Having been involved in many many Science Fiction Conventions, Belly dance is a reasonable topic to talk about. Up in the North West area (Seattle, Portland) there have been belly dancers performing as entertainment on a regular basis. Years ago, there was a entertainment group of Klingons who sang, and belly danced. There are other groups that provided belly dance as part of the half time entertainment at Masquerades (costume contests). There have even been belly dancers participating in the Masquerades. In San Diego, they had a belly dance class in the morning before the day started and at other conventions there have been beginning belly dance classes. There has been some talk of having a few belly dance things next year at the Westercon in Phoenix. I can think of three main reasons they would schedule a talk on belly dance. First, there is a huge interest in it by the people attending. Second, it shows up in Science Fiction/Fantasy media such as in FireFly, Highlander and Highlander:The Raven, etc. Third, most of the Science Fiction/Fantasy is grounded in Earth and its history, rules, etc. There are usually panels dealing with everything from planet building, to using religions, to building histories of the people you have in your story. But the material is all based on our planet, histories and cultures. I"ve even taken some belly dance skirts (circle style) and created a fantasy gypsy look out of them. Hope this helps a bit.
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