Isn Belly Dancing used as a dance of seduction?
Belly dancing, or Raqs Sharqi as it is known in Arabic, is a form of dance thought to be a conglomerate of several dances found in the Middle East and North Africa. The actual term belly dance comes from the French ‘Dance du venture’ or dance of the stomach and is a bit misleading as the dance involves all parts of the body. Some theories posit that it grew out of tribal African fertility dances as the pagan communities worshipped a matriarchal deity and evidence exists that some dances sought to recreate the birthing process and that these dances can be linked to the undulations and sharp hip movements of belly dancing. More from belly dancing singapore.
Belly Dance was originally a fertility ritural. Today, in the Middle East, women mostly dance for other women–for their friends, neighbors, aunts, mothers, and cousins. They use it to celebrate happy family occasions such as weddings and even today in some parts of the Middle East the men’s celebrations are in a separate room from those of the women. For more information on this topic please see our A Brief History of Bellydance page.
