ago, Copeland organized a belly dancing
competition to help one artist. He soon found that
the ancient dance form is popular in the United
States.
MILES COPELAND: "We had 180 dancers who flew in from
all over America for this contest. So, 'Wow!' I
never realized there were so many belly dancers in
America."
Today, his professional belly dancing troupe has
performed more than 800 shows in over 20 countries.
MILES COPELAND: "We have to convince people that
yes, belly dance does belong on a proper stage. It
isn't just something for a restaurant with one
soloist while you are eating your dinner. The other
challenge I had, of course, is that when I got
involved, they were all like, 'Oh my God, here is
this rock and roll impresario.' He is gonna destroy
belly dance' ..."
Copeland hopes that his Bellydance Superstars will
send a message to the Middle East, where he spent
much of his childhood.
MILES COPELAND: "In the Sunday Times in England they
actually wrote 'Bellydance Superstars are the
world's most important dance troupe' because they
are the only dance troupe in the world that actually
is made up of American ladies. When you see the
Bellydance Superstars, you are seeing Americans
appreciating a foreign culture."
Petite Jamila is a dancer for the group. She thinks
the reason for its popularity is being open to
change.
PETITE JAMILA: "America is extremely accepting to it
because they see an avenue for something that they
can also place their own trademark on."
Moria Chappelle is a world famous tribal belly
dancer.
MORIA CHAPPELLE: "The style that I do is tribal
fusion belly dance, which is unique to America as
sort of an American interpretation of Middle Eastern
movement, and then using antique textiles and
antique jewelry, but then putting to modern music."
Bellydance Superstars has yet to earn a profit or
become really famous. But Copeland says there are
other ways to measure success.
MILES COPELAND: "When I get a letter from some lady
telling me that, you know I've given her husband
back, when I have a man come up to me and say that
I've made him feel proud about his culture. We had
ladies come up to us in Morocco and say 'thank you.'
So when you see the effect that you're having on
people, as long as those rewards are there and you
are not going totally bankrupt, you know, you think,
well, we are gonna get there in the end financially.
So it is worth it."
Worth it to the performers and to Miles Copeland,
who has a history of risk-taking and success. I'm
Faith Lapidus.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
