Category: Belly Dance

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The Origins of Belly Dance: A Review of ‘Egyptian Belly Dance in Transition’ by Heather Ward

In this post I review Egyptian Belly Dance in Transition: The Raqs Sharqi Revolution, 1890-1930 by Heather Ward. I recommend it to any belly dance enthusiast who is interested in learning about the roots of belly dance. This post will give you an overview of how belly dance came to be 'belly dance'. I hope it will whet your appetite for reading the full book!

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A Guide to Belly Dance Movement Categories

In this blog post I classify common belly dance moves based on which shape you draw with your body. These are lifts and drops, slides, shimmies, twists, circles, figure 8's and undulations. Knowing how you use various bits of your body to produce belly dance moves will help you recall and reproduce the moves you learn in class or see in a video. Knowing how you use various bits of your body to produce belly dance moves will help you recall and reproduce the moves you learn in class or see in a video. You can improve your movement isolation by knowing which body part you are supposed to move. And then keeping the movement only in that body part. This is so important in belly dance.

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How to Apply Laban’s Planes of Movement to Improve Belly Dance Movement Isolation

What do Laban's planes of movement have to do with belly dance? Let's start with the general (Cartesian co-ordinates) and then make it more specific to the human body (anatomical planes). And then apply it to dance (Laban's planes of movement). By applying these concepts to your belly dance practice, you can improve your movement isolation, a key feature of belly dance.

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