Belly dance, or belly dance as it came to be called in the twentieth century, is a new, modern interpretation of the ancient art of dance, whose origins are lost in ancient times. The main movements come from ritual ceremonies associated with the cult of birth and fertilization.
Belly dance history
The prototype of belly dance was known in many ancient civilizations - China, Arabia, Africa and got from there to the ancient Slavs long before the new era. It was here that this dance became ritualistic. It was performed only in the evening and was danced by a woman for her man. The main meaning of the dance was to show that the wife is beautiful, young, desirable and capable of giving birth to offspring.
Several centuries before the birth of Christ, Slavic ritual dance came to the East in Asia along with the migrating Slavic tribes. Here he existed until the 1st century. AD without any changes. And only in the new millennium some dancers began to charge for performance. By the 5th century AD dance from a ritual finally became a secular phenomenon. The cult has turned into an entertaining erotic spectacle. Gradually, belly dancing spread throughout the East and South - India, Ceylon, Japan and even Africa.
By the 7th century, the name "Arabic" was firmly rooted behind this art. And dancers from many countries, including Europe, dreamed of going to the East and comprehending all the subtleties of belly dancing.
Today there is a real renaissance of this art, which has become popular all over the world. Specialists count more than 50 types of bellydance and 8 main schools of oriental dance: Turkish, Egyptian, Pakistani, Botswana, Thai, Bhutanese, Aden, Jordan and many smaller and minor branches. The most popular and widespread are the Egyptian and Turkish schools of belly dancing.
The semantic meaning of dance
It is no coincidence that this fascinating oriental dance is called "belly dance". After all, "belly" is life. And the birth of life leads to the woman-mother. In ancient times, in different countries, this art was associated with the cult of the goddess of fertility. And the dance became thus the expression of the very foundations of life - conception, bearing a child and the birth of a person. All the eroticism of belly dancing, which has been fully preserved to this day, was fully justified and bore a sacred meaning.
In the old days in Arab countries, belly dancing had such a great influence that it could even change the fate of a simple dancer. Girls from poor families could use this art to earn a rich dowry, or even become a mistress from a slave.
Even today, in the Arab countries and the Caucasus, many weddings are not complete without this dance. Through their movements, the dancers symbolically wish the young health, passionate love for many years, healthy and numerous offspring.
The healing properties of belly dancing
For many people, belly dancing is just a beautiful, erotic oriental dance. However, in addition to the sacred and aesthetic components, the dance also carries a health-improving load for the female body. It normalizes the work of the internal organs responsible for reproductive function, strengthens the body as a whole, prolongs youth and has the strongest positive energy.
