Where do bellydancers originate from?

Question

Random question, but really curious.

Answer 1

No one is able to trace the exact origins of the dance as throughout history little was recorded about dances.  Usually descriptions were from foreign visitors who would not only have an ethnocentric view of the dance which may skew their descriptions but they also do not go into great detail as to what the dances involve or how they were performed.  Most descriptions offered highly ambiguous terms which could be interpreted in a multitude of ways.  Similarly, images such as tomb paintings, reliefs, and other images offer only a single solitary snapshot of a dancer which may or may not be a true pose.  They could be highly stylized or they could be accurately portrayed but we cannot use a single snapshot to be sure.  Could you tell how to bellydance from a single photo of a bellydancer?  Of course not!  You may be able to pose yourself in the same way but would not know how to arrive at that movement nor where to go with it once your there.  Additionally you have no context in which to place the movement.  There are four major theories about the origins of Bellydancing.  The first is what I refer to as the Ancient Origins theory.  This is found in many varioations.  People who believe the dance originated in Ancient Egypt are followers of this theory.  They generally believe it originated from sacred prostitution, goddess worship, fertility rites, and/or childbirth rites (this is a sub theory as well look up the articles by long time dancer Morocco on childbirth rituals in Morocco and the Mid East.).  Some have credited it to Ancient Greece, India, or Even the area refered to as the Maghreb in general (basically North Africa... ie from the Berber tribes).  Other places are sometimes suggested as well.  The second Theory is what I call the Gypsy Migration Theory.  People who follow this theory believe the dance to have originated largely in India and that it spread and changed as the Roma left India and traveled throughout the Mid East and Europe.  They believe that the dance both influenced local dances and took on some of the flavor of the local dances.  The third theory is what I refer to as the cultural blending theory.  This theory emphasizes how the changing of borders from various empires and wars and the mixing of peoples from nearby regions all caused cultures to sort of come together and influence each other.  This helps account for regional differences in style and similarity in folk dances but offers little  clarity on exact locations in which the dance could have originated.  The final theory is what I refer to as the convergence theory because it is where several or all of these theories converge and become a whole integrated theory.  It can be a combination of two or more aspects of the previous theories and emphsises that these various theories all have some truth to them and that they could have been working together to form what we now know as bellydance.  There's a lot more detail I could go into about these but there isn't enough room here on Yahoo! Answers.  Some books/articles  you may want to read or look into for a more in-depth understanding:

*Serpent of the Nile by Wendy Buenoventura

*The World's Oldest Dance by Kay Harding Cambel (aka Meira, the joyful dancer).

*Ancient Egyptian Dance by Irena Lexova

*Dances of Ancient Egypt (original and the revised and abridged versions) by Elizabeth Artemis Mourat

*The Belly Dance Book edited by Tazz Richards

*The Berbers by Michael Brett and Elizabeth Fentress

*A Trade Like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt by Karen Van Newkeirk (sp?) and it's follow up article An Hour For God

*Images of Enchantment by Sharifa Zuhur

*Colors of Enchantment by Sharifa Zuhur

*Grandmothers Secrets by Rosina Fawzia Al-rawi

*Oriental Belly Dance by Kemal Ozdemir

*Berber Culture on the World Stage by Jane E. Goodman

*Middle Eastern Dance by Penni AlZayer

and the list goes on... if your interested in more resources than you could ever wish for contact me through my site listed bellow.  I'll give you web links, videos, more books, more articles, etc...

Answer 2

the middle east i believe

Answer 3

The true origins of belly dancing are not known and hotly debated.  Many theories place it in the Middle East, but Eastern Mediterranean and Egyptian ties have also been theorized (Egyptian theories being linked to hieroglyphic poses).  Then again, theories of it originating in Greece and India are not to be dismissed either.  As a fan and student of dance, I would suggest reading a bit on each theory and deciding for yourself.

Answer 4

Egypt & Turkey mostly, but most of the Arab countries have a version of it. Most of the best dancers come out of Egypt, like Fifi Abdou & Lucy. The real thing is done covered up, not belly showing, & most family members (men too) in Egyptian families grow up dancing at family gatherings (not in public).

My husband is Egyptian & he 'rocks', puts some of the 'Hotel' girls to shame.

Answer 5

MIddle East is a stupid answer.

It's Egypt, and has many adaptions.

Answer 6

The middle east.