About belly dance
In the West, Middle Eastern dance has traditionally been lumped together under the nickname “belly dance” and the Hollywood movie stereotype of “I Dream of Jeannie” style gyrating harem girls.
This is a little like dubbing ballet dance "toe dancing" and depicting it as the lacivious lifting of legs!
The term "belly dance" was coined in the US following the Chicago World Fair in 1893, which featured Algerian dancers. These dancers created a flurry of scandal in a Victorian society unused to seeing dances that contained movements of the hips and pelvis. Soon, cabaret shows and burlesque acts cashed in on the publicity by putting on sexed up versions of Middle Eastern dance as part of their act.
As such the term perhaps more properly refers to the fantasy style of dance that developed in the American, and by extension Western, imagination during this period, than to any real dance. This fantasy sprang from exotic tales of the Arabian Nights and Hollywood movies rather than from any authentic representation of Middle Eastern culture. Yet it continues to beloved of the media, and has come to represent most people's image of Middle Eastern dance.
In fact the "real" belly dance is just one of many dance styles found in that vast region. While the exact country of origin is lost, It could traditionally found from Turkey, through the Levant region of the Middle East, and into Egypt. Each region had its own variant, with the Egyptian style becoming the most influential thanks to the Egyptian film industry. And it was Egypt that became the crucible from which the modern dance emerged.
Country Dance and Oriental Dance
In Egypt the dance was known traditionally as Raqs Baladi, which can be translated as "Country Dance". Raqs Baladi was primarly a social dance, though groups of professional female dancers could be booked for celebrations, weddings, fantasias and local festivals (moulid).
In the colonial period, Western-style venues offering Western entertainment sprang up and soon these began to also offer shows featuring the local dance. Adapting to this new style of presentation the dance drew on ballet and Latin influences, yet it retained its Egyptian heart. The dance came to be referred to as Raqs Sharqi or Dance of the Orient to differentiate it from the Western offerings, and this name is now commonly used in the Middle East.
Modern Egyptian Oriental dance is highly expressive, with intricate nuanced movement. It is elegant yet earthy; sensual yet restrained and utterly captivating.
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