The History of Belly Dance - Where to Start ?

​Many belly dancers are keen to investigate the history of belly dance. It is a fascinating subject and one that can lead you to discover the stories of many wonderful people around the world and throughout time. Here are a few tips on where and how to start:

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Take time to learn how to evaluate your sources.  Historians will always put their name to their research and add footnotes so others can evaluate their sources.  Here are a couple of links that will help you evaluate your sources:

CARP guidelines

J&A Libaries

​The Belly Dance Reader includes an essential chapter by Mahsati Janan called "Reading like a Researcher", which I highly recommend as a starting point.  The belly dance reader is also worth the purchase for many other indepth chapters on history and other belly dance topics.

The Belly Dance Reader

We are very lucky to have historians who have focused a lifetime of work on our dance.  Search out features, books and articles by those with history degrees and an interest in belly dance, and you can be sure they have be thoughtfully researched.  Here are a few of my favorites:

• Andrea Deagon - University of North Carolina, Wilmington - many articles on line and books available through Amazon.
• Dawn Devine - B.A in Art History - Many on-line courses, articles and books available through her web site.
• Shelley Muzzy (Yasmela) - was the staff writer for Habibi magzine and held a B.A. in History and Research.
• Renee Rothman PHD - Publishes  to respected dance journals and maintains a very informative web site.
• Sahra Kent has a long list of qualification and research, but is perhaps best known for her "Journey through Egypt" course that makes belly dance history accessible for all.
• Catherine Scheelar - M.A. Cultural Anthrophogy - Author of "The Use of Nostalgia in Tribal Fusion Dance"
• Barbara Sellers-Young - Dean, York University - Writer of "Belly Dance, Pilgrimage and Identity" and "Belly Dance Around the World "
• Beatrive Parvin - B.A. History of Art - Writer for many belly dance journals.

Barbara Sellers-Young

Renee Rothman

Dawn Devine

Beatrice Parvin

Sahra Kent

Image from Dawn Devine's lecture "The Birth of Bedlah"  

The list of people above is limited to those with academic qualifications in history, but there are many others who have enjoyed a long and successful career in historical research of belly dance.  (Not all belly dancers list their qualifications, my apologies if I failed to credit anyone properly).  Here are some other names you might consider:

• Morocco of New York - Aunty Rocky to many - Her lifetime of research has been poured into the book "Ask Aunty Rocky", which covers everything belly dance not just belly dance history.  As a pioneer of American belly dance, her book may be considered a primary source.
• Shira - of www.Shira.net, the go to web site for all things belly dance. Shira has spent a lifetime collecting and publishing the work of belly dance historians.
• Artimis Mourat - Lecture, researcher and published author. Her credentials are unrivaled.  
• Lynette Harris - One of the founding editors of Gilded Serpent and a curator of belly dance history.
• Abigail Keyes - With an M.A in Dance and a B.A. in near Eastern studies, Abigail is highly respected for her research and writing.  I hightly recommend her book "Belly Dance Textbook: Salimpour School of Belly Dance Compendium Vol. 1"

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Morocco

Shira

Artemis Mourat

Abigail Keyes

Gilded Serpent

In addition to Gilded Serpent, you would do well to look out old copies of Habibi magzine, which is no longer available but issues do turn up on ebay and other web sites from time to time.  Zaghareet magazine sadly ended publication in 2017, but back issues are still available here: 

Zaghareet Magazine

One thing to remember is that pre-movies, (that is before we had moving images), dance could only be recorded through the written word or photography.  If you have ever learnt a belly dance move from a book you will know how difficult that can be !  While a dancer may have been described as "moving like the murky pools along the Nile"... we have no idea if she was layering a shimmy on a figure 8 or doing a pivot turn with outstretched arms.  Before moving images all dance is left to our imagination.  We know there were dancers, and we can put together a list of things we know they did, but we can not see their dance and how it relates to our dance today. 

Finally, I would suggest you leave the internet and library, and try to study with some of the "primary sources" we have access to today.  Many of the pioneer dancers are still touring, teaching and writing books on belly dance.  There are too many to list, but consider who in your area has been dancing for 30 or 40 years, who traveled to the home countries to perform, who created new forms of dance, who studied with the famous names of belly dance... In our search for the ancient history, we sometimes forget that history is all around us.

Image by Misty Dawn Waggoner of The Chubby Girls Belly Dance Chronicles

Misty Dawn Waggoner

Image is of Sara with Afra Al-Kahira, one of her first teachers, reunited at Celebrating Dance Festival 2016.

I would like to personally thank those who have taken the time to teach me about the history of belly dance, most of whom are listed above.  The suggestions are purely my own -  If you have read this article and know of a source that should be added to my lists, please comment below to share a link, or contact me directly.

Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer.

She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US.  She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide.  Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context.    Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching.

Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” was published in 2014.  Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is a stagecraft handbook for belly dancers of all styles and levels.  Both are available on Amazon.

If you like this blog, go back to the blog page, for others you might like including:
Holiday Music for Class
Dealing with Difficult Students
​Teacher Knows Best
Are you Ready Teach Belly Dance ?
Or check out these Hub Blogs including:

"Your First Belly Dance Workshop"
The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance"
"Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher"
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