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Slithery temptresses or respectable performance artists? For ages, belly dancers have fought against inaccurate assumptions about the nature of their dance. Belly dancing may be a dance form with roots in exotic locales, but it is not exotic dance.

People unfamiliar with the belly dance community tend to associate the dance with stripping, perhaps due to the way that most belly dance outfits expose the midriff and sometimes the arms and/or legs too.

Such costumes might appear "skimpy" and unnecessarily revealing to outsiders. It doesn't help that most belly dance moves and combos involve smooth, sensual motions of the hips and torso.

However, belly dancers consider their work an art form rooted in tradition, a communal activity practiced in some cultures by children, men, and women together and completely unrelated to the harems portrayed by Hollywood. Take American tribal style (ATS) belly dancing, for example. Here the emphasis is on cooperation and improvisation. The dancers often practice and perform in a group, with a leader signaling each move that the others can quickly follow in unison. It's a largely group-based dance (hence called "tribal") that keeps the dancers figuratively on their toes.

As for the belly dance costumes themselves, many actually cover quite a bit of the body, from draping sleeves to long gypsy-style skirts. Even those that don't cover as much surface area might not seem all that scandalous when taken in context. Some belly dancers argue that their outfits are no more scandalous than the form-fitting costumes of cheerleaders and ballerinas and that their moves no more scandalous than those of salsa dancers. Still, somehow the latter groups enjoy a relative disassociation from strippers. Belly dancers expose their bellies so that others can see the subtle nuances of the moves better, whereas most cheerleaders nowadays expose their stomachs to the crowd for reasons unrelated to their movements.

Every art form, of course, will have those who give outsiders reason to perpetuate their misconceptions. For belly dancers, this can range from those who give intentionally racy performances to those who collect tips by allowing the audience to tuck bills into their costume rather than carrying around a basket. However, most of the belly dance community strives to elevate the mainstream perception of the dance to one of beauty and skill that is appropriate for audiences of any age, and fully deserving of those audiences' respect.

Learn more about this author, M. Sparga.
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