Belly Dance Forums - View Single Post - How relevant is Egypt to Modern Belly Dance

Aisha Azar · 09-22-2006, 02:27 PM

Dear Jeffrey,
I am in disagreement with those who claim there is "traditional" and "modern" belly dancem so that is best left between Tarik and you. There is modern belly dance only, in that the dance is about 100 or so years old. There is a lot of evidence to show that the dance started in the urban areas of Egypt, Turkey and Lebanon. ( Though Nadia Gamal used to like to say that the Phoenicians invented it!) Belly dance was as a result of a movement from agrarian setting to more people moving into the cities and developing more sophistocated ways of doing their entire lives( not just their dancing). The dance was and is called Raqs el Sharghi ( or in Egypt, the gh disappears and is nearly soundless colloquially), by Arabs and called Oriental Tanzi by Turks. Europeans and westerners who saw the dance in its native
environment called it Danse du ventre ( dance of the abdomen) or "Belly Dance". (Jodette Silhi says this haopened during World War II, and this might make sense, since Masabni opened her club in 1927.) They were referring to Raqs Sharghi specifically and in the Amerian mind, Orientalist fantasy or no, they are still doing so..
Badia Masabni is given credit in Egypt for developing the dance, though she is just one of the people who brought it to the stage. There is a lot of evidence to prove this. There is no great mystery as to how and when the dance developed. There are many sources, but one I can lay my hands on right now is:

Antar. E. (1971, Sept/Oct) "La Danse Du Ventre" Aramco World Magazine, pp. 4-10.
( My citational skills are a little rusty so forgive any cross method citing!)

There is some hazy stuff that is probably not known as fact and then, it is stated, "There is no doubt that the fountainhead of belly dancing in this century was the 'Casino Opera' in Cairo, right across the street from the ornate Egypt State Opera House. Casino Opera was founded in 1927 by Badia Masabni, a gifted and enterprising young woman of Lebanese parentage who was then married to Egypt's leading playwright".

I am sure that with a little rooting around in my huge 32 year old pile of info, I could find more, but I am also sure Tarik will have great info for you. Neither of us is making stuff up. We are both very well researched. This is not us givng "personal perceptions". We have a lot of "hard facts" to back up our statements, though many people prefer not to believe that.

Re the India and Rom connection that you mentioned: I would like to see some hard facts on that data. There is the occasional claim by the Ghawazi that they are Gypsies, but they also claim to be related to the Persian, Barmicide, and also occasionally to Bedouin tribes, so there is no actual way to trace their statements.When dancers were still dancing in the sreets, they were not even performing belly dance, but forerunners of this dance, from which some concepts were taken in order to develop the new form. It is clear that the felaheen moved ( or sometimes were moved) into the cities in Egypt to work and brought their dances with them and developed new forms of dance as they grew into their new surrpundings. The fact that the dancers may have been "influenced" by outsiders does not mean it is not inherently Egyptian, because what developed was developed by the Egyptian soul and mind and heart. This is of course outside the realm of "hard facts", but in reality that makes dance history no different than any other kind of history. Someplace in here, I have a book I could reference for that.

Regards,
A'isha

09-22-2006, 02:27 PM	#22 (permalink)
Aisha Azar V.I.P. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Pacific Northwest USA Posts: 5,313	Relevance Dear Jeffrey, I am in disagreement with those who claim there is "traditional" and "modern" belly dancem so that is best left between Tarik and you. There is modern belly dance only, in that the dance is about 100 or so years old. There is a lot of evidence to show that the dance started in the urban areas of Egypt, Turkey and Lebanon. ( Though Nadia Gamal used to like to say that the Phoenicians invented it!) Belly dance was as a result of a movement from agrarian setting to more people moving into the cities and developing more sophistocated ways of doing their entire lives( not just their dancing). The dance was and is called Raqs el Sharghi ( or in Egypt, the gh disappears and is nearly soundless colloquially), by Arabs and called Oriental Tanzi by Turks. Europeans and westerners who saw the dance in its native environment called it Danse du ventre ( dance of the abdomen) or "Belly Dance". (Jodette Silhi says this haopened during World War II, and this might make sense, since Masabni opened her club in 1927.) They were referring to Raqs Sharghi specifically and in the Amerian mind, Orientalist fantasy or no, they are still doing so.. Badia Masabni is given credit in Egypt for developing the dance, though she is just one of the people who brought it to the stage. There is a lot of evidence to prove this. There is no great mystery as to how and when the dance developed. There are many sources, but one I can lay my hands on right now is: Antar. E. (1971, Sept/Oct) "La Danse Du Ventre" Aramco World Magazine, pp. 4-10. ( My citational skills are a little rusty so forgive any cross method citing!) There is some hazy stuff that is probably not known as fact and then, it is stated, "There is no doubt that the fountainhead of belly dancing in this century was the 'Casino Opera' in Cairo, right across the street from the ornate Egypt State Opera House. Casino Opera was founded in 1927 by Badia Masabni, a gifted and enterprising young woman of Lebanese parentage who was then married to Egypt's leading playwright". I am sure that with a little rooting around in my huge 32 year old pile of info, I could find more, but I am also sure Tarik will have great info for you. Neither of us is making stuff up. We are both very well researched. This is not us givng "personal perceptions". We have a lot of "hard facts" to back up our statements, though many people prefer not to believe that. Re the India and Rom connection that you mentioned: I would like to see some hard facts on that data. There is the occasional claim by the Ghawazi that they are Gypsies, but they also claim to be related to the Persian, Barmicide, and also occasionally to Bedouin tribes, so there is no actual way to trace their statements.When dancers were still dancing in the sreets, they were not even performing belly dance, but forerunners of this dance, from which some concepts were taken in order to develop the new form. It is clear that the felaheen moved ( or sometimes were moved) into the cities in Egypt to work and brought their dances with them and developed new forms of dance as they grew into their new surrpundings. The fact that the dancers may have been "influenced" by outsiders does not mean it is not inherently Egyptian, because what developed was developed by the Egyptian soul and mind and heart. This is of course outside the realm of "hard facts", but in reality that makes dance history no different than any other kind of history. Someplace in here, I have a book I could reference for that. Regards, A'isha