Essay On Belly Dance

Belly dancing is thought to date back into the third millennium BCE in the Middle East, with evidence of solo improvised dance seen in Egyptian paintings, figurines, and tombs (Shay & Sellers-Young, 2005: 3). There are now several different versions of this dance in the Middle East, for example, the shikhat in Morocco, the ciftetelli in Turkey, and the raqs sharqi in Egypt (Shay & Sellers-Young, 2005: 2). While these dances are similar in movements, the dance’s meanings differ in each culture. Here in the United States, we adopted and renamed belly dance in the late 1890’s from the Middle East, but based our understandings of the dance off of mistaken notions we assumed to be true in those countries. The meanings of belly dance in the United States have been shaped by orientalist views, and therefore are misrepresentative of the true connotations. Several contradictions exist between what Americans see belly dance as and what is actually true in the Middle Eastern culture, such as the implications of the dance, the dress and context of the dance, who actually dances, and spiritual significance.

Orientalism is essentially the perceptions that Westerners have that distort and exaggerate the people, lives, and culture of the Middle East (Maira, 2008: 320). In Orientalism, the person defining the “Other” tends to benefit from that definition, whether it be viewing the Other a negative light and assuming oneself to be above it, or viewing the Other in a positive light and identifying oneself with that (Shay & Sellers-Young, 2003: 31). Belly dance, in turn of Orientalism, is derived from fallacious notions about the Middle Eastern culture that were implemented in the west to elucidate belly dance as a practice of the western world (...

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... 2009: 97). Dancers in the Middle East, like the shikha, are often considered prostitutes, and are women of a very low class (Kapchan, 2009: 89). Their dances do not represent female empowerment like they do in the United States, but often rather sorrowful lost love and abandonment (Kapchan, 2009: 92). The dance, down to the costume even differs substantially, as Western women are scarcely clothed, while Eastern women wear modest dresses to the floor (Kapchan, 2009: 88). Additionally, the religious ties that the dance is thought to have are unlikely to exist, as it is so defiant of the Islamic religion that is practiced (Shay & Sellers-Young, 2003: 21). Overall, the associations that are thought to be held between American belly dance and Middle Eastern belly dance are merely misunderstandings as a result of the Orientalist perspectives that convinced us otherwise.