What is Belly Dance? How to learn?

1. I.WHAT IS BELLY DANCE?
The dance which Americans know as "belly dance" has gone by many names. The French who
found the dance named it "dance du ventre", or dance of the stomach. It is known in Greece as
the cifte telli (also the name of a Turkish rhythm), in Turkey as rakkase and in Egypt as Raks
Sharki. Middle Easterners also call it "danse orientale" to distinguish it from the "balady", or
country, dance. It developed through the influence of many different areas and continues its long
process of development today. After its appearance at the Chicago Exposition at the turn of the
century, Americans discovered it, and the French name, danse du ventre, was translated into the
"belly dance". In this report, "oriental dance" and "belly dance" will be used interchangeably.
"Eastern dance" as used here can include belly dance, Indian dance, or Persian dance.
This improvisational, and uncodified form of dance is, nonetheless, a form of dance distinctly
different from the many forms of "folk dance" which developed in the same areas. Across
borders and cultures, "belly dance" is recognized as a dance style of its own. There are several
points that make oriental dance different from other dance forms and reveal its diverse heritage:
1. It has traditional associations with both religious and erotic elements. This ambiguity has
caused belly dance to be disdained, scorned, and loved by many. Its apparent origins are the
fertility cults of the ancient world.
People have always endowed their gods with human frailties, and thus these deities had to be
appeased with the best of their possessions: the fruits of the field, the fatted calf, and even human
beings. The fertility cult in particular existed in all ancient civilizations. The great Mother
Goddess appears under different names such as Mylitta, Isis, Ashtoreth, Astarte, Ishtar,
Aphrodite, Venus, Bhagvati, Parvati and Ceres. The function of these goddesses was
reproductive, not just in the limited sense of human beings, but in the greater sense of the planet
itself. They ensured the cycle of the seasons which regulated the growth of crops. They were
responsible for the increase of livestock and the perpetuation of the race. The well being of the
city and the countryside depended upon the goodwill of the regional mother goddess. None of
these goddesses were celibate because it ran counter to their function. Neither were her
priestesses necessarily expected to be celibate. Since the reproductive functions of the goddess
were symbolized in the human female's reproductive organs, it must have seemed very natural to
give the goddess the gift of a girl's service and virginity.
Thus began the practice of temple prostitutes, who were honored citizens in their day and time.
There is ample evidence in the writings of Socrates, Apollodorus, Plautus, Arnobius, Justin and
Eusebius of sacred prostitution in the Middle East, West Asia, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and North
Africa. Girls might be sent to the temple as the result of a pious vow; sometimes it had a double
aim, namely that of serving the deity while earning their marriage portions. Sacred dancing
would also have been an integral part of their duties, particularly a type of dance which featured
the abdomen, source of the Goddesses' fertility.
In Egypt today, it is still the custom for the bride and groom to hire a belly dancer for their
wedding, and to take a picture with their hands on the belly dancer's stomach. This is an obvious

2. reference to the dance's relation to ancient fertility cults. As if there were any doubt on this score,
the dancer scholar and performer, Morocco, reports making the acquaintance of a Saudi Arabian
woman who arranged for her to take part in a Berber tribal birthing ceremony, reminiscent of
ancient times. (Morocco had to pretend to be the unfortunate mute serving girl of her benefactor
in order to pass inspection.) The women gathered in a tent, while the men waited outdoors. A
hollow was dug in the ground, where the mother-to-be sat. She was surrounded by concentric
circles of women who danced with repeated abdominal movements while the woman gave birth.
The same Saudi woman found it highly amusing that the LaMaze "birthing classes" taught the
same movements to be found in the timeless art of belly dance. The dance itself was considered
by these women to be sacred, and not intended to be seen by men at all. Armen Ohanian, a
persian dancer of the nineteenth century, who was a Christian Armenian, wrote of her horror at
seeing the debased form of the dance for the first time: "In the true Orient, the most depraved
man venerates instinctively in every woman the image of her who gave him birth.... In this olden
Asia which has kept the dance in its primitive purity, it represents maternity, the mysterious
conception of life, the suffering and the joy with which a new soul is brought into the world."
2. It is traditionally danced barefoot. There are other forms of dance which are done barefoot, but
most do not meet all of the criteria which will be mentioned+€elevant form is Spanish dance in
the Moorish style. Most Flamenco dance is done with shoes on, but the long history of
domination by the Moors, an Eastern conqueror, left a dance form was performed barefoot. In
modern times, some famous Egyptian dancers perform in high heels as a way of showing their
audiences in a very poor culture that they can afford to wear shoes. This does not affect the
traditional reason that dancers danced barefoot: namely, because it connects one directly to
Mother Earth.
3. Belly dance grew out the traditions of eastern music. Although modern belly dancers use
music which is western-influenced to varying degrees, the rhythmic influences of near and
middle eastern music created a music form that is fundamentally different from that which
developed in the west. As musician Ishaq ibn Ibrahim (767-850 A.D.) said, "He who makes a
mistake is still our friend; he who adds to, or shortens a melody is still our friend; but he who
violates a rhythm unawares can no longer be our friend." Curt Sachs explains that the difference
lies in the total absence of harmony in eastern music.
Western music came to depend upon the natural sense of tension and relaxation, a regular rhythm
of in and out, and melodies which built upon a progression of chords. Eastern music, however,
relies on the rhythms which lead the melody and lend variety to the patterns. Whereas the even
flow of western music relies on changes in tempo for variety, the eastern musician hardly
mentions standard tempos of music. In addition, eastern music typically begins with an
arrhythmic, or free rhythm introduction known as "taqsim" (or division). Vocal music in the east
is allowed complete freedom from standard tempo or rhythm when not accompanied by a rhythm
instrument. Moreover, Sachs adds, western rhythms are multiplicative or divisive whereas
eastern rhythms are additive. This means simply that western rhythms break down evenly into so
that a 4/4 is twice as long as a 2/4. By contrast, Eastern rhythms are a series of smaller patterns
strung together and cannot be evenly divided as in the following examples: 3+2+2=7,
2+2+2+3=9, 4+3+3=10.

3. 4. The dancers often use some type of rhythm instrument to aid the musicians, or as the sole
accompaniment to their dance. Spanish dancers also do this, but there is evidence of a common
heritage for these dance forms through association with Gypsies and early Phoenician traders.
The earliest dancer's finger cymbals made of metal are those found in the area of Thebes (c.200
BC) with a large central boss and upturned rim, measuring 2-7/16" in diameter. A slightly larger
pair was also attributed to Thebes (c.200 BC) with a diameter of 3-3/8". These are more correctly
called "crotales", (or krotala) meaning a small bronze cymbal. They were also mounted in sets on
stick handles as clappers. However, one of the Thebes sets, as well as a set found in Pompeii (50
AD) are connected with a cord or chain approximately 2 and 1/2 cymbal's diameter in length.
This is a critical measurement because this short a cord is awkward to play with two hands. In
modern cultures such as Thailand, where the cymbals (ching chang) are still the major rhythm
instrument, it is played by a seated musician with two hands and a much longer cord. With
shorter cord a dancer could wrap it about one or more fingers and have a pair on each hand.
There is, however, a form of pair cymbals with the shorter string still in use in folk dance in
India, where they are called manjira.
Scholars have tried to say that all of these ancient crotales were mounted on a
stick if they were not of the type which had a raised portion for holding them on
top (to be struck with two hands). However, by actually connecting a pair of
cymbals in this manner it is apparent to any dancer that by placing the string over
the middle finger, or middle two fingers, one can shake them rhythmically. I have
found no surviving ancient pictures to support this theory, but it is known that
castanets, with references to metal castanets, were used in ancient Greece. Some
pictures are available of Roman style dancers with a type of rhythm instrument
worn in pairs on the fingers, as in fig. 1.
Whatever these instruments might have been, according to the Greek poets, they were no tinkling
delicate instruments. A hymn to the goddess Diana says, "My comrade strikes with nimble hand
the well-gilt, brazen sounding castanet". Euripides uses castanets as the epitome of noise when
he has Silenus rebuke his companions, "What's the uproar? Why this Bacchus hubbub? There's
no Bacchus here, no bronze clackers or rattling castanets?"
It is said that Spanish Gypsies, who are traditionally associated with the
spread of eastern dance, did not originally use castanets, moving with
"easy, undulating 'filigranos' (soft movements of the arms and hands),
reflecting his eastern ethnic heritage. The early gypsies felt no need for
devices beyond their own innate, rhythmic hand clapping (palmadas),
finger snapping (pitos), clicking of the tongue, and often tapping of a
stick (b culo). These sounds were further embellished by the shouts
(gritos) and expressions of animation that conjured the magic (duende) of the moment."
However, even though gypsies have taken up the use of castanets, many still play them in the
primitive manner, on the middle finger instead of the thumb. Thus, references to "metal
castanets" are more logical than it might appear at first; and they leave serious confusion as to
exactly what these instruments were and how they were played. Modern finger cymbals are
played with a cymbal on each middle finger and thumb, as in fig. 8.

4. 5. Oriental dance is uniquely designed for the female body, with an emphasis on abdominal
muscles, hip moves, and chest moves. It is firm and earthy, with bare feet connected to the
ground. It is a dance characterized by smooth, flowing, complex, and sensual movements of the
torso, alternated with shaking and shimmy type moves. Eastern dances are considered to be
different because they are "muscle dances", as opposed to the European "step" dances. In
traditional belly dancing the knee is never lifted higher than the hip, (not including ancient
"phyrric" or leaping dances which were also considered fertility dances). Level changes do allow
for dancing while sitting on the floor.
The first century Roman writer Martial and his contemporary Isidore of Seville mention a dancer
performing moves characteristic of eastern dance, and using a rhythmic instrument. Martial
refers to the skill of the women of Gades (Cadiz) in Baetica (Andaluc!a) in his lines on
Telethusa, who was so bewitching that the man who acquired her as a slave bought her back as a
wife. He had seen her in the marketplace "performing wanton gestures to the accompaniment of
Baetic castanets, which she had been taught to play in the manner of the Gaditanian women."
These dancers of Cadiz are thought by Esther Van Loo to be Phoenician or Cretan in origin. This
is a reasonable assumption because there were Phoenician traders in Spain as early as the
eleventh century B.C., and Cadiz, one of the oldest towns in Europe, was founded by the
Phoenicians. Loo further concludes that castanets themselves were first known to Spain in
connection with a Syrian fertility rite in honor of Isis or Cybele. Other scholars have concurred
with this idea.
In Virgil's "Copa", the tavern hostess dances in front of her inn to lure a passerby: "A Syrian
tavern-hostess, her head tied in a Greek scarf, trained in moving her quivering sides to the
Crotalum, springs gaily drunken from her smoky inn shaking her rattling reeds against her
elbow...". Whatever type of rhythm instrument she is playing, be it a pair of clappers or metal or
wooden castanet, her dance sounds distinctively like a belly dance.
If we follow this idea back to its roots, it is easy to see how the sensual dances which originated
with Greek mystery rites and comedy dances, where the dancer might have also played a type of
cymbal or clapper, travelled to Spain where it became what is today Flamenco, and that another
form of this dance developed throughout the Middle and Near East as what we call belly dance.
Both types of dance are also associated with the Gypsies, who came out of India, through Persia,
and spread by the Middle Ages throughout Europe.
6. The use of various other props in the dance such as snakes, swords, veils, and candles. These
items have magical, protective functions for primitive peoples that can still be found in the folk
dances of these countries. Snakes clearly relate to the ancient mystery cults. The snake is a
complex symbol which represented both male and female principles, and also immortality in the
form of the snake eating its tail.
7. The spectators pay the dancer directly in the form of coins or cash thrown on the floor or
placed on the dancer's body. There is no other dance form in which this occurs. In classical
Greece, a woman from a poor family tied a sash around her hips and went to dance for her dowry
in the marketplace. Spectators threw small gold coins at her, money which she then sewed into
her bodice and hip-belt as decoration, since she had no where else quite as safe to keep them.

5. Today, dancers still wear costumes decorated with "dowry" coins. In Egypt at the time of the
fourth dynasty (approx. 2680-2560 BC), dancers were presented with gold necklaces in payment.
By the 19th century, when the custom of tipping was known as "nukoot", a dancer would go into
a backbend to receive the money, which would be moistened and placed on the dancer's upturned
face. It is still the custom `a belly dancer money while she dances, and there is no other kind of
professional dancer who receives money directly from her audience.
8. Although belly dance developed from the dances of the people, or folk dance, belly dance
tends to evolve into a dance for professional dancers and trained soloists. In cn with folk dances,
which tend to be simpler moves for large groups of people, Oriental dance evolved toward more
sophisticated moves requiring some training, and to its performance by solo dancers in a totally
improvisational style or ensembles of 2-3 dancers with choreography. This report will show the
progression in several cultures of a dance which began in temples, passed on to the secular in an
erotic form, and evolved into a class of professional dancers. Thus, as historians would say, it
progresses from the religious sphere to the realm of dance as spectacle or entertainment. And, at
the same time, various forms of eastern dance continue to be used in a medicinal or religious
sense in the various trance dances found throughout the middle east today.
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