Bellydance is a popular yet frequently poorly understood dance form. It is exotic and alluring for the onlooker, and can be a powerful vehicle for self expression for the performer. As a result, a huge amount of mythology exists surrounding what it is and where it has come from.

Most dancers have a deeply personal relationship with the dance and as a result many find a way of explaining how this dance came to be which is especially meaningful to them. Generally speaking however, the modern performance dance regardless of what style it is, or where it is being performed, has derived from folk dances of the Middle East. These were popularised among Western travellers during the time of British and French colonial rule of parts of the Middle East, and later by promoters who bought dancers to the West to perform in shows and fairs in England, France and America. These folk dances have, over the past 200, years been mixed with movement and aesthetics of other dance forms and stage craft to further satisfy Western tastes and to make the dance function better as a dance to be observed rather than a community activity to be enjoyed through participation.

Most people who have been on holiday in Turkey or Egypt will have seen bellydancers performing in restaurants or hotels. This is frequently the first/only exposure most people in the West who are not bellydancers themselves have to this dance form. Generally speaking these dancers will wear the sequined two-piece costumes of a bra and belt with skirt, or a bra and highly decorated fishtail style skirt that most people associate with bellydance. They may also use props like a veil, stick or play finger cymbals while dancing. This form of bellydance has a number of different names, probably the most popular is ‘cabaret’ dance, especially in America, though it may also be referred to as Oriental or restaurant style bellydance too. It can also be referred to more specifically by a geographical label such as Egyptian, Turkish or Lebanese, as there are significant differences between the way people dance in different countries of the Middle East. The dancers in the Middle East will almost exclusively be female. Despite the apparent glamour and potential fame of being a bellydancer working in the Middle Eastern hotels and restaurants, it is a hard life, and there is still a significant stigma attached to it because of the influence the predominant cultural and religious views have upon on the ways that women may appropriately conduct themselves.

In the West bellydance has become very popular, and dancers in the West have more freedom to pursue this dance as a career without the risks that dancers in the Middle East have. Men also find it far easier to work as dancers in the West, though there are still only a small number of male bellydancers compared to the number of women who dance. Inevitably the dance has changed in the time it has been practiced in the West. Bellydance as performed in the Middle East has altered a great deal too, in particular the influence of ballet upon Egyptian style dance is well documented. However in America in particular the dance has taken on many new forms, either as a result of existing Middle Eastern styles becoming mixed, and influenced by dances such as Jazz, or by dancers deliberately fusing Middle Eastern dance with other non western dance styles or bold aesthetic visions, in order to make it something quite different.

One of the biggest ‘revolutions’ in the development of Western bellydance has been the development of Tribal style bellydance. For a full history of this style please read this article. In summary however, Tribal style bellydance is in itself hugely varied, but all different types of tribal dance have their roots in Americal Tribal Style (ATS) a form of group improvisation that was developed by dancer Carolena Nerriccio in the 1980s. The dance and related costume has been blended with Flamenco styling and some moves from traditional Indian dance, and has been simplified to a finite number of moves, with cues that allow dancers to create a improvisational choreography in groups on stage as they perform.

From ATS a whole range of other improvisational forms have developed. Further to this some dancers who wished to take fusion further, or else dance in the same aesthetic but using choreography, developed Tribal Fusion. Some Fusion artists no longer refer to themselves as bellydancers, preferring terms such as ‘world fusion’ or ‘dance theatre’. There is a huge variety of different fusion dancers out there. Some have been inspired by 1920s Vaudevillian theatre, some by Romani culture, some by a more paired down ‘urban’ aesthetic and some by the sub cultures that they are a part of, producing forms such as gothic bellydance. Frequently fusion artists will use non traditional music for their acts, it is not unusual now to find bellydancers performing to EBM, Industrial, Breakbeat or Trance.

This is by no means an exhaustive history of the dance, but a very quick overview of a very diverse dance form. It is still relatively new to the vast number of people who live in the West, but it is my hope that the dance in all of its forms will become more accepted and better understood in future.