BD origins in India

[Kashmir]

Okay - I finally added this to my "Exploring the Heart of Belly Dance" YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJcYZGIjvnc

 

[Ariadne]

Nicely done.

 

[azizaaltawil]

I keep on hearing that bd history has origins in India. I don't see it. At all. they say because of a traditional pose that looks similar to a move done in chiftetelli that bd must of come from India.

1. I don't see how all eastern dances can have one origin

2. I have seen some traditional indian dancing and I still don't see it

can anyone explain this to me. enlighten me. whenever I ask for further proof people act like i can't see that 1 + 1=2 or they become quiet.

I would deeply appreciate the help.

Before I say what I'm going to say myself I want to tell you that a belly dancer named Katya Faris did an extensive study involving the theory that all Middle Eastern People originated in the peoples of India. I'm Arabic and Armenian and though I can't say for sure she is correct I did find her piece very interesting food for thought. This would make peoples of "India" spreading throughout the region thousands of years before Gypsies anyway. I will say that very classical Indian dance that is very hard to witness these days has the same weight shift and circular floor patterns of the most original and old style "Tsifte Telli" belly dance. Most of the modern styles have dancers who are so unskilled in this as many steps have been lost in the age of "The Mass Media" and "fads" - think of what Andy Warhol said about fame and "fifteen minutes" - that I don't think anyone can hardly imagine what I am talking about. I'm doing a video soon and more in general will be shown than people have seen in years that involves the feet not just the upper body, etc. I will let everyone know when it's released.

 

[Kashmir]

I find the theory that Middle Eastern people came from India a little difficult to swallow - unless you mena geographically well before the current population - who have been there many thousands of years and had a common homeland shared with most Europeans. In this case there is no cultural overlap and you may as well say all Middle Eastern people came from Africa - which is true as all humans came from Africa.
Arguing against a common ancestry more recent than Africa is different genetics and language. Indian languages are Indo-European - Arabic is part of the Semetic branch which is completely unrelated.

 

[Shanazel]

Origins and migration patterns of Indo-European people is one of those interminable arguments beloved by scholars who revel in the shouting matches that ensue any mention of the subject. In the dim dark days of the past, a professor taught me that the Indo-Europeans spread to India and not from India. There were undeniably trading routes between India and the Middle East that spread ideas along with goods but I can only speak from experience with textiles and not dance.

Fifteen or twenty years ago, Bryan Sikes wrote a book called the Seven Daughters of Eve about seven mitochondrial lineages that account for the entire population of Europe. It's an interesting idea though he lost me with his romancing of these presumed mothers of the race, giving each one a name and a romantic background story. His fights of fancy earned a widely read book but cost him credibility with everyone who possesses even a modicum of scientific discrimination.

 

[Greek Bonfire]

I've heard a little different in that "gypsy" dances originated in India, then as those people migrated all over, the dances evolved into more Middle Eastern style and those that went the other way, those dances evolved more into what we now know today as the flamenco dances a/k/a gitana dances.

I also read on one Turkish music CD that bellydance began exclusively in Turkey <LOL> On another note, tsiftitelli supposedly originated in Greece, then the Arabs took it with them and called it taxim.

And one last note - supposedly ami originated in the Polynesian Islands and, again, the Arabs (as languages evolve) call it omi, which is still very similar in name.