Site last updated
19 April 2008
Egyptian Nights...
Articles
| On this page: | Costumes | Class Wear | A Potted History |
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Costumes vary greatly from the very simple to the extremely lavish. Over the years costumes have shrunk from acres of material to expose acres of flesh and back again. They have been covered in coins, covered in beads and covered in both. However, for me it is always the dance that is important. Whether you are in class or on stage the costume should allow freedom of movement and play a supporting role to the dance. Do not allow your costume to upstage your dance! Do not worry about what to wear just enjoy the dance! |  |
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| What
should I wear for my
first class? Something comfortable which allows you to move freely. A loose skirt or trousers, a vest top or T-shirt and a cardigan are a good starting point. The dance is usually performed in bare feet, but if you are more comfortable in shoes, you need soft ballet type shoes. Trainers are no good as they don’t allow you to turn. A trip to a charity shop will usually turn up something suitable if the back of your wardrobe doesn’t. Most dancers’ first purchase is usually a coin belt or scarf - See our Souk. The advantage of having something tied around the hips is it helps you to feel when a move is right, but it is not essential. If you tie a long scarf around the hips this helps too. If you do decide to invest in a costume then the choices are endless from a few pounds to a few thousand pounds. |
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Be comfortable in your costume Choose a costume which suits you and makes you feel good and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. I couldn’t resist including the following quote from The Belly Dance Book edited by Tazz Richards, although I hasten to add I thought bouncing bosoms were the whole point!?!? "Accept and love your body as it is, yes: but use good judgment in your display of bare skin. The lighting in many venues is far from kind. You don’t want the audience to be distracted from your artful dance move and charming stage persona by a stark view of loose flesh, fat rolls, stretch marks, buttock cleavage, spider veins, dimply knees or bouncing bosoms." (pg109) . . . . . . Anna |
| A Potted History Of Belly Dance by Anna Povey (August 2004) | |
| Belly Dance originates from all over the Middle East and has its roots in the homes of ordinary women. In days gone by many of these homes would have been the mobile Bedouin tents of Nomadic tribes. The movement of nomads spread the dance all over the Middle East and consequently Belly Dancers can be seen in many countries. However, each country has developed slightly different styles. In the Khaliji or gulf region the dance is concentrated in eye, shoulder and head movements. The showing of hair is also very important as the rest of the body is completely covered. | |
| In Egypt the movement is centred around the hips and belly. These movements also have their roots in strengthening this part of the body for fertility and childbirth. The presence of a dancer at Egyptian weddings is also very important. Traditionally the dancer would lead the bridal procession to the bedchamber. The dancer would have been one of the older women from the village who would instruct the innocent newly weds on how to consummate their wedding night, through the dance, in the privacy of the bed chamber. In modern times the dancer is usually a young beautiful woman in a gorgeous cabaret costume and her role is to entertain all the guests. Having a dancer today is more about a show of wealth and which dancer you can afford, than tradition. | |
| The dance has developed through the ages and Egypt seems unable to make up its mind whether to embrace and love the dance or ban it completely. Years ago women lived separately from men in their own quarters known as harems. Here they were free to dance together for their own pleasure away from the prying eyes of men. A bit like we do today when all the girls get together. Around the turn of the century, male western travellers to the ‘Orient’, came across nomadic tribes and would join them to watch the evening dancing around a camp fire. The women would be completely covered yet still these travellers found this dance erotic. Money would change hands and the women would begin to remove their clothes. This brought back to the west the idea of an exotic, erotic oriental striptease. This corrupted idea then found its way into the penny slot machine, burlesque shows and musicals, even into Soho’s strip clubs today. |  |
| Back in Egypt in the 1950s the dance was very much influenced by the Glamour of Hollywood. Egyptian Dancers such as Namia Akif and Samya Gamal were stars of screen and stage. This Glamour spread to ordinary women who at the time wore big black veils, known as Malayas to cover their hair. Women became more confident and would walk jauntily and began to flirt from under their veils with men. As a result the Egyptian government banned the veil and introduced the head scarf and loose fitting clothes worn today, to prevent women from this flirtatious behaviour. It was also frowned upon for Egyptian national women to dance in public. So the great Egyptian dance stars disappeared to be replaced by foreign dancers learning the art from their Egyptian sisters. | |
| These foreign dancers worked mainly in the tourist trade and in hotels performing cabaret dance shows for tourists coming to Egypt and wanting to see Egyptian dancers! A very few Egyptian born dancers braved disapproval and continued to perform. The dance treads a thin line between respectability and disgrace. In a similar way to how the Hollywood actresses of the 1950s were often looked down upon by polite society. People were happy then to go and see them on screen but to marry one somehow brought shame on a ‘good’ family. This double standard is rife on the Egyptian dance scene. Interestingly, just a few months ago the Egyptian government revoked the licences of foreign dancers, claiming they want these lucrative jobs for their own Nationals. It is an exciting time in Cairo today as there are some big gaps left by foreign dancers no longer allowed to dance and not that many up and coming young Egyptian dancers due to the stigma attached. It remains to be seen if this ban on foreign dancers will make the dance more permissible in Cairsian society. | |