There surely aren't too many people out there who can talk about hanging out with The Sex Pistols in one breath and taking calls from then-United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the next. Miles Copeland, however, is one such person.
Older brother of Stewart Copeland, drummer in The Police, Copeland has a rock 'n' roll resume as long as your arm — promoting tours by The Sex Pistols, Blondie and Lou Reed; managing first The Police and then Sting; breaking bands such as REM and The Bangles on his label IRS; and much more. But since 2002, his main focus has been on a new project: Bellydance Superstars.
Formed in 2002 and immediately booked for the ever-popular Lollapalooza touring festival in the United States, Bellydance Superstars feature a bevy of top-level Oriental dancers assembled into one jaw-dropping show. While bellydance, a traditional Middle Eastern art form known for its sensuous movements, had long been an undercurrent in American subculture, Copeland had the rather obvious idea of taking the scene's most striking dancers — women such as Sonia, Rachel Brice, Ansuya and Suhaila Salimpour — and promoting them like rock stars. Copeland — on a stopover in Tokyo last January to promote the upcoming Bellydance Superstars tour in Japan — told The Japan Times that, "Yeah, it was an obvious idea. But nobody had ever done it!"