Arabic Belly Dancing

Arabic belly dancing was originally created as a dance to prepare a woman for childbirth.  Contrast that to traditional belly dancing, which was meant as seduction performed by concubines to tantalize a Sultan. 

The Arabic belly dance was performed by women to cater to women who treated it as a ceremonial custom that was used to prepare a woman for giving birth to a child.

Arabic belly dancing helped a woman use her muscles all over her body as a preparation for giving birth to a child and the abdominal and pelvic muscles played a vital role in this form of dance.

Even when the woman was giving birth to a child there would be Arabic belly dancing performed by neighbors in the pregnant woman’s community in an attempt to get the woman to mimic these movements.

At the present time, Arabic belly dancing is thought of as being a way of celebrating the female spirit. And for the more learned, Arabic belly dancing is an art form much like ballet as well as Broadway-style dancing.

Nowadays, Arabic belly dancing is also viewed as a great way to get your body in great shape.  The dancing involves many intricacies, undoubtedly why the dance is so good for toning your muscles.

The Arabic belly dancing movements are demonstrative and fast though at the same time very alert and controlled and is a popular choice for exercising, being preferred over jogging and aerobic exercises because it helps to strengthen, tighten as well as tone the muscles throughout the woman’s body. Abdominal undulations work on the tummy area while shoulder shimmies help to define out-of-condition flesh on the upper regions of the arm.

Arabic belly dancing is a strenuous routine that takes as much training and practice as do ballet and modern dance as it requires a complete understanding of music, improvisation as well as choreography and is also sometimes performed while playing the finger cymbals.

Arabic belly dancing truly embodies a new art form as well as exercise routine and provides added entertainment when performed for audiences wishing to understand and experience the misunderstood Middle Eastern culturally rich dances such as raqs sharqi which is the Arabic translation for belly dancing.

If you are interested in Arabic belly dancing, look for an Arabic belly dancing instructor who will teach the intricacies of this wonderful form of dancing.

Belly Dancing

The term "belly dance" was coined by a savvy promoter named Sol Bloom, who brought  this Middle Eastern dance to America, as a means to lure the public to the belly dancing events.