Arabic dance #2

Belly dance is a Western-coined name for a traditional Middle Eastern dance, especially raqs sharqi. It is sometimes also called Middle Eastern dance or Arabic dance. As with any dance of folkloric origin, the roots of belly dance are uncertain. One theory is that belly dance was originally danced by women for women in the Levant, and North Africa. This theory is very popular in Western dance schools because it helps counteract negative sexual stereotyping, but there is no written evidence to support it. The book "Dancer of Shamahka" is widely cited, but it is in fact, a romanticized memoir written by a modern author, Armen Ohanian, published in 1918. In Middle Eastern society two specific belly dance movements have been used in childbirth for generations, but this is not sufficient evidence to prove that belly dancing arose from birthing rituals – the birthing rituals could equally have arisen from belly dancing.