Serena Wilson
Encyclopedia
Serena Wilson often known just as "Serena", was a well-known dancer, choreographer, and teacher who helped popularize belly dance
in the United States
. Serena's work also helped legitimize the dance form and helped it to be perceived as more than burlesque
or stripping
. Serena danced in clubs in her younger years, opened her own studio
, hosted her own television show, founded her own dance troupe, and was the author of several books about belly dance.
Bronx. Her parents were vaudeville
performers with their own show, Blake & Blake, featuring a variety of comedy and musical numbers
, some of which Serena performed in as a child. As a young adult, Serena officially changed her name from "Serene" to "Serena".
Serena also began studying with famed dancer Ruth St. Denis
, well-known for her interpretations of Orient
al and Oriental-style
dance. In 1952, Serena married Alan (Rip) Wilson, a musician
, percussionist, and leader
of a Dixieland
band, a combination which complemented Serena's own background. In the mid-1950s, Serena gave birth to their son, Scott.
Not long after their marriage, Rip's band was booked for a gig
with a Middle East
ern theme that required a belly dance
r. In spite of the clash of styles, Rip quickly got hold of the music for popular Middle Eastern standards
like Misirlou
, and recruited his wife to dance, which Serena felt her studies with St. Denis had prepared her for.
According to her husband, Serena's dance ended up being rather awkward, as she wasn't sure what to do with her hands. She disguised this by carrying a vase
on her shoulder throughout! The performance was nonetheless a success, inspiring Serena and Rip to pursue a life-long interest in Middle Eastern music and dance.
Rip took up Middle Eastern drumming and frequently accompanied Serena as she honed her skills dancing at the Egyptian Gardens club in Chelsea
, an area then known colloquially as Greektown for the large number of Greek
and Middle Eastern cabarets lining the street. Soon, Serena had become one of the most popular belly dancers in the city and even performed for various city officials.
. In the 1970s she started her own TV show, known as Serena and The Serena Show, which served as a means of educating the masses about belly dancing and billed itself as "The fun way to beauty, grace, and a youthful figure."
Her son, Scott, continued the family tradition by dedicating himself to the study of the oud
, an Egypt
ian lute
or guitar
. Serena began writing the first two of her books about belly dance, The Serena Technique of Belly Dancing and The Belly Dance Book.
Serena and Rip's success continued unabated until the Gulf War
in 1991, when American
attitudes toward all things Middle Eastern soured.
production of Aida
. She also continued teaching at her studio and choreographing for her troupe, Serena Dance Theater, which performed throughout New York City.
Serena's studio provided dancers for hire, with dancers available for performances at traditional Middle Eastern weddings and other social events. Notably, in keeping with Serena's long-held belief that belly dancing was not comparable with stripping
and erotic dance, her studio would not provide dancers for events in which their performance might be over-sexualized, e.g., for bachelorette parties but not bachelor parties
, for bat mitzvahs but not bar mitzvahs.
In June 2007, Serena died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism. She had been scheduled to dance in Greenwich Village
with her son's Middle Eastern band, Scott Wilson and Efendi, that very night. Her son and husband continue to carry on her passion for Middle Eastern music and dance. Serena's studio in New York continues to hold classes and provide dancers for performances.
Belly dance
Belly dance or Bellydance is a "Western"-coined name for a traditional "Middle Eastern" dance, especially raqs sharqi . It is sometimes also called Middle Eastern dance or Arabic dance in the West, or by the Greco-Turkish term çiftetelli...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Serena's work also helped legitimize the dance form and helped it to be perceived as more than burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
or stripping
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...
. Serena danced in clubs in her younger years, opened her own studio
Studio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...
, hosted her own television show, founded her own dance troupe, and was the author of several books about belly dance.
Early years
Serena was born Serene Blake in 1933 in New York'sNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Bronx. Her parents were vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
performers with their own show, Blake & Blake, featuring a variety of comedy and musical numbers
Number (music)
A number in music is a self-contained piece that is combined with other such pieces in a performance. In a concert of popular music, for example, the individual songs or pieces performed are often referred to as "numbers." The term is applied also to sections of large vocal works when the...
, some of which Serena performed in as a child. As a young adult, Serena officially changed her name from "Serene" to "Serena".
Serena also began studying with famed dancer Ruth St. Denis
Ruth St. Denis
Ruth St. Denis was an early modern dance pioneer.-Biography:Ruth St. Denis founded Adelphi University's dance program in 1938 which was one of the first dance departments in an American university...
, well-known for her interpretations of Orient
Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
al and Oriental-style
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
dance. In 1952, Serena married Alan (Rip) Wilson, a musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, percussionist, and leader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
of a Dixieland
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
band, a combination which complemented Serena's own background. In the mid-1950s, Serena gave birth to their son, Scott.
Not long after their marriage, Rip's band was booked for a gig
Gig (musical performance)
Gig is slang for a musical engagement in which musicians are hired. Originally coined in the 1920s by jazz musicians, the term, short for the word "engagement", now refers to any aspect of performing such as assisting with performance and attending musical performance...
with a Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern theme that required a belly dance
Belly dance
Belly dance or Bellydance is a "Western"-coined name for a traditional "Middle Eastern" dance, especially raqs sharqi . It is sometimes also called Middle Eastern dance or Arabic dance in the West, or by the Greco-Turkish term çiftetelli...
r. In spite of the clash of styles, Rip quickly got hold of the music for popular Middle Eastern standards
Traditional pop music
Traditional pop or classic pop or standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll,...
like Misirlou
Misirlou
Misirlou , is a popular Greek song with popularity in five styles of music: Greek rebetiko, Middle-Eastern belly dancing, Jewish klezmer, American surf rock, and international orchestral easy listening .- History :...
, and recruited his wife to dance, which Serena felt her studies with St. Denis had prepared her for.
According to her husband, Serena's dance ended up being rather awkward, as she wasn't sure what to do with her hands. She disguised this by carrying a vase
Vase
The vase is an open container, often used to hold cut flowers. It can be made from a number of materials including ceramics and glass. The vase is often decorated and thus used to extend the beauty of its contents....
on her shoulder throughout! The performance was nonetheless a success, inspiring Serena and Rip to pursue a life-long interest in Middle Eastern music and dance.
Rip took up Middle Eastern drumming and frequently accompanied Serena as she honed her skills dancing at the Egyptian Gardens club in Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
, an area then known colloquially as Greektown for the large number of Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
and Middle Eastern cabarets lining the street. Soon, Serena had become one of the most popular belly dancers in the city and even performed for various city officials.
Middle years
In the mid-1960s, Serena began teaching belly dance, opening Serena Studios, on Eighth Avenue in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In the 1970s she started her own TV show, known as Serena and The Serena Show, which served as a means of educating the masses about belly dancing and billed itself as "The fun way to beauty, grace, and a youthful figure."
Her son, Scott, continued the family tradition by dedicating himself to the study of the oud
Oud
The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths...
, an Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
or guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. Serena began writing the first two of her books about belly dance, The Serena Technique of Belly Dancing and The Belly Dance Book.
Serena and Rip's success continued unabated until the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
in 1991, when American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
attitudes toward all things Middle Eastern soured.
Later years
In spite of the bias in American popular culture against the Middle East, Serena continued to perform in a number of Egyptian folkloric shows and appeared several times as the lead dancer in the New York Opera Company'sNew York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
production of Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
. She also continued teaching at her studio and choreographing for her troupe, Serena Dance Theater, which performed throughout New York City.
Serena's studio provided dancers for hire, with dancers available for performances at traditional Middle Eastern weddings and other social events. Notably, in keeping with Serena's long-held belief that belly dancing was not comparable with stripping
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...
and erotic dance, her studio would not provide dancers for events in which their performance might be over-sexualized, e.g., for bachelorette parties but not bachelor parties
Bachelor party
A bachelor party , also known as a stag party, stag night or stag do , a bull's party , or a buck's party or buck's night , is a party held for a man shortly before he enters marriage, to celebrate his "last night of freedom" or merely to spend...
, for bat mitzvahs but not bar mitzvahs.
In June 2007, Serena died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism. She had been scheduled to dance in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
with her son's Middle Eastern band, Scott Wilson and Efendi, that very night. Her son and husband continue to carry on her passion for Middle Eastern music and dance. Serena's studio in New York continues to hold classes and provide dancers for performances.
Further reading
- Wilson, Serena. The Belly Dance Book. (McGraw-Hill 1983)
- Wilson, Serena. The Legacy of Little Egypt: A History of the Belly Dance in America. (Serena Studios, 1994)
- Wilson, Serena. The Serena Technique of Belly Dancing. (Drake Publishers 1972)
Video References
Sources
- Fox, Margalit. "Serena Wilson Dies at 73; Popularized Belly Dance." The New York Times: June 24, 2007.
- Serena Studios: About Serena.
- The Serena Show