GYPSY STYLE

The Gypsy Past

Bellydance has origins in ancient fertility cults and assisting child birth at a time when religion was an integral part of daily life and had relevance to every aspect of human existence.3 However, the female pelvic dance died out in many parts of the world, but remained in areas such as the Middle East and North Africa.4 It then progressed from a religious sphere into the realm of spectacle and entertainment by a new class of professional dancers.

The acceptability of dance in the Middle East has been entwined with women's role in society. No well bred Egyptian woman would ever consider dancing in public. Dance as a social past time in the confines of the home was acceptable for women only to entertain each other. Professional dance was the domain of the lower classes as it was limited to "gypsies, minority communities and the poorer members of society."5 These dancers were distrusted for their rebellious ways, yet they were welcomed into the homes of the upper classes to animate family festivities.

Gypsies have always assimilated local customs and traditions and made them their own. They polished and amplified the local dance and music in order to use them as a means of livelihood. Therefore, when the French found the dance in North Africa in 1798 during Napoleon's invasion, the gypsy dancers soon discovered that the French soldiers were a new and bountiful source of revenue. They adapted their repertoire to entice more income.

The French saw the Ouled Nail of Algeria and the Ghawazee of Egypt and generically named their gypsy dances danse du ventre, dance of the stomach. The direct English translation of bellydance became adopted by Westerners although there are various names given to the dances of the distinct regions. The European foreigners were the first to document the Ghawazee and the Ouled Nail. The native elite and educated did not feel that the dance was respectable nor important enough to record. Naturally, the dancers became an obsession for many Western travelers because of the supposed forbidden sensuality the dancers represented.