Let's Dance!

Technorati tags: Humor, Politics, Tourism, PAS, Kelantan, Dance Club, Segregation, David Bowie, YouTube

The earlier Bowie-related post had an unintended side-effect... this bit of dance-related news.

Will the lambada be allowed?
(PDF version here)

Just for the sake of seeing what kind of "fun" one can expect at a totally segregated entertainment outlet, it may just be worth a trip to Kelantan next year during the height of VMY 2007. And no doubt about it - this latest announcement is targetted at trying to bring in more tourists for VMY 2007.

Damage control, too.

After the recent Kota Baru dress-code imposition, this seems like a damage-containment news release exercise, to try convince the world that Kelantan still values your tourist-dollars (or ringgit, Euro, or whatever your currency of choice).

But the conditions that surround these proposed tourist-belt entertainment outlets raises some interesting questions. The dress code, naturally, doesn't differ any from what one would expect.

Like, what sort of music would be allowed? Or, if the lambada would be allowed - for same-sex dance partners, of course, since males and females have to be segregated. And since discos won't be allowed, just what sort of dance clubs would these be in the first place?
(Walski's imagination runs wild, in the full post)

Would foreign tourists, for example, find appealing a dance club with a section of tudung-clad ladies jiggying to the spiritual rhythms of nasheeds - with the other section of the dance hall partitioned for the men, who would be boogying to the same rhythms?

And would live bands be allowed? Here's an all-girl band from post-Taliban Afghanistan (the first 30 sec is the newscaster speaking in German), called The Burka Band. Maybe they would be allowed.

Or how about raves? Yeah, of the culturally "Islamic" kind, no less.

The PAS-style dance club would probably be without the kind of lighting you would normally expect of a dance club - these would necessarily need to be brightly lit, thus diminishing the effects of colored lights, lasers, and strobes. Walski expects bright flourescents, nothing less (like the kind you get in badminton halls, or the tacky colored ones at roadside stalls).

But esteemed bloggr colleague KTemoc has a slightly different take on the news... one that is a little "happier", perhaps?

From the news report, it appears that PAS has not yet done their marketing research on the proposed "Islamic"-styled entertainment outlets.

State PAS Youth head Salahuddin Ayub said the party was trying to demonstrate a healthy form of entertainment in the Islamic context.

He said PAS leaders should not give up on their quest despite criticisms from certain quarters and attempts by Umno to politicise it.

Salahuddin said the wing will also meet with foreign tourists to find out what kind of entertainment activities they like in the country.

Walski wonders which tourists, from where, and how PAS plans to solicit their opinions - within two weeks, no less - as 2007 is just around the corner.

If for no other reason, however, these PAS-styled night spots will definitely be a novelty - perhaps from a tourism point of view, more bang-for-the-buck could be gotten by having foriegn tourist-only glass enclosed viewing galleries; observation rooms from which the tourists can observe the kind of "fun" the patrons are having.

Like at a herpetarium.

Walski's musical clarification note: The post title is borrowed from Bowie's 1983 album of the same name, which features a number of early 80's hits for the singer/songwriter/artiste, including the controversial China Girl (which incidentally, Bowie co-wrote with Iggy Pop some years prior to the release of Let's Dance, for The Idiot album).

The album marked David Bowie's (at the time) biggest commercial success, but was reviled by many long-time Bowie fans, as being a commercial sell-out.

But Bowie's foray into commercialism-friendly music was not to be his swan song - he has since mutated his music into a number of other esoteric forms since the early-80's, and remains as one of today's most enigmatic pop icons.