Many belly dancers are keen to investigate the history of belly dance. It is a fascinating subject and one that can lead you to discover the stories of many wonderful people around the world and throughout time. Here are a few tips on where and how to start: Take time to learn how to evaluate your sources. Historians will always put their name to their research and add footnotes so others can evaluate their sources. Here are a couple of links that will help you evaluate your sources:
We are very lucky to have historians who have focused a lifetime of work on our dance. Search out features, books and articles by those with history degrees and an interest in belly dance, and you can be sure they have be thoughtfully researched. Here are a few of my favorites:
Image from Dawn Devine's lecture "The Birth of Bedlah" The list of people above is limited to those with academic qualifications in history, but there are many others who have enjoyed a long and successful career in historical research of belly dance. (Not all belly dancers list their qualifications, my apologies if I failed to credit anyone properly). Here are some other names you might consider:
In addition to Gilded Serpent, you would do well to look out old copies of Habibi magzine, which is no longer available but issues do turn up on ebay and other web sites from time to time. Zaghareet magazine sadly ended publication in 2017, but back issues are still available here: One thing to remember is that pre-movies, (that is before we had moving images), dance could only be recorded through the written word or photography. If you have ever learnt a belly dance move from a book you will know how difficult that can be ! While a dancer may have been described as "moving like the murky pools along the Nile"... we have no idea if she was layering a shimmy on a figure 8 or doing a pivot turn with outstretched arms. Before moving images all dance is left to our imagination. We know there were dancers, and we can put together a list of things we know they did, but we can not see their dance and how it relates to our dance today. Finally, I would suggest you leave the internet and library, and try to study with some of the "primary sources" we have access to today. Dancers from all around the world are offering lessons on-line, and are worth every moment. Many of the pioneer dancers are still touring, teaching and writing books on belly dance. There are too many to list, but consider who in your area has been dancing for 30 or 40 years, who traveled to or grew up in the home countries, who created new forms of dance, who learnt from their own culture, who studied with the famous names of belly dance... In our search for the ancient history, we sometimes forget that history is all around us.
Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer. She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” was published in 2014. Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is a stagecraft handbook for belly dancers of all styles and levels. Both are available on Amazon. If you like this blog, go back to the blog page, for others you might like including:
Holiday Music for Class Dealing with Difficult Students Teacher Knows Best Are you Ready Teach Belly Dance ? Or check out these Hub Blogs including: "Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher"
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