Belly dance research and science

Daimona

Moderator
I thought it could be a good idea to have thread listing various belly dance related research and related scientific publications (if possible, linking to the publications themselves rather than journalist articles about the research). Unfortunately, not much has been done in this topic and there are a lot of unscientific research and wishtory out there as well as very knowledgeable people who don't publish their results, but there are still things that has been and will be done in a more scientific way.

Karin van Nieuwkerk's studies on female artists, singers and dancers in Egypt; "A trade like any other: Female singers and dancers in Egypt" (1995) and "Performing Piety: Singers and actors in Egypt's Islamic revival" (2013).


The newest study I have heard of is the Australian "Belly Dance as an Embodying Activity?: A Test of the Embodiment Model of Positive Body Image" as discussed in this thread.


I know there are more, but I can't remember when and where...
Do you know any other than these?
 

Kartane

New member
Sahra Saeeda's Journey Through Egypt website is a WEALTH of information.

Mahsati Janan is a dancer/anthroplogist.

Shems too and her page has many wonderful links.

I know that several dancers on this forum are also dance scholars. I am sure they will add to the list!

(Oh and for the USA - the 1970s Belly Dance group on FB is doing a TREMENDOUS job of trying to catalog photos and histories from dancers in the USA from the 1970s, & 1980s.)
 
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Shanazel

Moderator
Winter is coming so I'll look forward to curling up in front of the fire with my computer and some online BD reading.

Once upon a time there was a highly educated gal who did a lot of research including some surveys here on BD. I think her first name was Andrea? No, that's not quite right. Maybe it will come to me. Seems like she was doing research for a college dissertation? Anybody with a better memory than mine? (Rhetorical question- who doesn't have a better memory than mine?:rolleyes:)
 

Zumarrad

Active member
There is a lot of new and intelligent research into bellydance, albeit not always in the sciences. Shay and Sellers-Young's edited volume Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism and Harem Fantasy is IMO required reading for anybody interested in the field at a more academic level. Belly Dance Around the World: New Communities, Performance and Identity (McDonald and Sellers-Young, eds) is new and good (disclaimer: I have a chapter in it).


There's also some very good stuff in the two Belly Dance Readers from Gilded Serpent, particularly the second one IMO.

Oh and I love Stavros Karayanni's Dancing Fear and Desire.

Caitlin McDonald did her PhD on bellydance, Virginia Keft-Kennedy did her PhD on bellydance, I did my MA on bellydance, there are a ton of us who have done and are doing postgraduate investigations into bellydance. Two other Kiwi dancers that I can think of have done honours dissertations on bellydance, the most recent looking at injury. Meiver de la Cruz is another name that springs to mind. Candace Bordelon I think. TONS.

The past 10 years have seen an explosion of academic writing on the subject, by people involved in the scene who know what they are talking about - a huge change from the writing by people who knew nothing about the dance, and/or people who knew lots about the dance but little about how to do critical research. I no longer have access to academic databases but I am sure anybody who does could find a lot of new work.

How sad I am that people STILL think little scholarly work exists in this field.
 
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Zumarrad

Active member
Andrea Deagon is a well established scholar who would have done her college dissertations quite some time ago. She's involved in putting out a collection of BD conference papers I believe, and is also publishing articles on GS.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Wow. Thanks for all the resources. I hope at least a fraction of them are available here. Congratulations on your own contributions to the field, Zumarrad,
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Okay, where's the "duh!" smilie when I need it? :doh: There it is. :lol: I've ordered books from Israel and Ireland; don't know why it didn't occur to me that the southern hemisphere was likewise accessible.

Just seems like an awful lot of water to cross, hmmm?
 

Zumarrad

Active member
Okay, where's the "duh!" smilie when I need it? :doh: There it is. :lol: I've ordered books from Israel and Ireland; don't know why it didn't occur to me that the southern hemisphere was likewise accessible.

Just seems like an awful lot of water to cross, hmmm?

Haha I've just come to this - none of these publications are printed in the Southern Hemisphere that I know of. Just your usual America. They are US publications that contain some writing from non US based people.
 

walladah

New member
You know that i owe stuff to the bellydance community

in terms of research and only my blog is already available, with lots of Greek dance style videos (but also several others). I am so busy these days and other conditions changed my schedule for uploading my museum findings. My little thesis for the Turkish Studies dept has been postponed too. But i am working on it.

Anyway, i would also recommend to look for Nisaa's work www.bellydancewithnisaa.com
who does historical research on 19th cent. Egyptian dance.

My recent findings concern Kappadokyan dances. I will post some videos the following days because i am studying this now.

By the way, there is a lot of research on our dance, one section is the bellydance research in the western european countries and USA which is great and very important. The other section is all research or writing done for traditional dances in the Mediterranean which have not been specialised in bellydance but still have information on this dance too (although it is not defined usually as bellydance and the information is not enough sophisticated, and it is usually in local languages etc).

Maybe we can start with this thread here and upload what we find and see what happens.
 
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