Belly dance-Arabic dance-Egypt Cairo

Belly dance ,Egyptian Arabic: رقص بلدى, translated: Dance of the Country/Folk Dance, romanized: Raks/Raas Baladi) is a dance that has its origins in Egypt. 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. The Egyptian style with its traditional Egyptian rhymes is popular worldwide with many schools around the globe now practicing it. Belly dancing is believed to have had a long history in the Middle East. Several Greek and Roman sources including Juvenal and Martial describe dancers from Asia Minor and Spain using undulating movements, playing castanets, and sinking to the floor with “quivering thighs“, descriptions that are certainly suggestive of the movements that are today associated with belly dance. Later, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, European travellers in the Middle East such as Edward Lane and Flaubert wrote extensively of the dancers they saw there, including the Awalim and Ghawazee of Egypt. In his book, Andrew Hammond notes that practitioners of the art form agree that belly dance is lodged especially in Egyptian culture, he states: “the Greek historian Herodotus related the remarkable ability of Egyptians to create for themselves spontaneous fun, singing, clapping, and dancing in boats on the Nile during numerous religious festivals. It’s from somewhere in this great, ancient tradition of gaiety that the belly dance emerged. In the Ottoman Empire, belly dance was performed by women and later, by boys, in the Sultan’s palace. In 1871, Shafiqa al-Qibtia was the most famous bellydancer in all of Egypt’s theatres and casinos, she was admired by the nation and widely celebrated. The modern Egyptian belly dance style and the modern belly dance costumes of the 19th century were featured by the Awalim. For example, many of the dancers in Badia’s Casinos went on to appear in Egyptian films and had a great influence on the development of the Egyptian style and became famous, like Samia Gamal and Taheyya Kariokka, both of whom helped attract eyes to the Egyptian style worldwide. #Belly dance #Arabic dance#egypt #tourism #advanture #travel #cairo #giza