Dining with Duvall: A good day at belly dancing class

Lynn Duvall

A belly dance craze hit the United States with the arrival of dance troupes to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Although dancers from African and Middle Eastern countries performed national versions of the ancient dance, it was the Egyptian troupe that captured fairgoers’ attention. Swiveling hips, unhampered by corsets, shocked the Victorian sensibilities of the time and influenced the nation to regard belly dancers as women of loose morals.

Every 20 years, another form of belly dancing hits the shores of America. Belly dancing is now regarded as an art form, akin to modern jazz or tap dancing. The dance in America has also evolved into an expression of feminine empowerment, international goodwill and a celebration of sisterhood.

Africa, India, Egypt, the Middle Eastern states, Greece and Turkey have all been cited as the birthplace of belly dancing. Support for theories of the origins of belly dancing is rich in colorful anecdote and limited in academic research. No single theory has been confirmed. It is possible that variations of the dance, characterized by circular pelvic movements, were developed in many parts of the pre-historic world simultaneously.

Today in Iran and Palestine, men, women and children dance Raks Baladi, a social form of belly dancing on festive occasions like weddings. Dancers in Turkey use zills, tiny finger cymbals, to enhance their complex, exuberant, gymnastic style of dancing. The theatrical version of belly dancing performed by both male and female Middle Eastern professional dancers is called raks sharqi.

Many American dancers use the raks sharqi form. A unique American style of dancing, created about 15 years ago by Carolena Nericcio in San Francisco, combines elements of folk dance, tribal dance and belly dancing into a fusion stew—American Tribal Style Belly Dance.

Controversy over morals, costumes and veils still prevails in other countries. Egyptian performers’ movements are state-regulated. Women in some Middle Eastern states do not dance in mixed company outside the family home.

The mood among women taking a belly dance class in the shaded recesses of the Japanese teahouse in Glendale’s Brand Park last Saturday morning, reflected the values of the new style of American belly dancing. I saw many missteps but I heard only laughter as I watched the women.