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Talk to many belly dancers today and they'll tell you belly dancing is NOT about sex - it's a dance style meant to be performed by women, amongst women. Rubbish, I say!

There is simply no denying that a good belly dancer is wonderfully sexy. Womanly, usually curvaceous, her body undulating in a glittering costume that shows off all her best features - what man wouldn't be spellbound? And why shouldn't a woman be proud of her ability to captivate every man in the room?

Sadly, in the lands of its origin, the "myth" of belly-dancers as women of easy virtue is no misconception. In Turkey, you'll find several clubs where it's common for patrons to "visit" the dancers after the performance. Some cabaret belly dancers wear costumes that are scandalously brief, leaving nothing to the imagination.

In Egypt, you'll hear plenty of stories of belly dancers who are fabulously wealthy in their old age, thanks to the generous "protectors" they captured in their heyday. It's traditional to have a belly dancer at your wedding, but these days she is just as likely to be wearing a lacy bra and corset, and her performance is more like the stripper at a buck's night than a respectable belly dance (much to the bride's embarrassment). So these days, Egyptian belly dance has such a bad reputation that Egyptian women simply won't enter the profession. Foreign dancers who come to Egypt, innocently hoping to find "authenticity", can get a nasty shock when they find men trying to paw them during their performance or propositioning them after the show. If they don't have a good manager who will choose their venues wisely and ensure their safety, they can get into a lot of trouble.

However, many Americans wouldn't be aware of these realities. Instead, their perceptions of belly dance come from its history in the United States
itself. Belly dancing first became widely known to ordinary Americans as the "hoochy-coochy" dance through vaudeville. It was usually performed by dancers who had little or no authentic training, and often danced in a heavily suggestive manner. I've seen histories of belly dance that ignore this fact altogether but sanitising history doesn't mean it didn't happen!

Fortunately, those days are far behind us.
While there is a handful of performers who still use belly dancing in their burlesque act, by far the majority of belly dancers outside the Middle East today are respectable performers or teachers. Our knowledge of the art has expanded to encompass many forms of belly dancing, including American Tribal, which was created in the United States.

In any case, even though their moves are sensual, bellydancing is just not risque enough to satisfy the sleazy end of the market in today's Western society. Of course, that's not to say that belly dancers can't incorporate strip-tease into their act if they want to. Just ask my husband...

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