Central BellyDance School - Student Reading

About Teaching Styles, the Power of Association, and Natural Dancing

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 21:02:01 GMT

Most of us, as new students, want to learn the right way to dance. We often want to know what the correct name for a move is, and how it is done. New dancers can get confused or frustrated when hearing different names of the same move, or will label one way of doing something wrong if it doesn't match up with they way our teacher does it.* We may even long for a standardized curriculum, especially if we grew up with more codified Euro-American dance styles, like ballet or square dancing. I know it's frustrating to not have a single answer, but for this dance, it is very important to resist the urge to standardize it!

You might want to get it right so you have the confidence that someone won't challenge you on it. You might want to get it right to be respectful of the culture or to avoid offending someone, but actually, allowing for this shift away from standardization and to a different perspective on dancing, is the more authentic thing.

You see, within raqs sharki/dans oryantal (the Arabic and Turkish names, respectively, for what we call bellydance, both meaning Eastern/Oriental dance), choreography is something that was imported from "the west" during colonization. That isn't to say no dances in the MENAHT region used pre-set movement patterns, but the social dance, and the dance performed by the awalim and raqassas, this was an improvised art form.

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In Arabic performing arts, performing something differently each time is highly valued. Alia Thabit (an Arab-American dancer in Massachusetts) has written extensively about this, including a chapter in her book Midnight at the Crossroads. You can also see it in the ecstatic reactions of the audience to singers like Om Kalthoom, who would take a 30 minute (as composed) song, and make a 2 hour concert of it by riffing on a line, or even just a word, to milk the emotion from it. Or in a beledi progression, which has a general structure but no set composition because it is played on the musician's feeling. Bellydance is always the music translated into movement, so it shares this quality both as a result of the music being this way, and from the native cultural aesthetic applying to the dance. This is obvious in golden era videos, where the star is improvising and the backup dancers, doing choreography (again, an innovation that Sala owners imported and chose to use in their own way) are each doing the choreography in their own way. This is not because they are unrehearsed or bad dancers, but because it is not their goal to be perfect copies of each other the way the corps dancers in a ballet are striving for.

This extends into the way the dance was traditionally taught, as well. Partly because it is a social and folkloric dance, which is simply polished up a bit for stage presentation (and by that, I mean the stage dancers need to "enunciate" their technique a bit more), and also because of the cultural approach to dancing, for many years this particular dance was more "absorbed" than "studied".

Dance classes, and especially drills, are a way to speed up this process, but it is important to remember: they are not a way to replace it.

Traditionally, social dances are learned by kids who grow up doing them. Kids can imitate adults at parties and no one is worried about their technique or if they look a little silly while they learn it, they're kids! Likewise, many dancers who have become professionals talk about how they learned as children from following along with relatives at parties or dancers on their TV .

When we learn this way, we are building associations. You might take class or workshops from native dancers, and ask why they put some move in a certain part of the music, many will explain that is just what that rhythm/instrument/melody makes them want to do. This is very valuable information!

Imagine you are trying to explain a holiday to someone from another culture. You want to explain how it makes you feel, and the traditions you associate with it. They might ask you why you make chocolate chip cookies for Christmas parties but not for summer festivals, and you don't have a specific reason, its just a taste you associate with the winter season. Likewise, the smell of cut pine might make you crave chocolate chip cookies! This isn't because you were taught to react this way, but over years you just developed an association between the two. I tend to suddenly be in the mood to watch Star Trek Next Generation around bed time, because I have been doing it for a while and just associate it with part of my wind-down routine.

Likewise, if you've grown up bellydancing (whether because you were from an awalim family, you mom was a nightclub dancer in Boston, or you just loved to follow along with the dancer or your aunties at family parties) you've likely developed certain associations between what is coming into your ears and what movements you are feeling in your body. For anyone who has learned this way it can be just as hard to explain why they want to do heavy hip drops when they hear the maksoom played a certain way as it is for me to explain why I want chocolate chip cookies when we light up the Yule tree.

For those of us who started learning bellydance after childhood, we are behind the ball in developing these associations organically. And for those of us who did not grow up listening to MENAHT music, we have a lot of catch up to do!

The goal for dancers who start learning after childhood is still to develop a natural dance. Whether you want to be able to cut loose and dance socially, to experience sultana and tarab, to do a cultural dance justice on stage, or to practice shifting paradigms around dance and learning: all of these goals are served by reaching for an authentic dance practice. This means trying to develop those associations more quickly. That's what drills and classes and breaking down musicality in a methodical way are for, but the goal is for it to go from your brain into your subconscious and simply speed up the process of making those associations and creating those instincts.

I believe there is value in these breakdowns, it helps ease frustration for students, speeds up absorbing a new way of moving and hearing music, and it can give you confidence from knowing what you know, but this way of teaching has its limits. At a certain point, it is on the student to absorb these lessons to the point of no longer needing to think of them.

I also make a point to include follow-along as part of my lessons, I want my students to be able to learn from native dancers whenever they get the chance, even if those dancers haven't decided to adopt more formalized teaching methods. There are native dancers who have studied a variety of pedagogies or who have adjusted how they teach to reach European and American students, but others will teach you they way they learned, and we want to learn from them! Both to have direct cultural experience and to support the people the dance belongs to.

Some native dancers teach choreography because it's what Euro-American students demand, and by knowing musicality and thinking as much as you can from the cultural perspective of the teacher you can get more out of this experience than just learning a one off choreography. Plenty of native dancers are able and willing to teach in many different ways. But not all are willing to do this, and we Americans asking to learn an Eastern dance should not expect them to be both sides of the bridge between cultures. Some Western students find this teaching method frustrating, partly because it is unfamiliar, partly because they dislike the uncertainty of not knowing what is coming next, and partly because they aren't sure what they are learning. In terms of trying to anticipate what comes next without a pre-set choreography, I'll say to watch the small of the teacher's back for movement cues, and allow your body to respond. You won't look exactly like the teacher, but this is often the point. Also, allow yourself to be in THAT moment, without worrying about what the next moment will bring. Your brain will process it when it comes, but right now you are processing THIS moment, the next one can wait its turn for your brain-space.

There is a name for all these associations when they build up into a skill set like the one a master dancer has: expert intuition. So, next time you're in a workshop or a class, and the teacher "just dances" while you try to guess what is coming next, realize that you are in fact learning. You are connecting a move to a music type, to a mood. You are learning to link moves and when to change movements. You are developing a subconscious list of options for dancing to different rhythms and instruments. You are learning to respond in the moment and you are experiencing the process of dancing and learning from a new perspective. All of these are incredibly valuable, and worth not just getting through a workshop without complaint, but actively seeking out lessons like this.

*Keep in mind, teachers are trying to prioritize what parts of training to start you off with, training that really takes about a decade to master. In order to avoid overwhelming students, teachers usually will simplify things, so they are probably not trying to give you the impression that their way is the only way, just trying to get you started with one way and saving other ways for later in your education.

How Bellydance Improvisation Builds Bravery, Empowerment, and Agency

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 20:35:31 GMT

Not long after I started learning to bellydance, I developed intrusive thought OCD. Under the direction of a psychologist, I had to undergo Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy, or ERPT for short. The gist of this therapy, which is also used to help people overcome debilitating fears, is to expose yourself to an anxiety inducing stimulus and, instead of allowing yourself to respond with your anxiety reducing compulsion, riding out the anxiety so that you retrain your brain, though experience, to recognize that the anxiety response is not necessary. Over time, you gradually increase how long you resist performing the compulsion, or increase the magnitude of the stimulus (meaning, if you're doing ERPT to overcome a fear of snakes, you might start out with worms, then move onto small garden snakes, then just look at a big snake, then touch one, and eventually work up to holding a medium sized milk snake, for example).

I promise this is a post about bellydance!

You have probably heard the phrase "fake it 'til you make it", and when it comes to confidence this is basically a glib way to tell someone to do an (undirected, possibly non-therapeutic) form of ERPT. You get up on stage (expose yourself to feeling unconfident) and act like you are confident (prevent the anxiety response) and eventually retrain your brain to respond to the situation differently. Basically, you are proving to yourself that YOU CAN DO IT, and teaching your anxiety to take time off, because nothing bad is going to happen.

BUT! What are we learning to feel confident in? Bellydance's reputation, in the USA, for empowerment developed while improvisation was the rule. Dancers, even those who joined up after the first schools (such as the Salimpour school on the West Coast, Adriana's in DC, the Serena School or Bobby Farah's classes in NYC) did so when "grooving on the music" was not just the fashion, but a necessity of working in supper-clubs with live bands and ever shrinking, or non-existent, dance floors. Improvisation is also the traditional way to perform bellydance, both for home style recreation and even- indeed, especially- at the highest levels.

Since then, a number of factors, chief being the loss of live music/ proliferation of recordings and the early 2000s boom in fitness dance classes, have caused the bellydance world to shift towards choreography. In addition to losing a connection to the culture that improvisation can create, I'd argue that we are severely blunting bellydance's ability to empower us. Part of what makes bellydance special in the dance world is certainly the therapeutic aspect of the movements themselves, but learning to trust our own instincts and building agency in our dance are major lessons that we can, and should, be using to enrich our lives outside of the studio.

I have often seen videos of partner dances that I really loved, where the pair are clearly collaborating on the dance floor. More often, I see clips shared that make me very uncomfortable, because the lead dancer seems to be dragging and pushing their partner around like an object. One of these clips involved a young female dancer and a man who I assume had created and taught the choreography. It is entirely possible she had only just learned the routine and he was giving her cues, but the video struck me as him acting like a psychic puppeteer, and really creeped me out (but, the routine is phenomenal and she does it very well!). This is part of a bigger dynamic in Euro-American professional dance (which relates to other societal dynamics), where the majority of choreographers are male and the bulk of performing dancers are young females. This is a direct contrast to the roots of bellydance in Awalim families and super clubs owned by Maleemas such as Badia Masabni and her competitors.

Whatever the gender of the choreographer, the dancer is still giving a certain portion of their agency over to the choreographer. This isn't always a bad thing, and does not reduce the dancer to an object in and of itself, but it is important to recognize it as as step towards a greater level of achievement and empowerment.

Going back to the example of ERPT to heal a phobia of snakes. If you were to just throw a boa constrictor at someone who is afraid of snakes you're just reinforcing their fear. This could be analogous to telling a brand new dancer to just get up on stage and figure it out. Incidentally, this is how many of the first dancers in the USA started, and it is no accident that many had previous showbiz experience, and/or where uncommonly strong women.

So, what might the levels of ERPT exposure look like for learning to trust our instincts and ability to handle situations as they arise? I think we should look at this as levels of vulnerability and levels of exposure to the audience. It should go without saying that for these purposes, especially at the earlier stages, you should look for supportive audiences like those found at events clearly marked as showcasing students.

When we first start dancing, for most new students, it is a leap of faith to get up on stage at all, especially in a bellydance costume! That is a big achievement, and an excellent first step in learning to believe in yourself! Most dancers these days have their first performance as part of their teacher's student group, and usually in a group choreography. So you have the physical exposure of your moving body. Level one achieved!

The next level might be doing a solo performance of your teacher's choreography. You can no longer find safety in numbers and are truly exposed, but you know your musical choices are not being judged. This is like going from being an actor in a scene to delivering a monologue from a respected author: you add the nuance and feeling, but can put some amount of trust in the author picking out the "right" words.

Once you reach a reasonable level of comfort here (this does not mean the total absence of jitters! Even Betty White admits to still getting stage fright!) It's time to write your own choreographies. This is a big step in reclaiming agency over your own dance, and exposes you to another layer of vulnerability. It is natural to have some trepidation about presenting your voice to an audience, and writing a choreography can be a middle step to truly openly sharing yourself, because it gives you the option to edit those choices and be sure you are satisfied with them before presenting. It is the prepared speech of dancing.

Improvised performance, then, is like getting up and having a conversation with the audience and the music. This level takes more confidence because you are not just exposing your (costumed!) body in motion, but also your unedited emotional responses and artistic choices. When you do this, and learn to trust yourself in it, you are able to build up that confidence through experience. You can be deeply empowered because it is YOU that made the performance, you have agency and full responsibility for the risk, but also full ownership of the rewards!

Improvisation is the key to empowerment, because we are not seeking to feel empowered to express someone else's views. Instead, we learn to trust, own, embody, and revel in our own, unedited responses.

The ideas in this post were informed both by how I was taught this dance, but also from listening to Alia Thabit talking about the Eastern values of the dance. If you want to learn more about this, check out her book, Midnight at the Crossroads.

Dance as a Meditation

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 20:30:54 GMT

In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a ritual where monks spend weeks creating mandalas out of sand. Then the artwork is swept away and poured into running water. The point is to remember the impermanence of all things. Dance is like this, no matter how detailed your choreography or how canned your music, each performance will be different.

But dance can be like meditation in another way, if the dancer is able to enter a flow state, they can escape judgement from their rational brain and fully be in the moment. In Arabic dance, this flow state is called Sultana and is related to Tarab, the ecstacy that can come from being moved by the music. You can learn more about these from Sahra's article on her Journey Through Egypt site.

So, how do we reach this meditative, flow state? You have to be able to not think, so in your movements, drill them so you don't have to think about your technique once you're dancing. When the performance starts you want to leave your movement to muscle memory. To learn not to think of what moves to do next, drill transitions but also trust what you learn from "follow the bouncing butt" lessons. Watch lots of bellydance clips (and dance along), and listen listen listen to Middle Eastern music in order to develop intuitive musicality and movement associations.

Learning what you know is helpful to create confidence, and systematically learning helps to speed up the process for those of us who didn't grow up in the culture. But ultimately, you want to improvise and give yourself over to the feeling in the moment so more formalized pedagogy has to be balanced with putting in the time to absorb it all into your bones, to the point beyond consciousness.

You also have to, when performing with this goal, be able and willing to detach from judging your moves or artistic choices during the dance. You can always look at film later, but you can't change it in the moment without disrupting the flow anyway, so allow yourself to let it go.

Improvisation is there and then gone, like a sand mandala it can be a meditation on impermanence. When you train things into your muscle memory and instinctive responses by building intuitive associations it is an exercise in turning off your conscious mind it can become a meditation that connects you to your body, senses, and the present moment. Some times, that feels just as good as the internal massage a well done isolation creates.

About Props: Maleya

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 20:26:24 GMT

This week, the Maleya. This is a modesty garment common in Egypt many years ago, and was used as a character prop for a long time.

The dance we generally associate with the Maleya comes from the Reda Troupe's performance with it. (We'll get more into the Reda Troupe during the folklore unit.) It is associated specifically with Alexandria because the troupe performed it as part of an Alexandrian tableau, but it's not specific to just Alexandria.

Golden era movies would use Maleya in tableaus

Farida Fahmy, sister-in-law to Mahmoud Reda, and star of the Reda Troupe, talks about how they created their maleya dance

Here is the Reda tableau

Fifi does her own tableau with maleya

Lisa's Favorite Dance Quotes

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 20:14:26 GMT

"...the core of bellydance resides in the lived, felt, courageous truths it can tell." ~ Andrea Dragon

"The floor section is not only a rest before the drum solo, it is a place where you can nail your soul to the stage for all to see." ~ Cory Zamora

"Bellydance is the art of learning to move inside your body." ~ Sandra

"By teaching them how to control their bodies they were able then to take control of their personal space, and their world, and their life." ~ Morocco

"Improvisation means learning to feel comfortable with yourself, even in the face of not knowing what's coming next. " ~ Ranya Renee

"The music tells you what to do.... That's part of the thrill of watching a bellydancer. It's not the fact that she can shimmy, it's that she's shimmying to a drum that sounds like she should be shimmying to it." ~ Zaheea

"We're changing how we feel about ourselves, how we think, how we breath, how we move, and you know what? These women go home and their heads, their chins are high." ~ Suhaila Salimpour

"Dance is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself." ~ Havelock Ellis

"Life shouldn't and won't be choreographed." ~Yasmin

"Women find a way." ~Sahra C Kent

"Learning to walk set you free. Learning to dance gives you the greatest freedom of all: to express with your whole self the person you are." ~ Melissa Hayden

"When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way." ~ Wayne Dyer

"The bride needs to make the transformation from girl to woman during the procession... and the bellydancer is the only one who is so powerfully woman that she can make that transformation happen." ~ Sahra C Kent

Find more quotes on our pinterest page!

Leveling Up Is About More Than Technique

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 16:57:29 GMT

Most folks joining a bellydance class in the US start out learning isolations, steps, and movements. We may be lucky enough to have a teacher who makes us aware of different rhythms, or even luckier to have a teacher who grew up in MENAHT culture and shares this context. But at the introductory level, most classes in the US focus on coordination and combinations, and frustratingly few areas of the country have MENAHT teachers offering classes.

Technique is a great start! The trouble comes when students get the impression that technique is all there is to this dance. Worse yet, many teachers do not trust their students to be willing to learn more than choreographies. In the end, students miss out on some of the best things this dance has to offer!

If this has been your education so far, you might wonder, what else is there to learn? Simply put, all the fun stuff! It is fun to do a hip circle, and it feels good. But you know what's even more fun?

To feel the buzz of the music moving your hips.
To turn off your inner critic and let the present moment fill your brain as you improvise.
To learn or revel in, depending on your background, the cultural aesthetic values and way of seeing and valuing art that raqs sharki is embedded in and shaped by.
To connect with classmates.
To connect with people across continents as you are moved by a variety of music in Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Persian, and more languages, and full of many different cultural contexts.
To communicate something beyond words with your audience.
To develop confidence in your choices, and trust in your instincts.

None of that has much to do with technique.....

My Process
When I first started teaching, I had a tendency to "info dump", I would want to tell students everything I knew, partially out of excitement for the material and partially from a fear that they might not stick around long enough for me to make sure they knew important things. That fear turned into a self fulfilling prophesy, as students would get overwhelmed and looked for simpler hobbies. So I sat myself down and broke up what should be taught at each level of dance.

To do this, I started with the professional level, and worked my way down. I made a list of skills and knowledge a good representative of the art and an entertaining performer would need. That included things like putting together an entertaining set, but also knowing what is appropriate to perform for clients from a variety of cultures and the ability to give soundbites if interviewed about the dance. That told me what sort of content master classes would have in them.

Then I asked "what does someone need to already know in order for it to be reasonable for them to learn this?" The answer to that question became what needed to be taught in advanced classes. Then I looked at that list and asked the same question. That answer became what needed to be taught in intermediate classes. Repeat for beginner and I had to look at the list and ask: "is it too big a leap to go from what most folks come into their first class with, to learning these things?" The answer was a giant YES! So I added an introductory level. That framework created a level system intended for organizing my classes.

The names of each level aren't important. What is important is how things build. You can think of this in terms of technique, sure. It would be setting students up for frustration and failure to ask them to layer a shimmy over a traveling hip circle without teaching each of those components on their own and giving them time to integrate the moves into their muscle memory. But we also build from "hey, it would be fun to dance like Shakira" to "let me tell you about the role of Turkish Kocheks' refusal to pay taxes in bringing the Awalim back to Cairo!" and from "oh, I couldn't wear that, I just came because Ana asked me to go with her" to "honey, you KNOW I look better in bedlah!"

How Did We Get Here?
That bolded list above all sounds so worth it! So why do some classes never get past technique? Well, back in ye olden-times (for the US, read 50s - 70s) dancers learned on the job, by watching each other and imitating later (with their own flair added, of course) and by sitting in with the band as part of the percussion section. In the 70s, some schools started to open, but they didn't have the same sort of technique focus most modern classes do.

A few things came together to change this. One major influence was the fitness trend that took over after 9/11. Throughout the 80s and 90s MENAHT owned nightclubs had been struggling with changing entertainment behaviors (more people preferring TV to a night out) and an aging diaspora clientele. After 9/11, most of the surviving nightclubs couldn't make ends meet in the face of the tide of anti-Arab bigotry. This lead lots of dancers (not all) to teaching and to minimizing the cultural context of the dance to stay afloat. When you do the same move over and over*, like in a fitness focused class, posture and alignment become more important in order to avoid repetitive motion injuries. (*Compare that to learning to dance by simply being a child and imitating your older relatives at parties.)

There is also the very legitimate impact of dancers who spent years dancing long shows every night without the benefit of technique study, often doing Turkish drops on the regular and dancing with the fashionable leaned back posture, in some cases without understanding the muscular support needed to do so safely. Many dancers found they needed to retire due to back aches or adjust their posture and technique to something more ergonomic and supported.

Many of that first generation of dancers came from other performing disciplines. Some used their training in ballet, theatre, or vaudeville, to inform how they taught. Those backgrounds and fitness class formats provided a template for teaching technique. But that magic of learning the cultures, through emersion with the band, the guests, and the families that owned and patronized the old clubs? That was gone.

Maybe a few teachers took it for granted, probably a few had not paid much attention, but the vast majority of teachers in the early 2000s simply feared that many of their students would not be willing to learn an Arabic dance, and feared those students who came in for a fun workout or asking to be taught to "Shake it like Shakira" would desert if asked to be brave enough for improvisation and open enough to really connect to cultural artistic values. (And don't even get me started on the respectability politics in the of the 2000s US raqs community.)

But, if we let that fear guide our lesson plans, we short-change our Euro-American students, alienate our MENAHT students, and neglect and the roots of the dance all at the same time.

Pedagogy Matters
Traditionally, raqs sharki is learned like a native language: through cultural participation from a young age. For example, if you grow up in a home where Arabic is spoken, you'll pick up the language; otherwise, you'll probably need classes. Something like ballet is more like learning Latin: a dead language. Everyone who learns it must do so through classes. (See Rachael Borek's blog for more on this analogy)

Because raqs sharki is a living "language", it cannot, and should not, be codified like ballet.

Instead of codifying exactly what and how to teach raqs sharki, let's focus on stacking skills. In a language class, skills build as you study, starting with a base of vocabulary. Advanced classes don't break down phonemes or teach you how to say hello, they assume you know these things and focus on new material. Likewise, introductory classes do not read complex poetry, they recognize a beginning learner does not have the tools to do this, yet.

Teachers should consider what "sub skills" go into an exercise, and teach those first. Their job is to put metaphorical rungs on the ladder, students stand on the skills from earlier classes to reach for the skills in more advanced ones.

It's up to students to climb that ladder.

For many reasons, I teach a mixed level class. Partially to consolidate students and afford studio space, to prevent myself from burning out when I also have a day job, hobbies, and a disability that requires me to get more rest than the average person. More importantly, it does more to build community and is more natural for students at different levels to learn together. In some situations it makes sense to separate classes by level, particularly if you want advanced students to focus on the bleeding edge of their growth into performers. For your average recreational class, the level concept can be used to layer difficulty and focus for different students to do the same exercises in different ways.
For many reasons, I teach a mixed level class. Partially to consolidate students and afford studio space, to prevent myself from burning out when I also have a day job, hobbies, and a disability that requires me to get more rest than the average person. More importantly, it does more to build community and is more natural for students at different levels to learn together. In some situations it makes sense to separate classes by level, particularly if you want advanced students to focus on the bleeding edge of their growth into performers. For your average recreational class, the level concept can be used to layer difficulty and focus for different students to do the same exercises in different ways.

For example, a teacher might pick a movement with a general texture that matches the instrument playing in a taxeem they put on. A new student might focus on building the coordination to create variations in their movement while passively absorbing musical experience and a more advanced student might do the same activity with a focus on applying their existing control to interpreting and matching the taxeem.

So, if we're not breaking up levels by how hard the technique is, how do we organize that metaphorical learning ladder for our students?

Level 1: Foundations. For introductory students the goal is to establish basic cultural context, develop control of the body, familiarity with foundational movements, and to experience transitions with "practice sentence" combinations. Introduce movement recall with structured improvisation exercises, finding the pulse of the beat, the 1 in a rhythm cycle, and maybe teach them some simple finger cymbal patterns and sounds so that students have the tools for the next steps. Don't forget hafla time for everyone to dance together in class! Students don't need to wait for recitals to enjoy dancing under their own agency.

Level 2: Musicality. Raqs sharki is the music translated into movement. As students develop a base of movement vocabulary, it's time for them to learn what the music is telling them to do. Use the movement vocabulary to help them form associations with different instruments, which might be different from yours. Build on "finding the 1" to learn beginner rhythms and how to dance to them, play with veils, and deepen their cultural knowledge. This applies to non-native dancers who have a lot of context to learn, but also to MENAHT students who might have grown up experiencing one part of that acronym but now have the chance to make connections to the other regions that contributed to raqs sharki. Students continue to refine their movement quality and repertoire as well.

Level 3: Seasoning. For students who already have the skills to translate the music into movement, it's time to create their own dances and get feedback. This can be a great thing for newer classmates to see, since it lets them learn how to give constructive artistic feedback by hearing their teacher guide classmates at this level, they also have the chance to build up their friends and become inspired to grow into creating their own choreographies or improvised pieces for stage, if they should like to. It's expected that students will need practice to create "fluency". This is a good time to explore props and other styles they find interesting. If they haven't already, they should be learning more folk dance and folklore.

Level 4: Professional Performance. By now, students can recognize what style different songs are suited for, can dance with a veil and a balancing prop (or more), are confident with their finger cymbals, and comfortable creating their own dances. Level 4 is about putting all the skills together and practicing stagecraft, but not every dancer has to go pro! It's fine to explore these topics for fun, or get serious with private lessons or gig apprenticeships.

Conclusion

What if we built our classes around musicality, improvisation, and the dance's place in the cultures of origin? What would happen to our students? I have heard an expression attributed to Arabic that goes "technique is the service of expression". As Amity recently reminded me, if we teach our students the tools to express themselves and encourage their inspiration, technique will come. It will always be important to teach dancers how to support their bodies and move in a healthy way, but learning that is a natural outgrowth of learning to really dance.

Think of it this way: if someone starts to learn a new language they must start with a base of vocabulary, but their level of proficiency is not measured by their deftness with pronunciation, ability to turn a tongue twister, or speed at rapping in that language. Their level is measured by their ability to communicate with native speakers! Practicing vocabulary and pronunciation come naturally out of the desire to communicate.

You might be able to do complex steps, layers, and combos; but can you make your own dances? Can you feel the difference between a malfoof and a maksoom? Do you know who the Awalim are? There is a lot more to what level a dancer is besides how tricky their technique is.

A dancer's level is measured by their ability to communicate. The rest are of our skills are simply servants of that goal.

About Props: Tray

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 16:25:59 GMT

This week, let's learn about tray as a bellydance prop. (btw, props are part of level 3 dance classes. Something to think about when level two eventually becomes easy/boring ^_~)

The origins are Moroccan, coming from Shikhatt (one of many, many dances from Morocco) and the hospitality of servind tea. Balancing props like this are a good motivator for practicing isolations. (the video in that link is from Tava, a friend of mine from CT, she's a great teacher and super knowledgeable about Turkish and Am Cab stuff ^_^)

Here are some example of Moroccan style tray dances

A Moroccan woman

Moroccan styling by American Students

And a US based pro, staging a tableau.

The Late John Compton performing his rendition, which you can think of as part of a bridge from the traditional styling to how it is used in the US now.

Candle tray is also a great fit for the floorwork (ie slowest) part of a 5 or 7 piece American Cabaret/Restaurant style set.

Modern American and fusion dancers take this background and continue to add even more spectacle:

including souped up flames,

Fusion styling,

and decked out, multi tiered trays.

It's just a matter of time before the trays become a reinvention of the shamadan! but that's a prop for another week ^_^

About Props: Veil

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 07:00:00 GMT

If you're in this class, you've been doing raks sharki/dans oryantal for over a year. So it's time to deepen your background information and get you more context for the things you see in bellydance. This semester, each email will have some background information about a different prop, and this week that prop is VEIL!

The information most cited is that Samia Gamal was suggested to use a length of fabric to improve her arm carriage in her raqs performances by a ballet coach. This may be apocryphal, but dancers on the Egyptian the silver-screen have used fabric in this way. In another week, we'll explore the maleya, which is a modesty wrap used by some Muslim women in Egypt. It is a bit old fashioned, but distinguishes the idea of a "veil" as a modesty garment from the idea of a "veil" that we dance with. They're really only similar in name.

We'll get into different styles of raks sharki/dans oryantal in another semester. I will note that dancers, even in Samia's day, would wear a stage-version tarha (a long head covering that resembles one kind of modesty veil) during certain character dances, but they wouldn't dance with it in the same way we dance with a bellydance--veil.

Now that we've got some basic info about veil taken care of, here's the eye candy!

Samia in color! In the second half she uses a chiffon veil

and Taheyya Karioka with super long fabric.

Mona Said's unique take on the veil

Fifi entering with a Cape, a sort of cousin of the veil.

Veil in the vintage Turkish style. I am still looking for information to determine if veil dancing in Turkish style was introduced and elaborated on from Egypt, if dancing with large pieces of fabric was a convergent evolution, or if Turkish dancers brought it back from the US after dancers here developed the oriental fantasy style that was popular in the States.

Here is the amazing Turkish dancer, Tulay Karaca.

Turkish style also takes cape to a whole 'nother level

In the style popular in MENAHT supper clubs in the US, veil would typically be used for the second song of a set. Back in the day veils were often chiffon, but silk is the current favorite for most dancers.

Here is an example of the veil section of a traditional 5 part am cab routine (more on the styles another semester, and more on the parts of a set in yet another semester).

A languid Am Cab veil to a Turkish song. Am-cab dancers would enter and dance a lively song with the veil wrapped around themselves, then remove it and dance with it as the second song.

Corey Zamora, doing a mini-routine in the Am Cab style.

Layla Isis, playing cymbals AND dancing with veil at the same time! (I have not trained up to do this. But I will do my best to teach you to hold your veils in a way that will make this possible for you to learn.)

Aziza of Montreal

Mariyah, demonstrating what TO DO when your veil misbehaves, and it is inevitable that it will misbehave sometimes.

I couldn't pick just one clip of Aziza, her veil work is just magical <3

Some examples of veil in modern American styling. Silk habotai is often the favorite these days, although you do still see polyester chiffon. You also sometimes see two veils used, called double veil. Dancers often go for a surprise reveal of the second veil.

Ruby with double veil

This one works, you just need to open YouTube to see it. When this song first came out, I think everyone danced it to at the same time!

Petite Jamilla taking double veil and spinning to the max. This style of performing draws on Tanoura dance from Egypt, which is a topic for another week.

Some modern Egyptian styling: in this style, as in vintage Egyptian, the veil is usually entered with before being discarded fairly early, if it is used at all.

And veil in a modern theatrical piece

About Props: Shamadan

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 22:31:41 GMT

The prop to introduce this week is the shamadan. I enjoy dancing with this one, because of its connection to the awalim and Egyptian folklore (plus I get to show off, lol).

This article will serve for now to give a basic background on it, but it has some inaccuracies. For example, the dancer it credits and the first was not, and there is more information about that in the book "Raks Sharki Revolution" by Heather Ward (AKA, Nisaa of St. Louis). I have to try and find another article that covers the zeffat al 'arousa better.

Nisaa performing with one, she is a great researcher and author of "Raqs Sharki Revolution"

and Shinning, doing a historical style with two other dancers.

Here it is done in the context of a wedding

as presented by an Egyptian folklore company (folklore is different from folk dance. More on that later.)

Here's Aida Nour giving it an authentic Awalim feeling during a show in NYC.

Modern dancers perform with the shamadan. They can get away with floorwork because, while floorwork has been illegal in Egypt for a long time, it is allowed during shamadan because of the folklore and cultural significance of the performance. (We'll talk about that cane she's using another week.)

About Props: Wings

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 22:18:51 GMT

On the "history of props" front, this week it's wings!

There's an element of imitating ancient Egyptian temple art, and the real start of wings by Loie Fuller. An American dancer (I think it was Ayshe) brought them into bellydance, and they've spread from there. There is also a connection with Christian liturgical dancing, however as best I can tell this might be a convergent evolution situation. They can be the traditional pleated design or smooth silk. and they can be used in theatrical pieces:

or in more traditional numbers

but they're always flashy!

One tricky thing, is wings magnify posture issues. These students do a great job

Oh, and they can light up now!

Wings are pretty popular with the general pubic, but tricky to use in a small space

Here's another of the silk-type versions.

One of my favorite wings performances is on this DVD. The other top favorite of mine is on By Dancers For Dancers Vol 2, and is by Sadiyya (it appears to be out of print).

In Egypt, they aren't used often, but sometimes can show up in entrances, used the same way Egyptians use veils. Here's Brazillian born Asmahan, performing in Egypt. She's famous for her lavish entrances. Both of these look like they're on the Nile cruise boats.

About Props: Fan Veil

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 22:11:37 GMT

Fan veils come from Asian dance, they were added into bellydance in the late 90s/2000s and the best dances usually have some grounding in the source material. Other inspirations include flamenco fans and burlesque.

Here is an article from Princess Farhana about fans in bellydance, and some more information on the source dances.

I know very little about the various Asian dances the silk fans come from, but I've included a few videos of different fan dances for a baseline to compare how they appear in bellydance performances to. I cannot comment on how they measure up to their own style's standards, but I like them.

A Chinese silk-fan dance

Fans used in flamenco

burlesque ostrich fans (NSFW)

Now, onto a bellydance context!

They can be used in the same context of a regular veil

Or in a more lively way

And are popular for flashy group numbers.

My favorite fan veil performances are in the Teel Fan method, crafted by Victoria Teel and the fans made by Silkdancer, with a wider fan and rounded edge, including the super-fan (the 3rd one here:)

Fusion fans can sometimes use fire, esp at counter culture events like burning man.

fans fusions can also be focused on other source dances

and fans aren't the only thing veils get added to. (poi are originally Maori)

About Props: Sword

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 21:59:24 GMT

This week, it's time to talk about "s" words-- I mean, swords.

While there are Middle Eastern dance traditions that use a sword, they are not used the way bellydancers use them. The balancing and posing method of dancing with swords in firmly a fantasy element, although it may have been inspired by real traditions, it is pretty removed from them. Dancers saw orientalist paintings of dance with sword and my understanding is that West Coast dancers learned jug dances from Tunisian patrons in the 60s/70s and then used that concept to dance with a sword (my source here is the DVD "American Bellydance Legends"). Here's some advice from Princess Farhana about picking out a sword.

A first generation Am Cab dancer using it in her set

A second generation Am Cab Dancer continuing the tradition.

A Brazilian dancer, sword props have spread all over. One note, is to never grab the "sharp" edge of the blade.

Tava uses funky music for this sword piece

Mariyah, doing a theatrical number

West Coast dancers of the Salimpour School, continuing to innovate with sword

As far as women dancing with blades in Arabic venues:

Giselle was a Latin American dancer who had a career in Lebanon.

Sword is popular in fusion dance

This style grew out of West Coast experiments.

Dancers continue to find new and amazing ways to use swords...

...and sword innovations can pay homage to the circus roots of many early American dancers.

Here's a small sample of traditional ways of dancing with a sword. You'll notice these are almost all men.

Yasmina performs a sword dance inspired by Gulf style dances.

Lebanese entertainers evoke a Bedouin style.

A Saudi dance with swords is well known.

The Beja live between Egypt's Eastern Desert and Sudan

Well, they're ALMOST all men! Here is Assala Ibrahim performing an Iraqi daggar dance.

Iraqi Kawleya is something we'll have more reading about in another post.

Shortening a Skirt with a Big Hem

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 21:02:02 GMT

If you have a circle skirt, or other very full skirt, you probably, understandably, want to avoid hemming it. There is a lot of fabric there, and it will clearly take a long time to do. The sheer yardage of it will also provide plenty of opportunity to lose pins, or wibble and wooble and end up with an uneven hem. You might even have beading at the bottom, or some other beautiful trim, ruffle, or design that you don't want to interfere with.

Trouble is, you also don't want to trip over your skirt, or wind up with a filthy hem after just a few performances. This tutorial will give you a way to take up the length on any skirt that gets worn under a belt or hip scarf, sortta a tummy tuck for skirts! This technique is also great for circle skirts that have warped over time, to take up places where the hem has stretched longer over time.

You'll need a dress form, or something to stretch the skirt to the same shape it is when you wear it, that you can adjust to your preferred hight. pins, a sewing machine, and good scissors.

Start by taping or drawing a line around your dress dummy that represents where you wear your skirt on your hips. Measure from there to the floor the length you need on yourself. That is, measure straight from your skirt band to the floor, wearing the shoes you like to dance in. I do this by putting the end of the tape measure just touching the ground and holding the end with the final measurement at my hip. adjust the dummy so the line you drew matches that measurement.

Next, you'll pin the skirt so that the hem hits at the proper spot, hovering just barely above the floor, to the line where you'll wear it. If your current hem has warped to be longer in some places than others, you'll need to pull the skirt up in some places and down in others to level this out. Since the skirt is too long for you there will be excess above that, and dummy will be "wearing" the waistband higher than you would, up on its tummy.

As you can see in the photo, I have this bunched into segments to make it manageable.

Next, go ahead and cut the fabric between the existing waistband, and the line of pins. Make sure you are cutting above the line where you'll be wearing the skirt, that you have enough fabric for a seam allowance, and you keep track of how much seam allowance you are leaving on each side of your scissors. You'll want the new seam from re-attaching the skirt to the waistband to be as close to the existing band as possible, to make it easier to hide under your belt.

You could add fabric between these cuts, in the fashion of a yoke, to lengthen the skirt, if you had a long enough belt or other hip wrap to cover it.

You now have two pieces, or in the case of a circle skirt with front and back panels 3 pieces: the waist band, and the skirt pieces.

You'll need to combine these into the new length skirt. If the skirt is a circle skirt or an A line the two pieces are not going to match up. To understand this, draw a triangle on a pice of paper, then fold the middle part under, and try to line up a lower tier of the triangle with the top tier. The way we're going to fix this is by pleating the fabric of the skirt into the waist band as follows:

Open the waist band by either seam ripping the elastic at it's original closure, or cutting it if the elastic is loose enough for you to overlap it again when it's time to re-close it and lot have it get too tight and give you a muffin top. Take out the elastic and set it aside.

Lay the waistband on a flat surface. If you had slits in the skirt you'll still be able to see where that was. line up the old slit on the skirt portion and the waistband portion with right sides together.
Next, find the center of the skirt portion and pin it to the center of that portion of the waistband.
Pin from the outside, near the slit, towards the center keeping it smooth. The elastic will cause the gathering effect once the skirt is finished. If your skirt is also sheer then you want the denser gathering of fabric to be over your crotch and the center of your tush, because the gathered fabric is more opaque.
When you get towards the center, you will create a gather by pinning in Fibonacci until the skirt is secure enough to fit under your presser foot.
- by Fibonacci I mean pull the fabric between two pins up and find the middle, pin it to the half way point between the two pins on the waist band, and repeat this for the now half-sized spaces between the pin that was your outside pin and the one that became your midway pin.

Sew it, surge it, re-thread and close the elastic. Wa-La!

Prepping a New Costume for Use

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 20:46:26 GMT

New costumes are exciting, whether you make them yourself or buy them. Unfortunately you can almost never put a costume on right from the box: even when it has been custom made to your measurements there are some important steps to take before trying to perform in a new costume. This post should help you get a better fit, make your costumes more comfortable (sortta'), keep things in place when you're dancing, and help them last longer. We can't really cover major alterations too much here, those will depend too much on what your specific situation is, and might need a full-on sewing class, depending on your skill level and the situation of your costume. We CAN, however, cover the things you'll need to do to almost every new costume.

Let's start at the head and go to the toes.

Headbands: a lot of costume will come with something that goes in your hair, if it doesn't connect under the hair line (along the top of your neck) then grab some elastic and connect it! This goes a long way to helping it stay on your head when dancing. The elastic should be close in color to your hair, so it isn't visible. Another good idea is to get some sort of jelly headband form the drug store and whip stitch it to the inside of the band. If you have slippery hair like me this is a life saver, I couldn't wear my new Saidi costume without it!

Next comes the bra. This is where the most work usually has to be done. First, you'll need a trusted friend to help you set the hooks to their proper position. You want it tight enough to support you, but not to tight you can't breath or that you'll be worried about breaking loose while dancing. Use a button hole stitch to secure them, and always check them after a performance to make sure the metal hasn't started sawing through the thread.

I bet you all just thought about what could happen if the hooks failed, didn't you? If you've ever gone surfing or snow boarding you might have thought of this solution already, but here we go: before performing in your bra get some flat elastic and skirt hooks, attach the elastic to the inside of the cups at the underwire (be careful to keep it at the same angle as the band) and attach the skirt hooks to the other end. This will give you a backup to keep your bra on in case of a hook or two failing AND it will give you some extra support that stretches with your breath. You might want to do this before setting the hooks, since it will help keep the bra on while you're trying to fit it. You will probably need to make a guide to keep the elastic hidden under the band, as you can see here:

Bras can also need the cups themselves tinkered with.
You might need to add padding or a boobie-dam (fabric added to the top to prevent your cups from running over). I find a lot of fit issues can be addressed by actually shaping the underwire. Grab the underwire firmly and gently, slowly, bend it in your hands. Be careful not to snap it, but if you find it's not giving you enough lift bending the sides inward can help a lot.

Another important trick is the placement of that top strap(s). If you are getting too much side-boob but the cup should fit OR if the bra just seems too wide for your, moving the strap sideways along the cup can drastically alter the fit. You can see under the mesh on this dress that I added ribbon to pull on the cup in the specific places I needed in order to improve the fit.

The next step on the bra is one of the most important: dealing with how the straps connect from your cups to the band. Many ready made, and even a lot of custom, costumes are halter styles. Which is just plain painful. Professional dancers know to make sure the show goes on, but why give yourself any more distractions to contend with when you don't have to? If you are making your own costume, or if the straps are long enough, I HIGHLY recommend crossing the straps in the back, you get good lift out of it, the bra will usually stay in place if a hook were to pop-even without an elastic backup- and it's super comfortable. Usually if the bra came in a halter style you don't have enough fabric to make X straps.

The next best thing is T straps. You need to get a strong, non-stretching, fabric like grossgrain ribbon, as well as some trim that will coordinate with your costume. If you can't find anything to coordinate you might need to bead the ribbon yourself, but you can usually get a good look with pre-made trim. Open up the lining and attach the ribbon to the neck strap at the top with a VERY strong stitch, be sure to go all the way through the fabric, but also not to let your stitches show. The difficulty of this will vary depending on how your band is decorated: if it's fully sequined you won't have much trouble, assuit also hides stitching well, you might need to keep your stitching hidden by the beaded edge. Once attached at the top have a friend pull it down and mark where it needs to be attached to the band. You need to pull tight enough that the weight of your breasts is transferred from your neck the new strap, which will transfer it to the band where it belongs. cover it with the nice trim then attach it, tucking a few extra inches into the lining, so the bra can be adjusted if you decide to sell it.

Moving onto the belt!
There usually isn't TOO much to do to the belt. If it's not too decorated you might be able to add darts- if needed- to accommodate the curve you of tush and hips, but most costumes are too decorated for this to be an option after it's finished. You can, however, adjust the angle of the top and bottom hooks to address any muffin toping. If you have a bra and skirt combo, instead of a bra and belt, you might need to add elastic to the inside to shrink it up, if you find it slipping down on your because it's too big. If it fits but is just heavy try adding something grippy to the inside. Velvet will provide some traction, you can also use the headbands that are made out of rubbery gel, or even rubber shelf liners, to help the skirt grip your hips.

The bra and belt should both have felt added to the inside with a quick and easy whip stitch. This is to absorb any sweat and keep you from having to wash your costumes too much, which wears them out. When the felt gets icky just take it out and replace it, the bedlah is still in great shape! I like to stitch a little pocket into the front of my belt for my business cards. You can't keep much in there, but having some cards on you during (especially restaurant) gigs can be really helpful!

Lastly: Skirts!

I mentioned a way to take them in above, making them bigger is a whole other ball game, and is outside the scope of this article. Length is something we can talk about here!

If you've any luck your skirt is either the right length, or too long. Too long is much easier to fix! If it will go under a belt you can just roll the waist band up, stitch it down, and you're all set. Very full skirts and skirts with decoration at the hem should be altered this way. My new asuit costume has coin trim along the edges and hem, so I rolled the waist as described. This simpler way to shorten them works better for straight skirts than for full ones and saves the length incase you want to re-sell it to a taller dancer. Stretch the elastic out to ensure you have a smooth fold and that you're not creating twists anywhere, those could cause tearing when you stretch the elastic to put the skirt on and off.

If the skirt had a lot of beading at the bottom and doesn't go under a belt, your best bet is going to be to either get a pair of heels, or sell the costume. Unless you are feeling ambitious enough to move the beading it will look a bit crazy if you have to take off enough to cause the beading to curl under the hem. The costume in this picture has a few inches at the bottom of just fabric, so it could be re hemmed the traditional way with up to that point. I've chosen to wear it with heels.

A skirt like the picture above might also need special underwear to accomodate the cut out, but that is another conversation. There are some options for making a skirt longer, you can add a ruffle, an underskirt, or a yoke. The yoke is best if you don't need to add anymore length than the width of your belt, and the skirt will be worn under a belt. A ruffle could change the look of the costume, so explore your options there, and make sure to tie the fabric into the rest of the costume. An underskirt gives you a layered look, so the original skirt is still going to be short, but your finished look is better.

That's all! Don't forget to check your accessories for their fit, and do lots of shimmies, back bends, etc to be sure everything stays on. Happy dancing!

Costuming for a Troupe

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 20:21:22 GMT

This post is less about what makes a professional, beginner, or advancing amateur quality costume, and more about the options for unifying a group in different ways. On that first topic, the TLDR is to pay attention to fit and materials quality.

First, you have to decide how unified you want your dancers to be, and then by what means you will unify them. The level of unity and polish your costuming will need depends on the level of performance you're intending to present. Think about the level of investment your dancers are prepared to make, in time or money, and about the skill level of the troupe (in dance or in sewing). In addition to the styles represented in the group, skill level, and performance/venue expectations, you'll want to consider how the colors and costume styles will balance as the formations of the choreography shift. A quick list of things to ask yourself:

-What skill level(s) are my dancers?
-How similar are their dance styles and body types?
-Who will own the costumes?
-Who will make the costumes?
-Does anyone absolutely hate or refuse to wear a certain color/style?
-Does anyone have major body image hangups and if so, how can we make them feel confident onstage?
-What kind of audiences will we be dancing for?
-What kinds of needs does the choreography have? (ex: floorwork is easier & prettier in a full skirt!)
-Will we keep these costumes for many different choreographies?

This chart is a very general idea for where to go with groups costumes. Of course, for historical or theatrical numbers the guidelines are different. The reason I don't encourage the same costume for beginners is largely because of the cost Involved. I also think for students it's best to avoid many colors, because their technique will be most dissimilar at this level, and color is a big unifying element that can makeup for this.

You can absolutely have a piece without a specific group costume, the look is usually more suited to beginners at a student show, some other casual event, a piece that has some sort of story to it, or one that highlights individual solos for the majority of the performance.

One note, for historical pieces it was normal for the group dancers to bring their own costumes, so there would be many different styles and a colorful chorus line. It was also the aesthetic for the dancers to look like individuals, rather than having identical movements.

Generally you'll want some sort of unifying visual element for all the dancers on stage together. Picking all the same costume and letting dancers pick different colors is one step up in the level of visual unity, and can create a beautiful kaleidoscope effect on stage, but means that dancers with different body types might not feel as accommodated. This works if your group has similar heights and body types, and are able to execute technique in a very unified way. It's very popular for giving extra excitement to the the look of folkloric numbers, which tend to have more uniform costumes prescribed to them. It can draw attention to the one student with whose cup runneth over if the costume isn't accommodating to such a range. You may run into fitting issues with this approach, as the costume might not be available in the full range of sizes for your dancers, and need to be modified to fit. This might mean losing the one element that ties the costumes together, if dancers have to add fabric to bras, or cut open the sides of fitted skirts to add gussets. It can also draw attention to differences in technique execution, so best used when the dancers have the control needed to make their movements look alike.

This option can also result in everyone in shades of red, pink, orange, and yellow and one or two dancers seeming miss matched with their cooler toned outfits, so discuss before people buy, Otherwise, as soon as the one dancer in blue moves from the center spot in the formation to the end things won't look the same as they did in rehearsal. If the choreography calls for everyone to be interchangeable or you plan to use the same costumes for multiple shows or numbers then make sure the colors will balance out. You'll also need to consider if there are enough colors available for everyone to have a different color. If not, how will you balance the duplicates in your formations? Here are some examples of it working, and how the extra colors add excitement.

Yana's dance Ensemble

Bellydance Superstars from the Folies Bergere Tour.

Notice how the formation changes are choreographed to preserve the rainbow effect.

Another option is to pick all the same color and let dancers choose different styles of costume. I like this option best in a lot of cases, especially for student troupes or groups with a variety of styles represented, like the bellydance superstars video below. Color is a very strong thing in the minds and eyes of the audience, and the group will look more unified, it might even cover up some differences in timing or the size of each dancer's movements in the audience's eyes. This option also allows for individuals to choose cuts that flatter them, because skirt options, arm coverings, and other accessories can be varied. Same color, different costumes can even include full coverage dresses mixed with modern Egyptian skirts and classic Am-Cab looks. This gives an additional advantage if members have greatly different levels of comfort with their bodies on stage or if the piece will feature dancers with varying styles; no one wants to ask the vintage American soloist to leave her fringe home because the other dancers are really into lycra this season!

Amity's Raq-ettes

This is also a great pick if you have a mix of genders in your group, if you're bringing together dancers from different groups to do a piece together but won't be performing as a troupe often enough to invest in a troupe costumes, or if you just want to let aspiring professionals begin to build their own wardrobes. You can go with one color and a metallic accent, or a two color theme (such as red and green for a holiday show) where dancers are free to mix and match which color will be their main and which will be their accent so long as everyone has some of both and the choreography can balance the colors.

Depending on how well the shades go together this can range from semi unified to very. If some dancers are wearing lime green, some are in in teal, and others in forest green then the look will be less unified than if everyone has the same shade of emerald on (but will still be much more unified than a random sample of colors). You can get perfect shade matches by either being very specific with the dancers before letting them shop, all using the same vendor, or by buying the fabric in bulk and making costumes in together. If you're shopping for pre-made costumes from different makers you might be limited on how close a match the shades of color you can get. In that case, it's best to specify what the acceptable range is. For example "green, but no lime or army drab", AND to specify one metallic color that is acceptable. The example below shows a range of blues, but no baby blue or teal, all with silver. These are all the shades and tints of the same hue (that is, the blues may be lighter or darker, but none are greener or purpler than the others) so it looks quite unified. The reds provide another example of similar, but varying hues with red, burgundy, and maroon being included. The similar cuts of the outfits help add more unity.

If you want to control for the shade and the way the light effects the costumes (think: shiny Lycra vs light absolving velvet, vs sheer chiffon) then you'll want to use all the same fabric. This gives you the opportunity to bond over making your costumes and still allows dancers to pick styles that suit their bodies and tastes. If several looks require different fabrics, try to incorporate a little of each fabric into each costume. For example, a Soheir Zeki type of skirt needs chiffon and an Egyptian dress needs lycra, but you could trim the skirt with the lycra, or create arm, head, and ankle accessories with it; while adding chiffon gores, drapes, or sleeves to the dress. If you're using the same fabrics, you can chose a couple colors and create a few looks and still end up with a unified group.

There are shops that sell separates/base costume elements, if you prefer not to sew yourselves. Ordering designs all from the same costumer usually means the same fabric will be used, if they need the same sort of material. This could also take the form of a uniform costume piece (like the skirts in the picture below) with more freedom for each dancer to pick other elements, within a range. If you're putting in two colors, picking one fabric for everyone is a good idea, at the very least to define the shade of each color well.

Shaina's group in diff. tops w/ the same fabric

You can also mix and match these suggestions. The bellydance superstars have a few numbers where the ensemble all has the same costume and the soloists have something in the same color but with their own personality. This is another example of where you'll want to consider the skill levels of your troupe and the needs of the choreographies. Also consider who will own the costumes.

The most unified is, of course, for everyone to have the same costume in the same color. This can look great, if the costume is reasonably flattering for everyone in the troupe, and it creates a very professional look. Use this if your troupe rehearses often and is really together in their choreographies. If everyone has the same costume and one dancer just can't get her shimmy to show up while another is causing earthquakes, it will be very obvious. In that scenario you'd be better off letting the dancer who is still developing her shimmy wear something with lots of sparkle and fringe and the other dancer in something with a bit less movement. Again, depending on how accommodating the design is, and how similarly built your dancers are, you can run into fitting issues with this choice.

If your group shows up in perfectly matched good quality costumes people will expect a high quality performance. The plus side of this is that if you're pretty good the audience might project this expectation onto your performance and form an even higher opinion than they otherwise would have. The down side is that if your group isn't as well rehearsed as you'd like, the delivery will fall short of the expectations, making the audience that much more disappointed, so be prepared to meet their expectations!

In a mixed level number, costumes can serve almost like karate belts, to show the audience how much to expect from each dancer. I feel this helps prevent beginners from being judged too harshly against their more experienced classmates, and helps spread out the cost of getting a costume for progressing students. In my troupe, beginners are invited to join in for the short finale, and asked to wear dance pants that will also serve them for class or workshops, a hip wrap in the right color so they might use for their next level, and can wear a troupe t-shirt or a top in the troupe color. Intermediate dancers can wear the same hip wrap and a top of their own choosing, again in the troupe color, along with a professional quality skirt. Advanced dancers can replace the wrap and top with a bedlah, already owning the skirt. The idea is that each year they only have to buy one or two things and can slowly build up to an outfit befitting a soloist.

First pic: An intermediate costume, beginner, two advanced outfits, and another beginner

Second: Student choice on tops and hip accents, same skirts for everyone to unify. And the troupe mascot!

Level One: Circle Unit, Class 1

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 20:16:15 GMT

Articles
I promised short articles each week to give the dance some context. This week: a little about the cultural context of dance. Before it was on stage, bellydance was done to celebrate and pass time together with friends and families. While the specifics of the dance vary from region to region and household to household, men and women dance socially. Back in the day, this might have been with men in one room and women in another. Today, whether or not that segregation is observed really depends on how conservative the family is. Dancing would happen at weddings, birthday parties, saint's days, or just because it was afternoon and TV didn't exist yet. A future link will talk about the origins of the dance as a performance art, but for now, know that Hollywood fantasies about harem girls, or hippie tales of goddess cults, are unsubstantiated. Instead, of an article with further reading on this, enjoy some wholesome instagram posts from Nurjan Boulden.

Regional Highlights This unit, we're focusing on Egypt. These regional highlights are meant to give a general orientation, and really only scratch the surface of the diversity of arts in the MENAHT/SWANA area (Middle East, North Africa, Helene, & Turkey/SouthWest Asia & North Africa).

Nubia
In the southern most part of Upper Egypt, there are several Nubian communities, relocated when the high dam on the Nile flooded their homelands.

Siwa
The desert quarter includes the Siwa Oasis, famous for an oracle used in ancient Egyptian times and presently a home to some resorts. There are also Libyan style dances that were done by groups to the west, but since the border closed many years ago. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list.

You can see the type of party the opening blurb is talking about here, one of the girls is especially dressed up and really quite good.

Folk dance is dance done by normal people at home and parties. Folkloric dance is when those dances are modified for the stage. Depending on the people and the dance, the stage version may be very similar or very different from what people do at home, but it is their right to decide how to publicly or privately present themselves.

During the 1960s and 70s the Reda Troupe created different folkloric stage tableaus for all the regions of Egypt. After a couple thousand years of colonizers dividing and conquering (Ptolemys, Romans, Ottomans, then French and British) Egyptians were able to reintroduce themselves to each other though these dances.

Level One: Circle Unit, Class 2

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 20:02:17 GMT

Articles
There are many styles of raqs sharki (the Arabic name for bellydance), influenced by changes in politics, technology, and audiences. Each style is a bit like a dialect of a language. What is generally considered more important is a dancer's individual voice. Of course, while someone may have a strong regional accent, we often borrow words, phrases, and expressions from many areas. In the same way, the lines between dance styles are very blurry. Here is an the Lebanese Diva Amani about finding your voice in your dancing.

Moving south down the Nile, the areas labeled "middle" and "upper" Egypt are known as the Said, and famous for a folkloric stick dance that will be the feature of a level 2 reading.

Both upper Egypt and the delta are also home to Ghawazee families. We'll learn more about them in level 2, but they are countryside entertainers who typically perform at festivals.

The Said is also famous for a special kind of fabric called assuit, named for one of the most famous towns that makes it. Some designs feature stylized people, but prejudice against coptic christians has caused those designs to be less common, since making those is usually a give away that the maker does not share the Muslim taboo against depicting people in artwork).

Here is the Reda troupe performing folkloric Saidi dance. The men's style is very accurate to the regional folk dance, while the women's is more stylized and inspired by. This is partly to suit Cairo tastes, and to respect the privacy of the people who invited the troupe into their homes and danced with them.

This is a piece of a movie featuring a saint's day festival, you can see a group of ghawazee dancers as well as a bellydancer both entertaining at the festival.

You can see here how two dancers of the same era and country have very personal styles. Although they have more in common with each other than they do with most Turkish dancers of the same era, they have very different "voices".

Level One: Circle Unit, Class 3

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 19:59:39 GMT

Articles
One of the beautiful things about bellydance is it gives a place for women to have community. This piece is from the e-Zine Gilded Serpent written by Artemis about that, and the author sometimes comes to Ithaca to teach workshops on Turkish style.

Regional Highlight This unit, we're focusing on Egypt. These regional highlights are meant to give a general orientation, and really only scratch the surfface of the diversity of arts in the MENAHT/SWANA area (Middle East, North Africa, Helene, & Turkey/SouthWest Asia & North Africa).

The Sinai peninsula is sparsely populated by Bedouin folks. The Suez Canal brought workers from all over who created a music and dance tradition that is now uniquely Egyptian

Red Sea coasts both are home to different Bedouin groups with unique dances as well, including the Beja people, who move their herds from Sudan and Eritrea into the area.

The movements of dance in Bombuteya mimic the work on the canal: pulling in fishing nets, rowing a boat, and so on. The songs are playful.

Rachid is one of my favorite male dancers in the Modern Egyptian style, and his costumes are as on point as his dancing and expression.

Mona Said is from the Sinai area, and one of the most famous dancers of the 60s/70s/80s era.

Level One: Circle Unit, Class 4

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 19:54:27 GMT

Articles
While bellydance is generally dominated by cis-women, there is a long history of men and gender-queer folks bellydancing as well, both socially and professionally. Although there is a trend, specifically in the competition world, for dancers to chase validation from male teachers and judges that I am opposed to, men and non-binary folks are a welcome part of the community, and there are some amazing performers doing both folklore and raqs sharki.

Cairo is of course the capital of Egypt, and includes people who have moved to the city from all over. The main home-grown dance here is called beledi (also spelled balady, or any number of variations, ask me why in class) and it is essentially an earthy, relaxed version of raqs sharki.

Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast, is famous for dancers with a sweet style, like Souheir Zaki. There has long been a significant Greek population there, as well as lovely beaches contributing the reputation of Alexandrian sweethearts as "spoiled". Remember, this is a massive simplification because everything is always complicated, and we're just getting the lay of the land in this level ^_~

This is Fifi Abdou. She’s got a reputation for her sass as well as for her big earthy shimmies. She's also considered the queen of beledi style.

I had the luck to study with Nany when she was between retirements and was sponsored to come to NYC a few times. She is from Alexandria. Although she lives in France and has re-retired, she was a star of the late 80s and early 90s.

Ozgen Turkish dancer famous for his Oryantale (this clip) and his Romani folklore performances. He sometimes comes to the US to teach, too.

Level One: Undulations Unit, Class 1

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 21:03:30 GMT

Articles
The proper names for bellydance are raqs sharki, in Arabic, and dans oryantal, in Turkish. Besides the music and torso focused movement, there are other elements that make it raqs sharki. For example, hula is also primarily movements of the hips and torso, but is a very different dance. Hula has a religious role and is narrative, raqs sharki is abstract and a dance of social enjoyment. Alia Thabit's article talks about some of the essential ingredients in making a dance be raqs. (Now, I love some chipotle "hummus" with avocado and beansprouts, and a good raqs fusion, but we should be honest about what we name things ^_^)

Regional Highlights This unit, we're focusing on Anatolia and Iran. These regional highlights are meant to give a general orientation, and really only scratch the surface of the diversity of arts in the MENAHT/SWANA area (Middle East, North Africa, Helene, & Turkey/SouthWest Asia & North Africa).

Turkey had a big influence on the development of raqs sharki/dans oryantale, which is someh what lost in the popularity of Egyptian style. More on this in level 2. For now, without losing sight of Turkey as a modern country with its own mix of modern problems and successes, know that Turkish was the fashion for rules and elites all over the MENAHT area, and arts moved through the empire for centuries.

In terms of the energy they are known for, Turkish style tends to have more sass and haughtiness compared to Egyptian. They also do floorwork more often, and since the dancer is not the band's employer, she will often need finger cymbals to give her a "hand on the wheel" to steer the show.

Many of the dancers in Turkey were Armenian, Greek, Rom, or Jewish women and men, and they carried their dancing with them when the fled the genocide during world war 1. The community that they built was a foundation for the "American Nightclub" style.

In this video, Egyptian dance Nebawaya Moustafa's character was put into a mental institution. I don't love 40s/50s depiction of mental illness, but the sort of DIY music and dance party the women put together is illustrative of family dance parties (which are generally too private for youtube).

Level One:Undulations Unit, Class 2

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 20:59:31 GMT

Articles
Raqs sharki has, for as long as we know, existed under patriarchy. And if you REALLY want to dive into an academic discussion of how THAT has worked out, click here (I mean it, that is a very extra-credit article, feel free to skip it or save it for later ^_~). For the real reading this week, let's look at the role bellydance can play in healing from patriarchy, particularly our relationships with ourselves and with women. This article is by Yamê.

Regional Highlights This unit, we're focusing on Anatolia and Iran. These regional highlights are meant to give a general orientation, and really only scratch the surface of the diversity of people and arts in the MENAHT/SWANA area (Middle East, North Africa, Helene, & Turkey/SouthWest Asia & North Africa).

Greeks living in Turkey (Anatolian Greeks) and in Egypt (primarily in Alexandria) have made a big contribution to raqs/dans*. In addition to being performers in these countries, the diaspora that came to the US following persecution by the Turkish government helped to found the American Nightclub style. (Just don't let anyone tell you they invented kimonos and bellydance ^_~) Of course there are many many different folk dances around Turkey and Greece, but we're here for an introduction right now.
*(dance, in Arabic and Turkish)

This clip includes Greek bellydancers, plus a sample of one type of line dance indigenous to Greece. In another week, we'll see clips of Katy (a Greek-Alexandrian star of Egyptian cinema) & Nadia Gamal (Greek & Egyptian parents, she naturalized to Lebanon and came to define the Lebanese style for a time).

You can also use bellydance to show strength in a creative (as opposed to violent or destructive) way. In this video at 2min 26seconds, Ruby does the forward-back shimmy we did in class. Turkish style is known for haughtiness and sassy-sauciness.

Softness doesn’t preclude confidence or power, and bellydance is a medium that lends its self well to the balance of all these aspects of your selves. It’s also a great way to practice having faith in yourself, and trusting that even if things go wrong you can go with the flow and make it work.

Level One:Undulations Unit, Class 3

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 20:54:48 GMT

Articles
During the history of gaining respect for raqs sharki/dans oryantale as a family friendly dance there have been efforts to distance it from sensuality and sexuality. In the context of entertaining at weddings, things can actually get quite bawdy! One of the harder things for Euro-Americans to get used to is the idea that the dance itself is family friendly, but there is a stigma against those who perform it. In fighting that stigma, it is important to avoid slut shamming. Reclaiming sexuality can be one of the therapeutic effects of the dance, and it never helps to step on others when trying to lift yourself up. Mark Balahadia has more to say on this

Roma folks still face heavy persecution in Turkey, Europe, and elsewhere, including being subjected to mob violence and being denied schooling and employment because of their heritage. They may go by many names, and may choose to call themselves "g*psies", but this is not a word I will use, as many find it offensive. This is on par with "the n word" and the choice of some black folks to use it with each other.

Roma made up a large portion of the dancers in Turkey, and beside the fantasy styles inspired by romantic (and outdated) notions about them, authentic folklore of their dance style is often found in bellydance shows.

Here, a dancer performs folkloric Rom style on stage

Didem, who is a Roma woman herself, includes a 9/8 song in her spot on Turkish TV (back when Turkey had dancers on TV.....).

Bellydance gives us a chance to explore being vulnerable and strong at the same time.

Level One: Undulations Unit, Class 4

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 20:44:20 GMT

Articles
Bellydancers occupy something called a "liminal" space in MENAHT culture. Both an integral part of celebrations, and a profession that is not considered respectable by many parts of society. This can make life hard for professional dancers working in the countries of origin, but is also conveys a certain power that is the subject of this week's reading.

lim·i·nal /ˈlimənl/ adjective:
· occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
· In anthropology, liminality is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the rite is complete.

If you don't know about the Armenian genocide that took place during world war 1, the movie "The Promise" staring Oscar Isaac tells the story of its impact on people via the fictional characters. This of course led to many Armenians fleeing Turkey. Some to Armenia, some to the US.

When rhythms like kochari and tamzara show up in American dance shows, this is why. Armenian musicians joined with Greek, Egyptian, Iranian, Palestinian, Syrian, Moroccan, and so on to form the bands bringing MENAHT music and dance to the states. Armenian nightclubs and families often would hire bellydancers for weddings and nightclub shows (especially before TV made the idea of "going out" much less popular than it was before the 80s).

Here is an example of Armenian line dancing at a wedding.

Awalim were depicted in many ways, not usually favorable, in Egyptian cinema. In this movie, the main character is from an Awalim family, but she attends university and gains respect.

Thanks to being culturally taboo to publicly perform, bellydancers get to exercise their sass. Here’s Greek-Egyptian dancer Katy.

Level One: Undulations Unit, Class 5

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 20:38:03 GMT

Articles
For the last class of each unit, we cover a different music genre. Today, it's a two-for! Egyptian Shaabi and Marhagan. Shaabi is losely translated as music of the country (nation, not countryside) and the Egyptian flavor really took off with Ahmed Adeweya and the invention of the cassette tape. No longer were Egyptians (especially cabbies) stuck listening to state-censored radio, cassettes could be copied and shared music that spoke to people's struggles was accessible.

Following the Arab Spring, and the invention of auto-tune, marhagan music skyrocketed in popularity. This music is socially equivalent to rap in the US, and has been musically influenced by it. Marhagan means festival, and topics covered in songs can range from parties and love, to drugs, politics, and poverty. Always know what the song is about (including any innuendos) before deciding to perform to it! That goes for any song, but especially for marhagan!

Regional Highlight This unit, we're focusing on Anatolia and Iran. These regional highlights are meant to give a general orientation, and really only scratch the surface of the diversity of arts in the MENAHT/SWANA area (Middle East, North Africa, Helene, & Turkey/SouthWest Asia & North Africa).

Iran is a diverse country. Dancers in the US such at Katayoun are better qualified to tell its story, but the diaspora often employs bellydancers, and the court dances that were popular before religious laws forbid dancing are graceful and wonderful to see.

One of the ethnic groups in Iran are the Kurds, I have Kurdish friends who live in Canada since their families left Syria for their safety. You can see a Kurdish line dance below.

Katayoun does the gentle Persian court dance style here. (psst, she has a book!)

One sort of Kurdish line dance. I like how this clip shows the older men in more traditional clothes, and the young guys in modern fashions.

Here, Souheir Zaki and Ahmed Adeweya perform together. Judging by his outfit, this is the 1970s.

Men don't often bellydance professionally, but do commonly dance in folk dance troupes, spiritual dance groups, as well as socially, as in this clip, where they are dancing to margahan music.

Level One: Infinities Unit, Class 1

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 18:21:36 GMT

Articles
Old fantasies had people in the West thinking that raqs sharki (the Arabic name for bellydance) was a dance of seduction, but the actual job of a dancer in MENAHT (Middle Eastern North African, Helene, and Turkish) cultures is much different. While of course some dancers just need to get money from men in the audience (hello patriarchy) the main reason a dancer gets hired is to inspire and spread joy. Alia write about this, in this post of hers.

Regional Highlights This unit, we're focusing on the Arabian Peninsula and Levant. These regional highlights are meant to give a general orientation, and really only scratch the surface of the diversity of arts in the MENAHT/SWANA area (Middle East, North Africa, Helene, & Turkey/SouthWest Asia & North Africa).

Lebanon and Syria were the same country at the time many folks from the Arabic Diaspora came to the US, they were divided after getting freedom from the Ottomans and then the French.

The Lebanese capital of Beruit has been called the "Paris of the Middle East" (and Cairo has been called the Hollywood). The most popular folk dance of the entire levant region are variations on dabke.
Sometimes you will also see a "sword and sheild" dance rooted in Bedouin culture.

The details of dabke vary from one region to the next, and from one village to the next. In Northern Iraq a similar dance is called Chobi. This video is Lebanese.

Egyptian dancer Zara entertains at a wedding here, where the dancer's job is both to bring the joy and (to oversimplify things) encourage the bride to be ready for her upcoming night.

Souheir Zaki was known as “Cairo’s Sweetheart” (even thought she was from Alexandria ^_~). She is famous for the hip move we learned in class, which is why many dancers name it after her, although she was not the first to do it.