Why Is Dance Underrepresented in European and North American Arts and Scholarship?

It feels like people perceive dance as a 'lesser' art. This is despite dance being an essential aspect of human culture. In this blog post, you will learn about the history of dance in European culture. And how this history has informed the modern European and North American view of dance as a 'lesser' art, excepting ballet as the 'highest' dance art. Why does this matter? There are so many other forms of dance out there. One is not 'better' than the other. Go out into the world and try them!

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!