HISTORY OF BELLYDANCE

Belly dance, otherwise known in many incarnations as danse du venture, raks sharqi (dance of the east), baladi, and Oriental dance, is popular in North Africa, throughout the Middle and Near East, and in the West. In whatever venue and form of the dance, it is enjoyed by common people as well as royalty.
But the origin of this dance? We can only guess. There is the belief that belly dance is ancient—done in at time long ago when women would perform a dance to instruct pregnant women on how to strengthen and roll their abdominal muscles in preparation for childbirth.

Throughout history, the dance was performed by women for women, a tradition that continues in Saudi Arabia and other conservative Muslim countries. However, there was a period in the old days when the dance became performance art entertainment and was then performed in the presence of men and women. The dance does have mysterious and mystical roots. During pagan times, women danced in the absence of men—a sort of goddess worship. And as most goddesses were mothers and reproduction was an enigma, it is understandable that the dance focused on the belly.

Belly dance or what was long ago called the dance of the waist, does have a documented history. The dance is traced back to India through a group of gypsies who left the region many years ago and whose current generation, known in the world of dance as the ghawazee, now call Egypt their home.