Ariadne
Well-known member
Apples and Oranges. You're talking about social dance and Farasha is talking about performance dance. Traditionally it was shameful for Muslim women to perform in public or for pay so it was something done by non-muslims or slaves. Even today we have problem getting support from natives for teaching the culture behind bellydance because said people don't want their names attached to something they consider inappropriate. It's not the western culture influencing them when you can show such a long lasting attitude originating long before colonialism came into the picture. The only exceptions to that I know of are Turkey and Algeria but since most of the publicity came out of Egypt it doesn't really impact the dance on a whole.