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Aziyade · 11-08-2007, 02:47 PM

You know I WOULD LOVE to read this, but I don't think you're going to find an "authentic" history of the dance because we don't know what the dance looked like in ancient times, only in the video era.

A COMPREHENSIVE history would be a better idea, but you'd have to tackle ancient Egyptian dance, Persian dance, Turkish, West African, and the ancient Greek and Phoenician dances, as well as deal with the whole Goddess issue.

Here's one of the older papers on our dance, by a dancer. I think this has been in circulation (in one form or another) since 1993.

http://joyfuldancer.home.comcast.net...g/articles.htm
Origins of Oriental Dance: Pt 1 - What is Belly Dance? (with pictures)

and this one I found in the SCA
http://tribalbellydance.net/papers/dancepaper.
arguable on many points. She relies heavily on Bounaventura)

and if you're interested in Orientalist paintings and Orientalism itself creating the perception of artificial sex roles, I can send you the outline draft of my paper, which someday may actually turn into my thesis. Or not. I have other hobbies now

There are also books with "histories" in them, but you're better to start from scratch with your own research.

Don't let anything discourage you from your pursuit, though. Just know it's not going to be easy and there will be a LOT of debate about it. But that's a GOOD THING!

11-08-2007, 02:47 PM	#9 (permalink)
Aziyade V.I.P. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Cornfields of Evansville Indiana. Posts: 1,049	You know I WOULD LOVE to read this, but I don't think you're going to find an "authentic" history of the dance because we don't know what the dance looked like in ancient times, only in the video era. A COMPREHENSIVE history would be a better idea, but you'd have to tackle ancient Egyptian dance, Persian dance, Turkish, West African, and the ancient Greek and Phoenician dances, as well as deal with the whole Goddess issue. Here's one of the older papers on our dance, by a dancer. I think this has been in circulation (in one form or another) since 1993. http://joyfuldancer.home.comcast.net...g/articles.htm Origins of Oriental Dance: Pt 1 - What is Belly Dance? (with pictures) and this one I found in the SCA http://tribalbellydance.net/papers/dancepaper. arguable on many points. She relies heavily on Bounaventura) and if you're interested in Orientalist paintings and Orientalism itself creating the perception of artificial sex roles, I can send you the outline draft of my paper, which someday may actually turn into my thesis. Or not. I have other hobbies now There are also books with "histories" in them, but you're better to start from scratch with your own research. Don't let anything discourage you from your pursuit, though. Just know it's not going to be easy and there will be a LOT of debate about it. But that's a GOOD THING!