Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2023

Abstract

This paper examines the history and development of two Middle Eastern movement forms, raqs sharqi and belly dance, through an analytic lens of Western cultural influence. Raqs sharqi originated around 5500 b.c. and holds strong cultural values in honoring female rites of passage. During Napoleon's occupation of Cairo in the late 18th and early 19th century, raqs sharqi performers split into two paths. Some performers appealed to new norms imposed by French spectators while others refused such norms and removed themselves from the scene to create various movement subcultures. This rift began a theme in belly dance history of subjection and response to Western viewership values and entertainment. Instead of humbly respecting cultural differences and seeking out understanding, Westerners reshaped the perceptions of the dance forms through stigmatization and the imposition of their own cultural framework. This paper analyzes several anthropological and sociological concepts in relation to the history of belly dance, including the “interaction membrane” from Ball State professor Rachel Kraus, orientalism in conversation with Edward Said’s seminal text Orientalism, and Deidre Sklar’s “Five Premises to a Culturally Sensitive Approach to Dance.” In light of these concepts, the history of belly dance illuminates the responsibility of the observer to achieve authentic understanding of foreign movement through mindful embodiment of the form in all of its cultural, historical, and personal significance.

Comments

This Paper was selected under double-blind peer review as one of the best academic papers in dance of by a review committee consisting of members of the LMU National Dance Education Organization Student Chapter, Dance department students, William H. Hannon Librarians, Dance faculty and an external scholar.

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