The name bellydancing was given to Middle Eastern dance around 1893 when Sol Bloom bought a group of Algerian and Tunisian musicians and dancers over from the Paris Exposition of 1889 to the Chicago World Fair. During the Paris exposition the Hawkers advertised the dance as “danse du ventre”, dance of the stomach, when translated to English it became the “belly dance”. The Chicago Fair was a huge affair and a whole village was built for these Orientals called Midway Plaisance, the idea of the exhibitions was to show the progress and development of human civilization. Although, in fact, these natives of various lands were there to be ogled at by the local Americans. Hence possibly why the name “danse du ventre” was given to the dancers as they exposed part of their middle and bare flesh, which in those times in the West was not allowed amongst supposed decent society. So in essence one would imagine very few people viewing them would have thought they had progressed at all. In the view of westerners today their dancing would be possibly seen as sweet and sedate and not at all lurid.
Hollywood took Bellydancing to its heart in the 30s and 40s and so it became known worldwide, they also introduced the two piece costume which then much of the Middle East adopted. This is really where the dance gained a sexual reference and has been increased by the media over the years. Of course there have been many dancers who have jumped on this bandwagon to make money and they are normally non-Middle Eastern dancers trying to make some money. Turkey is the only country in general that allows their dancers to perform more overtly sexual moves and wear very little. In fact in Egypt and most of the Middle East they have morality police who ensure that nothing too seedy is being performed.
Some Westerners would probably be upset if there wasn't some sort of sexual connotation associated with this type of dancing but as far as I am concerned I see it as an art form and a wonderful way to exercise. In fact when I was in Turkey once attending the usual tourist “Turkish Night” my friends and I got more cheers and applause when we got up to dance than the bellydancer did as she had been doing the usual tourist rubbish of straddling the men and undoing their shirts, she was gorgeous too. I think it is a shame that they cannot dance as they have been brought up to do at home as it looks so wonderful.
I first fell in love with this dance on holiday in Turkey on an alternative holiday and I was lying in my bed in my yurt listening to the drums and the dancers sagreeting and decided I had to go and find out about it as it sounded so wonderful. When I watched the dancers in their class they were having such fun an had big smiles on their faces and I decided I wanted to feel like that. Funnily enough although I fell in love with this dance in Turkey I do prefer the Egyptian version which in general is a little slower is more mysterious and sensual and has more moves.
I teach Egyptian style in my classes and workshops with a mixture of classical and modern music. This dance is fun and exercises all of your muscles and is great for mental health as it has a feel good factor, it also makes you think as you have to count and remember choreography and rythms etc. The two things that set this dance apart from others is the isolation of the movements and the control by the muscles of those movements. This takes quite some time to learn as well as learning the rythms and timing. Also it is important to note that although everyone believes the movements all come from the belly in actual fact the part of the body used most of all in this dance is the hips. It also takes years to learn this dance proficiently.
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