![]() ![]() In the Ottoman Empire, belly dance was performed by women and later, by boys, in the Sultan's palace. Belly dancers and singers were sent from all parts of the vast Arab Empire to entertain. The courtly pleasures of the Muslim Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs included belly dancing, soirée, and singing. It's from somewhere in this great, ancient tradition of gaiety that the belly dance emerged." In his book, Andrew Hammond notes that practitioners of the art form agree that belly dance is lodged especially in Egyptian culture, he states: "the Greek historian Herodotus related the remarkable ability of Egyptians to create for themselves spontaneous fun, singing, clapping, and dancing in boats on the Nile during numerous religious festivals. Later, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, European travellers in the Middle East such as Edward Lane and Flaubert wrote extensively of the dancers they saw there, including the Awalim and Ghawazi of Egypt. ![]() Several Greek and Roman sources including Juvenal and Martial describe dancers from Asia Minor and Spain using undulating movements, playing castanets, and sinking to the floor with "quivering thighs", descriptions that are certainly suggestive of the movements that are today associated with belly dance. Mural painting of a meeting between Shah Tahmasp and the Mughal emperor Humayun found in Iranīelly dancing is believed to have had a long history in the Middle East. Other movements may be used as occasional accents, such as low kicks and arabesques, backbends, and head tosses. The arms are used to frame and accentuate movements of the hips, for dramatic gestures, and to create beautiful lines and shapes with the body. In addition to these torso movements, dancers in many styles will use level changes, traveling steps, turns, and spins. Some common shimmies include relaxed, up and down hip shimmies, straight-legged knee-driven shimmies, fast, tiny hip vibrations, twisting hip shimmies, bouncing 'earthquake' shimmies, and relaxed shoulder or rib cage shimmies. There are many types of shimmy, varying in size and method of generation. Shimmies are commonly layered over other movements, and are often used to interpret rolls on the tablah or riq or fast strumming of the oud or qanun (instrument). Shimmies, shivers and vibrations: Small, fast, continuous movements of the hips or ribcage, which create an impression of texture and depth of movement.These basic shapes may be varied, combined, and embellished to create an infinite variety of complex, textured movements. ![]() Typical movements include horizontal and vertical figures of 8 or infinity loops with the hips, horizontal or tilting hip circles, and undulations of the hips and abdomen. These movements require a great deal of abdominal muscle control. Fluid: Flowing, sinuous movements in which the body is in continuous motion, used to interpret melodic lines and lyrical sections in the music, or modulated to express complex instrumental improvisations.Lifts or drops of the hips, chest or rib cage, shoulder accents, hip rocks, hits, and twists. Percussive: Staccato movements, most commonly of the hips, used to punctuate the music or accent a beat.The following attempt at categorization reflects the most common naming conventions: Many dancers and dance schools have developed their own naming schemes, but none of these is universally recognized. In common with most folk dances, there is no universal naming scheme for belly dance movements. Although some of these isolations appear similar to the isolations used in jazz ballet, they are sometimes driven differently and have a different feeling or emphasis. Unlike many Western dance forms, the focus of the dance is on isolations of the torso muscles, rather than on movements of the limbs through space. Belly dance is primarily a torso-driven dance, with an emphasis on articulations of the hips.
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