Introduction
One of the most beautiful and alluring kind of dance forms is belly dancing. Belly dancing involves various movements, like shimmies, belly rolls, hips movements, undulations, chest isolations, and many others. It also emphasized the hips and abdomen; it is known for its belly undulations, shaking buttocks and breasts, and intricate hip movements. The best belly dancers can ripple their stomachs and swivel and gyrate their hips most beautifully.
It’s joyful but also a reflective kind of dance form. Belly Dancing is soft and feminine, and sensual. Belly dancing is viral in the West. Most metro cities have belly dancing schools and community centers that provide belly dancing classes. It is also a fixture of some Middle Eastern restaurants and dinner clubs.
Belly Dance Origin
Belly dance is a fascinating dance form that started in the Middle East, but today it is performed worldwide by people of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Belly dancing isn’t a new or modern dance form as it’s roots stands for long ages. The dancing is believed to have had a long history in the Middle East. Several Greek and Roman sources describe dancers from Asia Minor and Spain applying waving movements, playing castanets, and moving to the floor with shivering thighs, descriptions that are certainly indicative of today’s actions associated with belly dancing. Later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, European travelers in the Middle East wrote extensively about the dancers they saw there. In the Ottoman Empire, belly dance was presented by both boys and women in the Sultan’s palace.
Types of Belly Dancing
There were two types of Belly Dancing. The first one is a social belly dance, which is also called Raqs Baladi or Raqs Shaabi. It is performed at celebrations, events, and social gatherings by ordinary people in their regular clothes. In more conventional or traditional societies, these events were gender-segregated, with separate parties where men and women dance separately.In the modern era, professional performers dance at the event or learn it as another form of art. In Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Morocco, and unofficially in Iran and Egypt, the art is still celebrated and performed.
Egyptian belly dancing is extensively noted for its controlled, precise movements. The modern Egyptian belly dance style is said to have originated in Cairo’s nightclubs. Meanwhile, in Turkey, the belly dance style is much more lively and playful, with a higher outward projection of enthusiasm than the more contained and elegant Egyptian style. Turkey dancers are known for their energetic, athletics and even gymnastic style, and their adept use of finger cymbals, also known as zills.
And Lebanese style belly dancing is somewhere between the Egyptian and Turkish type of dancing. Lebanese dance takes from the classical oriental dance but still fuses an aggressive, modern edge. There are large steps, backward lean to the torso, turning hip rotations, large and busy arms, and many shimmies. The types of techniques used in Lebanese style dance are quickly layered shimmies and subtle internal movements. They sometimes include kicks, splits, deep backbends, and Turkish drops.
Benefits of Belly Dance
Belly dancing is a non-impact, weight-bearing exercise and is suitable for all ages. Many of the moves require isolations, which improves the flexibility of the torso. The dance is beneficial to the spine, as the full-body swaying moves are there. They lengthen and strengthen the entire column of spinal and abdominal muscles in a considerate way. Also, involving the zills trains fingers to work independently and builds strength. Hip movements reinforce the legs and long muscles of the back.
