Fostering Group Unity and Integration
摘要
This chapter explores the social and cultural practices employed by the ScheherazadeScheherazade dance group to foster cohesion, growth, and integrationintegration over time. Central to understanding their unity are questions about how these women—sharing migration backgrounds but diverse life trajectories—organize their collective leisure. What drives their commitment to the group, and which actions nurture both unity and integrationintegration? I first examine individual motivations, then move to the routine, purposefulactionpurposeful, and micro-situative actionsactionmicro-situative sustaining group cohesion. Motivations for dancing vary widely: artistic passion and revival, professional ambitions, managerial strengths and desire for personal liberation, stress relief, or temporary escape from daily hardships. Together, dancing forms a space for cultural expression, bodily mastery, and mental well-being. Through an intersectional lens, the chapter highlights how gender, age, migration background, and body type shape experiences within the group, often overlooked in scholarly discourse. For women aged 41 to 60, belly dance becomes a lived fantasy—offering a momentary escape into the enchanting allure of the Orient through auto- exoticism. Ultimately, the group’s cohesion emerges from collective actions spanning purposefulactionpurposeful development, structured rehearsals alternated with occasional public performances, and the significance of casual presence in micro-situative actionsactionmicro-situative.