One of the big challenges for this project is how to think about and organize the research. When I first started this work, I felt that time was slipping by and my biggest priority was to interview as many of the dancers, musicians, club owners, and others who were around in the Nightclub Era. My other strategy was to think along three main lines: clubs, dancers, and musicians, and to organize my information that way.
This worked for a time and I certainly collected great interviews and stories. However, each interview revealed new information and new connections, which opened up whole new avenues of possible investigation. I had to narrow down my efforts to keep from becoming overwhelmed. So I chose two research questions on which to focus:
Who is Boston’s Dancer Zero (i.e. who was the first dancer to perform in Boston)?
How did the nightclubs evolve out of the immigrant social clubs of the time?
I had also approached Sahra Saeeda about my organizational challenge. Sahra is my dance research hero. A well-known and highly-respected dancer and dance ethnologist, Sahra developed the Journey through Egypt (JtE) series of workshops. JtE is a jewel of a program that helps dancers understand the origins, culture, and the people behind the dances - folkloric and belly dance - that we perform today. I can’t recommend them enough.
Sahra uses two organizing principles for her research - dance “zones” and “tables”. She classifies geographical zones in Egypt by the type of dance that originated in them. That is a classic ethnologist POV. But the tables - that is genius. Sahra categorizes Egyptian dance using the model of a row of imaginary tables to show the progression of Egyptian dance from “home style” dance (what’s done at family parties, for example) through government dance troupes to belly dance in Cairo nightclubs. This construct helps students understand the origins and performance context of both folkloric and professional dance.
So, understandably, Sahra’s answer to me - “Tables!” She said that tables are the answer to everything, and I think she’s right! The model works beautifully, especially for the immigrant club to nightclub research. I’m honored that Sahra encouraged me to use her model. Look for a deeper dive on that here soon!