Wicked stories, how bellydance started !!!

Maria_Aya

Maria_Aya

New member
Hi there !!!

Taking the idea from a comment our dear Aisha Azar posted over my Greek Ancient Bellydance Costume, lol, I have to say this:

I've heard many many crazy stories about how bellydance started, but for me as a greek the most crazy is the one that says that started from ancient Greece.

The fact that at that era the "fashion" lol was long dresses and covering veils (heyyyyy we are speaking 2.500 years ago, the poor girls could not have jeans and jackets, no sewing machins dohhhh lol) doesnt make it bellydance.

Equal ridiculus I find the idea of re-birthing greek ancient dance, that nobody have seen (pass me the DVD of Venus honey lol) we dont know the music, and we only have images from art pieces. But from these things (on my opinion and my university teachers opinion) we dont know how a dance was.

So lets share the things we have listened all these years about HOW bellydance started.

Maria Aya:cool:
 
Moon

Moon

New member
Well I heard ofcourse what most people hear (and still believe and what I also used to believe when I was a child) that bellydance was originally danced by harem girls to seduce the sultan.

And other stuff I heard was something about ancient female birth rituals.
 
K

KuteNurse

New member
According to an older version of the World Excyclopedia, belly dancing was not done in front of men, but women danced for one another in celebration. I thought that was really interesting.
 
da Sage

da Sage

New member
wicked story #4

Bellydance started when poor women danced in the markets of Egypt to attract wealthy husbands!:lol:
 
M

M&Mbelly

New member
Child Birth

I am not sure either, but I just started taking belly dancing courses for exercise because I want to get pregnant soon. I read that it is good for pregnant women to belly dance, of course it has to be discussed with a doctor also.

Anyways, my bellydancing instructor told me that it originated for childbirth and not for being sexy or prostitution. I am only saying what my instructor told me.
 
Amanda (was Aziyade)

Amanda (was Aziyade)

Well-known member
Carolyn of IAMED told me one she'd heard and I think it was about the most stupid thing I've ever heard.

The shimmy was invented by walking across the hot sand barefoot.

:rolleyes:
 
Moon

Moon

New member
M&Mbelly, I think bellydance is good for pregnant woman, but I'm not sure if it has originated for childbirth. Your instructure is right is was not about being sexy!

Aziyade, ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!! :lol::lol::lol:
 
Marisha

Marisha

New member
So, you want to tell me that belly dance was not actually started when a woman was giving chilbirth on hot sand while seducing a sultan at a bazaar while imitating various animals such as snakes and envoking Greek and Egyptian goddesses at the same time?!:D...just kidding
Here's a link to a facinating article written by Morocco
Welcome to Morocco's Meanderings
Marisha
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
:lol: :lol: :lol:

1. Belly dance evolved from religious temple dances (don't ask me what religion or what temple, I don't know)

2. Belly dance was a way of casting spells.

3. Belly dance was an ancient form of hiphop done to entertain ancient Pharaohs who were into rap (okay, I made that one up, but the other two came from somewhere else).
 
S

Sara

New member
I used to think that only girl genies could do it when you rubbed the lamp and they came out singing and dancing. Then you got the wish and that's how people saw it and started to copy it (I think that might have been from Aladdin. I was young at the time obviously. I'd say about 17 :lol: )
 
Kharmine

Kharmine

New member
By women for themselves, as well as others, for the joy and pure fun of it -- people, after all, have just gotta dance if they got any sense of tune at all.

I've read and heard that some of the specific movements developed as exercise for childbirth, and I believe that because at least two dancers have told me it gave 'em such strong, flexible muscles they popped their kids out in no time!
 
Ariella

Ariella

New member
While the origins of bellydance may be uncertain, I think it's safe to say that it eases childbirth. I've never experienced this myself, but I've heard this from dancers and doctors alike. To all the moms out there: do you think bellydance made child carrying/childbirth easier for you? To all the fathers: do you think that bellydance made child carrying/childbirth easier on the mom?
 
sedoniaraqs

sedoniaraqs

New member
A dancer I knew apparently told a newspaper reporter that one theory about the origin of belly dance involved women on a slave block who were made to dance but could only do torso movements because their hands and feet were bound:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

A dancer who is up and coming in the US workshop circuit told 50 people in a worksho that the 3/4 shimmy walk was because the sand was hot. In the very next sentence, she told us how important it was to "know the culture". I had to lose alot of respect for this dancer. She has a good mentor and should know better.

Sedonia
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
I used to go to to the beach on the Texas coast in the summers, and any "walking" I did across hot sand involved a dead run, long leaps, and a loud shriek of relief upon reaching the shade or the gulf. The shimmy I learned from my dog who liked to take swims in the gulf and shimmy himself dry on anyone in the vicinity. Soooo- belly dance originated with dogs, right?
 
Maria_Aya

Maria_Aya

New member
Ohh my, just remembered the first story I had heard about Khaleege.

"The women in the harem, when they are caught "cheating" they spin their head for last time, to show their beautifull hair, just before a) they shave their hair, b) throw them in the river"

:shok:

Maria Aya
 
Moon

Moon

New member
Oh yes definitely Shanazel! It originated in the shower, because I like to shake my body when I finished showering :lol:
 
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