What is Belly Dance ?
6/5/2021
Belly dance is the performance version of the folk dances of the wider Mediterranean area. That area includes Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Greece (I probably forgot a few). Its a fascinating part of the world, where Africa, Europe and the Middle East meet, and people have come together to do business, eat and dance for ever. While each area has its own dance style, belly dance could be described as the shared language of movement between them. The name "belly dance" may be a bad translation of Beledi (folk - of the countryside), or it may have been used by Sol Bloom, the impresario and organizer of the Midway Plaza at the Chicago world fair. (Who later went on to serve in the United States House of Representatives for 14 terms !) He believed all publicity was good publicity and "shocked" the nation by having belly dancers perform. The belly dance style I teach could best be described as theater style belly dance, which you would see in the classy hotels in any of those countries, and family friendly venues. It was bought to America by the 1st and 2nd generation families who came here and opened restaurants, or went out to eat and wanted to see the familiar dance styles from home. This picture "might" be Little Egypt from the Chicago Worlds Fair (it probably isnt)
0 Comments
|
AuthorCategories
All
Archives
March 2023
RSS feed works with feedly.com or theoldreader.com
|
Proudly powered by Weebly