Why is Belly Dancing\’s History Controversial?

by Mariella Monroe

The history of Belly Grooving is full of controversies. This dance is known to cover a number of centuries together with different places, but not much is known about its origins.

The particular dance received its identify in the Chicago World Fair of 1893, when the popularity of the dance grew tremendously. One of many reasons for this was due to the dispute sparked by the belly ballerina known as Little Egypt. The girl dancing style focused more about the torso and pelvic also it was imitated by other people to such an extent that they protested the vulgar use of her style and blamed others regarding distorting her dance.

The actual name was coined by the promoter due to the diminished attention of people in the Egyptian style dance show. However, the dance was outlawed from the 1950s.

When Belly Dance was introduced in to the U.S., it first appeared around the famous stages of vaudeville and burlesque. The dancing received bad name by it\’s introduction into Hollywood in the form of a dance that was employed by ill-reputed women and damsels who were in distress. It has been found that this particular dancing technique began in the U.S. well before the Chicago World Fair. Nevertheless, it was in America that belly dance received its revival. Quickly, belly dancers were used as big source of entertainment in large city ethnic clubs in the 1950s.

By the 1960s, a large number of belly dancers began offering lessons in the artwork. However, most of the dancers altered the form of the dance in order to attract more learners, and this afflicted the popularity because the dance seemed difficult to new learners. One more reason for the diminished popularity currently was due to the lack of any terminology or standard choreography from the dance.

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