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Bellydancers have come up with some incredible stories to explain the origins of our dance. And while we can know a lot about the past century, the further back we go, the blurrier the picture gets. We might bemoan the idea that the history is lost to the "mists of time", I propose the following, as a way to create some sense of resolution around this issue.
You are bound to come across some version of the phrase "bellydance as we know it today", which generally means raqs sharki as it has been performed leading up the golden era and recorded in early Egyptian cinema. This style was popular with the concert halls and it formed from the dances of the awalim and Ottoman court dancers
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To understand the place of a bellydancer in Egyptian society, there are two helpful things to know about. The Awalim, and the Zeffa.
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To kick things off, let’s get our bearings. Here is the diagram created by Nadira Jamal showing the relationship of belly dance and Middle Eastern dance, and the degree of influence of western aesthetics on a variety of styles. 7 of 11
This post is about the style changes that happened in the US between the 90s and 2010s and how the situation dancers in the US found themselves in changed. During the 80s, dancing in the US was still basically the same styles as the previous decades, with more fringe on the costumes and more dancers starting to get into historical research, but several changes to the national context were starting. 8 of 11
The story of fusion belly dance as we know it today can be traced back to Jamila Salimpour and her classes and performances on the West Coast of the USA starting in the 1950s and 60s. Post 4 of 11
Interestingly, while Turkish dancers sometimes call the it raqs instead of oryantal dans, all the places bellydance is part of the vernacular party dance were once part of the Ottoman empire. Post 5 of 11
Our next style goes by many names! Sometimes called "American Cabaret", or "Am Cab" for short, "Vintage American", "Vintage Oriental", "American Restaurant", "Vintage Restaurant", "classic American", and even "Anatolian Cabaret" by those wishing to emphasize the influence of Greek, Turkish, and Armenian immigrants and artists on the style. Post 1 of 11
To kick things off, let’s get our bearings. Here is the diagram created by Nadira Jamal showing the relationship of belly dance and Middle Eastern dance, and the degree of influence of western aesthetics on a variety of styles. Post 3 of 11
This post is to give students enough of an orientation to Lebanese style to get the lay of the land. You can probably tell by how much shorter than the others it is, but there is more to the story which you're better off learning from sources more focused on this style. |
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AuthorLisa Lumina is the primary author of student readings. Guest authors are indicated on their posts. Archives
June 2025
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