Belly dance originated in the Middle East and is one of the oldest dance forms in the world. Also known as "raksharqi", it is a solo dance that emphasizes the oriental flavor of abdominal movements.
As a religious ceremony, she first described the endless cycle of nature and human reproduction, praising women's fertility and the mystery of life. This can explain why belly dancing takes the swing of the abdomen as the main action and requires barefoot in order to keep in touch with the land. This dance form gradually developed into a folk art, and eventually became a unique entertainment and performance form widely popular in the Middle East countries, and it is a wonderful flower in the mysterious Arab culture and art garden.
As a beautiful body art, belly dance creates elegant, sexy and feminine dance language through the rotation of pelvis, buttocks, chest and arms and dazzling crotch swing, and gives full play to the feminine beauty of women's bodies. It is a full-body exercise, which can make your legs, abdomen, shoulders and neck fully move, thus improving the elasticity and flexibility of your body. The movement of the arm is very important, it can express the elegance and exquisiteness of the dancer. It is not only a sport, but also a spiritual bond between mind and body. You can be as happy and free as butterflies, waves and running water. When you dance, your inner goddess makes you more elegant, powerful and sexy. It is a dance for women to explore themselves and explore the body and inner world.
Modern Egyptian Caballe schools are very reserved and elegant, and often contain some ballet movements. It emphasizes the control of muscles, and the range of action is relatively small. "Less is better" is their dance philosophy.
Different from this style of Turkish Caballe, "Anything is OK" is more in line with their dance concept, with large action scale and gorgeous and unrestrained. Hip jumping is very common. Turkish dancers usually wear very little, but this is not the requirement of this style.
Lebanese song and dance is a belly dance between modern Egyptian and Turkish styles.
In addition to the above schools, there are many different styles of belly dancing among the people.
Belaidi is an Egyptian country dance and the name of music. When it was put on the stage, it became "Urban Belaidi" with gorgeous costumes. Usually, its clothing is a fitted long-sleeved dress with a belt and an opening on one or both sides of the skirt, which is called Belaidi long skirt. Triangular headscarves are also common accessories.
Kaliji is a belly dance popular in Persia, the Gulf of Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Dancers wear colorful long skirts with gorgeous embroidery patterns, called thobe nashal, and distinctive headdresses. Mainly shoulder movements. Kay Hardy Campbell is an authority on Kaliji dance.
Persian belly dance is different from belly dance in other Middle Eastern countries. It has few abdominal movements, but more graceful arm movements and swinging shoulders.