Often I have been lecturing in the following situation: the students who came to learn belly dancing did not know anything about its origin and what is worse, they had a preconceived idea totally wrong, what I call the myth of slave dancer and the Sultan.
Due mainly to the movies and television, we tend to think of the dancer belly dance as a girl (or a whole harem) performing a sexual dance to the delight of the Sultan (picture under my perspective is quite demeaning to women.)
Nothing is further from reality.
Oriental dance (which is more commonly known as belly dance), did not appear to cause sexually men or entertain. Oriental dance is much older than Islam, and born for the benefit of women . Benefit both physically (helping to prepare for childbirth and improved recovery and postpartum, among others), psychological and spiritual (very safe and confidence to women who practice it, joy, beauty ... not to say East dance was a tribute to the goddess of fertility, sensuality, a devotion to the feminine).
never forget the response I read once in a magazine about belly dancing that was on this topic a dancer in Morocco. She said: "I can think of several ways much easier to attract a man. This dance is for me." And it really is right: this dance is for us, for our pleasure and our benefit, to express all our sensitivity, sensuality and femininity.
I hope I have clarified this point both those who are students of mine and all those people who may read this blog. It is unfortunate that when people see a performance of an Oriental dancer (and I speak from experience) think they will attend some kind of erotic show. This dance, originally was a sacred practice, and he deserves every respect that we offer.
