Originally Posted by Kharmine

Quite honestly, I quit labeling dancers as "Egyptian" or "Turkish" or "Greek" or "AmCab" long ago. If they wish to identify themselves with a particular style, more power to 'em. But no two dancers in any style dance alike, never have. So, IMHO no one style has a single, narrowly defined and correct way to be performed.

And we absolutely cannot deny that, historically, all belly dance is an ethnic fusion. The Greeks borrowed, in part, from the Turks who borrowed, in part, from the Egyptians who developed raqs sharqi from a variety of North African folk dance traditions (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, ghawazee, Bedouin, etc.). And Americans learned from all these traditions.

They all blended their indigenous influences with foreign ones, including Western music and dance forms. They all presented the new dance form in "cabarets" -- places that presented food, drink and entertainment.

So, what is "AmCab"? Whatever one chooses to call it, it is a style that can look like any one or all of the older styles and when done by Americans will have an American "accent," more or less depending on the dancer and her/his training.

So long as it stays within the blended ME/Turkish/Greek ethnic fusion and is performed to music within those traditions, it's all "belly dance" to me.