[Sca-cooks] ME dancing

[Stefan li Rous]

De said:
<<< If I remember correctly (as it has been a long time since I read  
up on it)
Most dance movements can be traced back to the 19th century and a few  
to the
18th century. The Cabaret style or "Egyptian" style became noticed in  
the
late 1800s and early 1900s and reaching a height of popularity in the  
1920s
and 30s. I believe there was a woman by the name of Little Egypt that
popularized it.

There was a specific style of dance that was considered sacred from  
other
folk dances found in Persian around the 12th and/or 13th century with
origins from Egypt and I think the Turkish had a "sacred dance" with  
origins
from the orient dating around the 14th century. Whether these two sacred
dance were the same? I don't know. Were these dances Belly dancing? I  
don't
know but others believe they were. >>>

The amount of information and the accuracy of the sources differs from  
region to region. The amount of authenticity in the ME dancers has  
been increasing over the past fifteen years.

I have a pair of files on this dancing, both of which mention the  
"Egyptian" style dancing mentioned above but also go into what other  
info we do have. Remember we don't seem to have much that goes back  
into the 15th century on European Court dancing, either.

Belly-Dance-art   (22K) 12/25/07  "Re-Creating a 'Belly Dance' Persona  
in the SCA" by Rebba (Lady) Esther bat Baruch.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/DANCE/Belly-Dance-art.html

There is a pretty extensive bibliography in this article, as well.

ME-dance-msg      (48K)  5/13/08  Middle Eastern dance, "bellydancing".
http://www.florilegium.org/files/DANCE/ME-dance-msg.html

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****