Maria_Aya

I just love this conversation

My way of thinking it:

With the term Bellydance even in a class I mean the umbrella that cover's all the dance types inspired from arabian dance.

Under that exist 2 main categories:

Arabian dance from all arab countries, with under it 2 big categories, the traditional/folk and the social/performance type of the dance which is ofcourse inspired deeply by the traditional/folk, and where even the new things MUST be inside the principals of arabian oriental dance.

Now again under the big umbrella of Bellydance

Inspired from Arabian Dance.
There is no traditional form over here, but many many categories and sub-categories.
Here the dance is social/performing and there is more freedom from the dancers
It is a reflection of Arabian Dance that sometimes go so far that nothing reminds arabian dance. Here the dancer have more freedom and can do fusions.
So AmCab, Tribal, ATS, Fusion etc go under this umbrella for me.

At least this is the first intro way to teach it to my students when they seem lost not getting the styles etc and what is what.

There is also a sub category that have ethnical dances strongly connected with arabian dance: Greek Tsifteteli, Turkish Oryantal, Persian, Magreb Dances, etc.

Maria Aya

tim'ema

Maria Aya,

That is a VERY clear way of categorizing (for me, anyway!).

You have, in one quick posting, made the Oriental Dance "Family" MUCH less confusing! I was - like your students - quite muddled and have been reading this forum and googling, trying to find a "family tree" for BD.

Thank you so much!


AT

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Kiraze

It may have something to do also with different languages and their nuances but I would never put Middle Eastern folk dances under the term "belly dance": for me haggala, houara, debke, horon etc are folk dances from different regions of Middle East and they have absolutely nothing to do with belly dance except the geographical origin. In my eyes belly dance is the performing art: mostly it is female solo dance with roots in Middle Eastern cultures and naturally also folk dances but it is no longer a folk dance itself.

I also do not think that belly dance is Arabic dance as there are so many non-arabic cultures who has a very long history with this dance and influences to different movements can be traced to regions like Africa, India and Central Asia which have absolutely nothing to do with Arabic culture... But I guess that we could argue without any correct answer whether belly dance came to Egypt from Turkey or to Turkey from Arabic countries or whatever

chryssanthi sahar

One can argue about the roots of belly dance and where this dance appeared for the first time. There exist more speculations than facts about that. The fact is, that what we know as belly dance today, is mainly inspired by the Arabian dance or it is Arabian dance. Sure, there is also the Turkish style, but this becomes more and more adapted to the Arabian style (as well as the Greek style, due to the new Tsifteteli music and due to dancers like myself who create Greek-Arabian dance fusions ).
So I find Marias description and explanations very accurate. I think, it is a big help for people who are confused about the terms.

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