In a patriarchal society where gender stereotypes are strict and classical dance is revered, Belly dancing at the same time is looked upon as immoral and associated with women in dance bars.
In India, belly dancing has unfortunately been associated with cabaret clubs and bachelor parties. The form is often viewed as being forbidden and exotic women wearing lavish costumes to seduce or please men.
About Belly Dancing
Belly Dancing is a form of art which was found centuries ago and has its roots in Egypt. It basically features movements of the hips and torso. “Belly dance” is a translation of the French term ‘danse du ventre’.
It features movements of the hips and torso. It has evolved to take many different forms depending on the country and region, both in costume and dance style; with the Egyptian styles and costumes being the most recognized worldwide due to Egyptian cinema. However, the Egyptian style with its traditional Egyptian rhymes is popular worldwide with many schools around the globe now practising it.
History
The art form has a long history. It is thought to have originated as a part of religious ritual before the rise of Judaism and Christianity. Female goddesses were celebrated as givers of life in the near east and female deities were often represented in the figures of mothers.
Belly dancing is said to be a legacy passed on to daughters by their mothers so that the daughters could prepare their womb for pregnancy.
In Sparta, women danced for Artemis, who was a goddess of the moon and of fertility. Referred to as the Kordax, their dance emphasised the rotation of the hips and stomach.
Hebrews, on the other hand, danced the Shalome, a dance based on a legend whose heroine embodied both motherhood and fruitfulness: the myth of the Seven Veils of Ishtar (more on that later).
Many early civilizations believed that women were almost solely responsible for procreation. In some cases, women were feared because they seemed to command the mysteries of nature.
Tribes in the South Seas, New Guinea, East Polynesia, Africa, and Greece not only thought that conception would be impossible, but that the human race would die, unless the women performed the fertility dance.
The dance has developed over the centuries and even branched out by creating new styles and genres.
Belly dance in the west
West Belly dance was popularised during the Romantic movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, when Orientalist artists depicted romanticised images of harem life in the Ottoman Empire.
When immigrants from Arab states began to arrive in New York in the 1930s, dancers started to perform in nightclubs and restaurants. In the late 1960s and early 1970s many dancers began teaching. Middle Eastern or Eastern bands took dancers with them on tour, which helped spark interest in the dance.
Although using Turkish and Egyptian movements and music, American Cabaret belly dancing has developed its own distinctive style, using props and encouraging audience interaction.
In 1987, a distinctively American style of group improvisational dance, American Tribal Style Belly Dance, (ATS), was created, representing a major departure from the dance’s cultural origins. A unique and wholly modern style, it makes use of steps from existing cultural dance styles, including those from India, the Middle East, and Africa.
In popular culture
Music videos generally tend to sexually objectify women more explicitly and to depict them as objects to be consumed. When female artists, however, decide to sexualize themselves they have more autonomy over their role as the ‘gazed’ or the ‘gazer’.
Modern day practises of belly dancing can be culturally authentic, or present the dance as a cabaret type performance for entertainment.
The cultural and sexual connotations of belly dancing mean it is banned in some places, while simultaneously embraced as a way to reclaim sexual expression and cultural identity in other places.
