Trying to trace the roots of a dance style is no easy task. Unlike some dance forms, belly dance has no written format; no rules to follow and no one association stating that this is how it is done. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the dance has developed through history, from ancient history it seems, and was passed on from women to girls, who then became women themselves, a bodily form of self expression, ritual, tradition and/or female entertainment in it’s natural form, as a form to copy but not as words on stone or paper. Secondly, while the societies were matriarchal, where women had as much say in the organisation, physical and spiritual well being of the community, dance persisted as part of normal, everyday life but, once the patriarchal systems came to power, the link between the physical and spiritual was severed and the role of women changed within society, forcing their dance to be perceived in a different way, changing it’s context and meaning. Thirdly, the influence of different cultures, countries and history that emerged from these differences, have added to, enhanced and diversified the ‘original’ meanings of the dance. This causes confusion as to the true beginnings of belly dance and makes it impossible to follow the precise route through history that led to the belly dance we view today.
There are two more important points to be addressed. Firstly, we are viewing this history of belly dance through 21 st century, Western eyes. We cannot imagine, and the evidence is too sparse to provide us with enough understanding, as to how belly dance really was, in the past, in the East and this brings me to the important second point. Anyone writing about the history of belly dance is biased. All dancers have a unique perception of their dance, different reasons for doing it and a multitude of emotions and feelings when they do. I’ve tried to produce facts, though many of these may be myths and legends, but no one can say with certainty, how the logical chronology of the history of belly dance should run.
Dance was part of everyday life for our distant ancestors, predominantly in the form of the worship of Mother Earth. These people were sensitive to their natural surroundings. As hunter-gatherers they balanced their demands of the stock of the earth, with an acute understanding of nature, always careful never to deplete their food sources or next year, they would starve. From the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic, the people of the planet recognised a life-giving mother, and the women of these civilisations evoked this female spirit using their bodies.
Between 7250BC and 6250BC, much of the world was dominated by matriarchal societies. Non-fortified settlements suggest a war free existence and the impressions of the divine female bringing forth life continue. Pictures and symbols from all over the earth provide us with a whisper of a past, where life revolved and evolved around nature and her abundance. Circles, waves and spirals accompany these impressions, suggesting the importance of the Circle of Life and the curvy contoured fertility of the womanly form.
On to the Neolithic, from 5500BC, where our ancestors have moved on from hunting and gathering and have founded agricultural societies, heavily linked to crop fertility with a female god, the Great Mother. Tomb paintings from 5000BC depict early dancers and the texts of Inanna, Queen of Heaven, were written in Samaria in 3200BC. Maybe the switch from Mother Earth to Goddess of the Heavens was evident in the British civilisation around 3100BC when Stonehenge was first conceived and around this time, Egypt became unified. From 3000BC- 1450BC the Minoan Civilisation of Greece, flourished on Crete. These people were creative and inspirational. They painted pictures and began to write things down and their joyous, balanced civilisation blossomed under a matriarchal system. Music, art and dance were encouraged and the paintings from this time, show dancers in their most curved and delicate forms.
In Egypt too, Isis was the mother goddess, partner of Osiris and mother of Horus. Temple dancers are depicted on wall paintings forging the link with the giver of life, but then, society changed.
In 1800BC, the matriarchal system was no longer in force in Egypt. By 1500BC, Egyptian dancers were sent to other countries to perform and other dancers were imported. From this time onward, Egyptian history changed. As the Classic Greek culture became predominant in the world and the Romans appeared, Greek priests took over the temples in Egypt and renamed the Gods, while war raged under the force from Rome.
The Romans had their good points and one of these was a desire to write things down so, from this era, we learn that dancers were imported into Syria and, between 20BC-100AD, Goditae appear, dancers from the former Phoenician colony of Gades (now Cadiz, Spain).
As the Neolithic period began, the gods became more male orientated. Something happened as far as sex was concerned, a sort of battle between Instinct and Reason. The males polarized towards Reason and the females Instinct and all the associated qualities. This renunciation of the power of the female by the males, led to a progressive and gradual relegation of the more emotional and instinctive aspects of human nature, culminating in the Victorian Age.
In the East too, the view of women and their dancing underwent a change. In ancient times, the curving, curling, sensual movements of early dance were revered. Women worshipped their goddess and prepared their bodies for childbirth, celebrating the feminine but recognising the role of male in the Circle of Life. Later, the women of the harems and temples were viewed as prostitutes, dancing for the pleasure of men and for the position and riches that this might bring. Many of these women were astute and businesslike and gained great power and wealth from their position and so, it’s understandable that the patriarchal system needed to repress it.
History changes depending on who recounts it and so, from my feminine perspective, I believe the earliest form of belly dance started in ancient civilisations, as women rejoiced in their femininity and praised their goddess for the gift of fertility within themselves and their natural surroundings.
As all across the world from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan and on to Turkey and Greece and then Iraq and Iran, ancient traditional folk dance merged and mixed across countries and cultures, the distinctive moves of belly dance oozed and stirred with other dances, providing the mixture of styles we have today. So, as a general rule, belly dance is identified by swaying hips, undulating torso and articulated isolations, employed in a range of dynamic and emotional expressions. Characteristic movements of the dance include curving patterns, undulations, thrusts, lifts, locks and drops and shaking or quaking body movements. The focus is on isolated movements of individual parts of the body with less notice given to the footsteps. In fact, unlike any other dance forms, belly dance is performed ‘within’ the body form and does not require the dancer to, necessarily, move from the spot. Arms and hands move fluidly, like serpents or ribbons in the air. (We call it Snaky Arms!) Props can also be used and, originally, anything to hand was utilised like pots, swords and bamboo canes and now the list also includes zils (finger cymbals) and veils, enhancing our performances today.
From the origins of folk dance then, belly dancing spread across the East. In Egypt, Baladi (dance from the country) was danced by the real Egyptians, not the new townies. Originally, these dances would have been danced by all, at celebrations, weddings and birthdays and baladi emerged as an exquisite sensitive story of a dance, performed by women at such an event.
African dance, too, grew from the use of the body itself, bent knees and the isolation of various body parts and life itself was the reason for the dance. The use of the drum in dancing makes more sense when we consider the environment in which the dancing took place, typically outdoors, allowing the sound to carry long distances. Dancing to the tabla, or on it, is typical of belly dance today.
From the 10 th Century, the Ottoman Empire went from strength to strength but, as it was firmly entrenched in Islam as its religion, it officially disapproved of dance and music. Little, therefore, was written during this time and it isn’t until the 19 th Century when Flaubert and others write about foreign women dancers.
What we do know is that dancing definitely took place in the harem. The word harem comes from ‘haram’ which means forbidden, as men and women were separated within the home and only men of the immediate family were allowed into the women’s quarters. A screen between the two sections of the household would allow the women to view the activities on the men’s side while they remained unseen. After providing the men with their lunch, the women would socialize in the afternoon with female family members, friends and relatives, often playing music and dancing for each other.
The harem would be a self-contained section in the Palace, where a complete female sub world of hundreds of occupants would live with no contact with the outside world. The Middle Eastern woman is generally more at ease with her body than us in the West as she mixes within female groups ‘at home’ and is completely covered when she goes outside. Within this feminine, reassuring, loving group, the women have a healthy fascination for each other’s bodies and therefore, freely belly dance for each other. I think their dancing would be part of the whole social interaction and so it wouldn’t be a performance as such. Like when in a large group today, smaller ones within it hold different conversations and tell jokes, dancing for your friends, would have been another form of social communication. In the West, we are so used to being entertained and remaining passive through a performance so, the idea of dance being a social and sociable activity, is alien to us. Once again, the moves for these dances aren’t documented but I’m sure they were passed from woman to woman and, once they began to mix with Western society, new moves and different interpretations were added as belly dancing spread over the Western world.
We arrive at the Victorian age, a time of rapid change and developments, from advances in medical, scientific and technical knowledge to changes in population growth and location. However, over time, these rapid changes affected the country’s mood and an age that began with optimism and confidence, leading to economic boom and prosperity, gave way to uncertainty and doubt regarding Britain’s place in the world.
The Victorians viewed ‘others’ as beneath them, the civilised and advanced race, and racism and class prejudice served as a buffer to keep any unwanted forces at a distance. They wished to hang on to their elitist position and, as a patriarchal society, they were keen to quash the upcoming independence of women too.
However, it was in 1851 that Oriental dancers appeared at Crystal Palace Exhibition in London with Queen Victoria present.
During the 17 th and 18 th Centuries, as travellers and artists travelled to the Middle East and North Africa from France and Spain, Orientalism came to prominence; Art created by Europeans and inspired by the Middle East. This Art cannot, therefore, be an accurate account of life in the Middle East, because it’s seen through Western eyes however, the West’s eyes were opened to the possibilities of the East. So, with the previously mentioned exhibition in London in 1851 and in 1876 the US Centennial, International Exhibition of Arts, Manufacturers and Products of the Soil and Mine, the West was flooded with ideas from the east, including their first look at Middle Eastern dancing girls.
As also previously mentioned, the West is used to being entertained. However, in the same way that Yoga is a participation activity, so was dance through the ages until the 20 th Century, when it swung towards being a performance art, promoted and popularised by Loie Fuller, along with Ruth St Denis and Isadora Duncan, evolving between them, a modern dance form.
In 1893, an entertainment impresario called Sol Bloom was credited with the term ‘belly dance’. He brought an Algerian village to the world fair and popularised the dance by bringing in authentic Middle Eastern Dancers and musicians. He also introduced Little Egypt, which seems to be a collective term for exotic dancers inspired from the Middle East.
Around this time too, the Dance of the Seven Veils originated from Oscar Wilde’s Salome and suddenly, veils were used in belly dancing. The actual history is more complicated, involving Ishtar and her Seven Talismans but veils were not used in the Middle East for dancing until the turn of the 20 th Century. Other new dances, Hootch, Cootch, Shimmy and Shake derived from Middle Eastern, Haitian and African dance and in 1915, the Tango arrived in South America, a mixture of Spanish Flamenco, African Tangano and Cuban. Through the 1930s and 40s, famous Egyptian dancers evolved and came to the notice of the West including Tahia Kirk, Samia and Nadia Gamal and Tahia Karioka who, during the reign of King Farouk, became the most famous belly dancer in the world, until 1952 and the Egyptian Revolution.
From 1954, Jamila and Suhaila Salimpour, mother and daughter, brought new styles to belly dance in America and in 1970 with the women’s liberation movement picketing their students, claiming belly dance treats women like sex objects, other women burnt their bras and signed up for belly dance classes. A renaissance was underway for the art called danse oriental, danse du ventre (literally dance of the stomach), belly dance, Raks el Sharki and Middle Eastern dance.
Belly dance gained a further boost in 1983 when home video allowed instructional belly dance videos into the home and today, with easy access to DVDs, we are able to view and learn about the classic belly dancers of the 20 th century like Fifi Abdu and Suraya Hilal.
In 1984, Goddess belly dance evolved, closely followed in 1987 by American Tribal style belly dance, created by Carolena Nericcio. This unique, spontaneous approach, where a lead dancer gives signals to a tribe of dancers, is gradually becoming popular in England and, with the touring of the Belly Dance Superstars and the Desert Roses from 2003, the variety of styles and forms of belly dance is open to all to view and participate in. American Tribal has been taken on a further step by dancers such as Rachel Brice and Sharon Kihara, to Tribal Fusion, where American Tribal is fused with other dance styles and music.
Wendy Cook
October 2007