American Belly Dance: Authentic or Appropriated?
Date
2020-11
Authors
Moharram, Eamanne
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Description
This paper examines the history and practice of American belly dance with the aim of
determining how true the dance stays to its Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) origins.
It discusses the origins of belly dance in traditional Egyptian dance and how it evolved from
conception to cater toward Western culture and tastes. Though the dance’s creators and first
practitioners were Middle Eastern, its arrival to the United States and to Europe opened it up to
further manipulation and invention by Western artists who favored fusion styles. These
developments resulted in the dance deviating quite heavily from original MENA culture, and in
it becoming yet another example of American and broader Western culture’s tendency toward
Orientalist appropriation and cultural insensitivity