We created this page as platform for all Dancers Around the world , if you have any video and you want to introduce your talent to people send it to us via messenger and we will share it with our followers For other uses, see Belly dancer (disambiguation).
- Belly dance or Bellydance is a "Western"-coined name for a traditional "Middle Eastern" dance, especially raqs sharqi (Arabic: رقص شرقي). It
is sometimes also called Middle Eastern dance or Arabic dance in the West, or by the Greco-Turkish term çiftetelli (Greek: τσιφτετέλι).
- The term "Belly dance" is a translation of the French "danse du ventre" which was applied to the dance in the Victorian era. It is something of a misnomer as every part of the body is involved in the dance; the most featured body part usually is the hips. Belly dance takes many different forms depending on country and region, both in costume and dance style, and new styles have evolved in the West as its popularity has spread globally. Although contemporary forms of the dance have generally been performed by women, some of the dances, particularly the cane dance, have origins in male forms of performance
●Raqs sharqi (Arabic: رقص شرقي; literally "Dance of the Near East") is the style more familiar to Westerners, performed in restaurants and cabarets around the world. It is more commonly performed by female dancers but is also sometimes danced by men. It is a solo improvisational dance, although students often perform choreographed dances in a group.
●Raqs baladi, (Arabic: رقص بلدي; literally "dance of country", or "folk" dance) is the folkloric style, danced socially by men and women of all ages in some Middle Eastern countries, usually at festive occasions such as weddings. Origins and early history:
- Belly dancing has its roots in various ancient cultures of the Arabian Peninsula, and was certainly in existence in pre-Islamic Arabia. It is suggested that women used to belly dance for the moon god Hubal and the love god Wadd. The dance was popular during the Umayyad Caliphate,and Abbasid Caliphate (see photo on right). It is often suggested that belly dance was originally danced by women for women in the Middle East, and North Africa, or that it was developed as an aid to childbirth. The book "The Dancing Girl of Shamakha and other Asiatic tales" by Comte de Gobineau is often cited, but it is a modern novel (published 1918) and offers no concrete historical evidence. In Middle Eastern society two specific belly dance movements are traditionally used in childbirth. However there is no evidence to indicate whether belly dance developed from these two movements, or vice versa. In contrast, evidence of belly dance as entertainment is much more widely available, starting with images in ancient Egypt, and pre-Islamic Caliphates (see photo on right). The Roman poet Martial, visiting Ephesus commented on the "erotic ballerinas" who entertained him. They used finger cymbals and "gyrated...to a steady beat". When Islam was introduced to the Middle East, women were no longer allowed to dance in public and their place was taken by men, called Köçek in the Ottoman Empire. In more recent history (1798), Napoleon's troupes encountered the Ghawazee and Almeh belly dancers in Egypt. Belly dance was popularized in the West during the Romantic movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, when Orientalist artists depicted romanticized images of harem life in the Ottoman Empire. Around this time, dancers from Middle Eastern countries began to perform at various World's Fairs, often drawing crowds in numbers that rivaled those for the science and technology exhibits. It was during this period that the term "oriental" or "eastern" dancing is first used. Several dancers, including the French author Colette, engaged in "oriental" dancing, sometimes passing off their own interpretations as authentic.
