They say you should never start a speech with a joke, but it’s perhaps equally important that you should never start diplomacy with a dance.
It seems that whenever a foreign diplomat has taken part in a traditional dance, apart from the political ones they are so accustomed to, it has ended in an epic embarrassment.
At the forefront of these missteps is George W Bush’s foray into tribal dancing to raise malaria awareness in 2007; it’s safe to say that neither his liberal use of jazz hands nor his frantic intrusion on the African drums did anything to help the cause.
And when Richard Gere insisted on being “the man” in his ballroom dance with former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, it turned the already unpopular politician into “the woman” by default.
Then there are claims that Russian leader Boris Yeltsin actually invented the Gangnam Style dance in 1996.
So when Britain’s Prince Charles took the stage at the Al Jenadiryah Festival in Saudi Arabia, it seemed that viewers collectively braced for what was surely to be yet another awkward session of gyration.
But it was not to be. Not this time.
Now it’s difficult to say if his poise was a result of practice beforehand or whether it was his aristocratic nonchalance that made him especially suitable for this performance. It could just be his standard expression of indifference that made Prince Charles seem so comfortable in the traditional thobe. For whatever reason, the prince moved with the performers, not as a smiling western politician looking to his flanks for nods of approval, but as one with the troupe as if they were kin.
Which leads me to ask: what is the purpose behind western diplomats joining in on traditional dances? Why venture into unknown territory, bound to end in failure?
Of course, there have been some politicians and diplomats who actually know how to dance outside the political sphere. The late Nelson Mandela was known to relish every opportunity to dance, up until he was 81. He was even quoted as saying: “It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world.”
In a way, these moments relieve the seriousness of the debate, bilateral, trilateral, multilateral and so many other laterals, in favour of actually moving laterally. There’s a tendency to forget that these representatives are actually people. And, albeit embarrassing, gyrating might relieve some of the monotony inherent in international diplomacy.
It’s safe to say that diplomacy was a lot more interesting in ancient times. In fact, with the lack of international institutions, direct diplomacy was often the only method of avoiding war. Having said that, diplomacy in those times usually entailed marrying off an unwilling princess to some foreign leader in an attempt to safeguard the kingdom.
As the world has globalised, the need for cultural understanding has become more pertinent. National representatives recognised that cultural understanding was an extremely effective method of currying the favour of their counterparts. The most effective tool of this particular brand of diplomacy was the exchange of presents, which Ethiopia’s Haile Selassie mastered by including in his entourage a pride of lions to be gifted to those European heads of state he visited.
The diplomatic gift, as it turns out, is an enduring representation of bilateral cultural understanding – as you can see by visiting museums all around the world that are chock-full of artefacts given as gifts or tribute and would otherwise be forgotten.
Nowadays, gifts aren’t as exciting as a lion but they do usually entail some cultural artefact representing the ideals of the reciprocal country. By taking a gift, a country is symbolically accepting not only the friendship of the other nation but a willingness to adopt a segment of its culture.
So, there he was, the same stiff Prince Charles, not simply accepting a gift with the rigidity characteristic of the British monarchy, but actually becoming that culture personified.
This display of camaraderie – not to mention his willingness to dance close to 200 men with swords – won’t be forgotten anytime soon by a country that places a huge emphasis on its cultural preservation. Regardless of whether his time was actually used to raise important issues rather than the usual meandering pleasantries, the Prince of Wales or, as many are trying to dub him, “Charles of Arabia”, is in a better position now to actually address those important matters during his future visits.
NAlWasmi@thenational.ae
