In Istanbul She Dances

On Sammi Cox’s writing blog the weekend writing prompt is to write a poem or a piece of prose in exactly 67 words, using the word “rhythm” or any variation of that word. I’ve written a prose poem inspired by the Turkish Romani (Gypsy) belly dancer Didem Kinali. As I explained in my previous short story Aneta the Cleaner, the Roma or Romani people come from India. The Turkish style of belly dancing is heavily influenced by Romani female dancing, which in turn is related to the dancing of the women of the Kalbelia people of India, who are musicians, dancers, and snake charmers. Didem Kinali performs a belly dance that is very similar to the snake dance of the Kalbelia women, which is based on the swaying movements of the cobra. I’ve drawn an illustration to go with the poem.

In Istanbul she dances, spinning swiftly to the rhythm of the snake dance, the dance of her ancestors of distant India. In a dark room of pillars she dances, not beneath the desert sun of Rajasthan. But it is the same dance of beauty, of swiftly moving curves, of the Kalbelia women of far away India. The movements of a cobra in the body of a woman.

Aneta the Cleaner

On her writing blog Reena Saxena has provided the word “empirical” as a word prompt for this week. Writers are free to use the word itself, or just to capture the spirit of the word in their work.

The Pocket Macquarie Dictionary that I own defines the adjective “empirical” as follows: depending upon experience or observation rather than using science or theory. I think that the following short story illustrates this definition very well.

This story is set in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia in the Balkans. It is about a Romani, or Gypsy, woman who works as a cleaner. The Roma or Romani people are a European minority of Indian origin who left India around 1000 AD. They should not be confused with the Romanian people, who speak a Latin-based language.

The Roma have various traditional occupations which are the same as those practiced by the nomadic tribes of India. For example, like the Gadolia Lohar nomads of India many of the European Roma have traditionally worked as blacksmiths. Another Indian tribe with a similar way of life to the Roma are the Kalbelia, who are musicians, dancers, and snake charmers. The famous Turkish Romani belly dancer Didem Kinali performs a belly dance that is very similar to that of the snake dance of the Kalbelia women, which is based on the swaying movements of the cobra. Also, the Kalandar people of India have traditionally exhibited performing bears which is another traditional occupation of the Roma of the Balkans.

Regarding the controversial practice of exhibiting performing bears, this is a practice that existed in Europe long before the Roma left India in 1000 AD. For example, the ancient Greek rhetorician Isocrates (436-338 BC) mentions men with performing bears in Athens. Later the illustrations of medieval manuscripts from France and other European countries show men, who are clearly European and not Roma, exhibiting performing bears.

Romani people have formed a sedentary community in Skopje since the Middle Ages; the Romani quarter of Topana was first mentioned at the beginning of the 14th century AD. When Skopje was part of the Ottoman Empire the Romani inhabitants of Topana manufactured guns and gunpowder for the Turkish garrison. Today, Roma living in North Macedonia, as in other European countries and in Turkey, face much discrimination in obtaining employment. However, the Shuto Orizari Municipality in Skopje is the only urban administrative unit in the world to have Romani as its official language, and Senada Sali, a Macedonian Romani woman, works as a lawyer with the European Roma Rights Centre and strives to improve conditions for the Romani community in North Macedonia.

I wrote this story as I am partly of Romani descent. It was also inspired by my own job as a cleaner.