In spite of being officially banned, that is to say dancing by women in public in Egypt and all the various strict costuming laws the Egyptian Cabaret Belly Dance really flourished after the 2nd world war. 

According to the French magazine Jane A Frique, describing Egyptian belly-dancer Fifui Abdou as the most famous belly-dancer in Egypt, said that Abdou, 50, had become a towering figure and her fame challenged even the pyramids.

The magazine, issued last week, disclosed that Abdou has made 1.3 million US dollars in the past three years and the tax collectors succeeded in getting 15 percent of these proceeds.

One dancer is rumored to be so wealthy that she installed a lift in her home expressly to bring her car upstairs.

Egypt's 12 most famous belly dancers, led by Fifi Abdou and Dina, contributed the equivalent of $264 million in taxes to state coffers in 1995.

One report said their tax payments constituted the country's fifth biggest source of revenue after the Suez canal, tourism, petrol and cotton.

According to statistics released by the tax authorities in 1995, Egypt with its population of 62 million, has one belly dancer for every 5,000 inhabitants.

At its peak the dancers had huge orchestras sometimes over 40 musicians with pieces specifically composed for the dancers. In the years after WW2, the oil wealth and the Shah of Iran westernizing Iran, had the effect of creating a very wealthy set that would frequent the top hotels and 5 star establishments and sit and watch and appreciate the dancers. 

Meanwhile post war Europeans were fascinated by all this. Many including Suriya Helal were deeply inspired by the dancing and wowed to bring it to the West. These people started the movement vocabulary of Belly dance though being such a complex art, there was no real agreement or I think even the possibility of one if what the intention was to replicate what the Egyptian dancers did. 

So what was it about this dancing done in this way that rose to such popularity and also arose such a deep fascination with Europeans, Americans and Australians?

I think that there are several strands to the story. One is the character of the Egyptians themselves. Far more expressive, more openly emotional and settings in which these events took place are factors. The live music and even the nature of the music itself. Like a lot of Middle Eastern people the Egyptians are quite expressive physically, talking with their bodies as much as with their mouths. The men particularly have quite an open sentimental side that European men on the whole don't seem to have. The nature of the music allows for a great deal of flexibility in terms of what actually happens live. This is because the music is not dominated by a "horizontal harmonic structure." We are used to songs that have a chorus, verse and a clear beginning, middle and end. Though these structures do allow for quite a lot of variation, for example you can draw out and repeat a chorus or you can cycle around the song several times with variations, the Middle Eastern songs do not have anywhere near the same degree of horizontal structure. The lack of structure horizontally is made up by far greater complexities vertically, by the way the instruments interact and by numerous changes in rhythmic pace. 

All this combined together into a sort of very real, intimate and strong "Phenomenon" that the Westerners were absolutely fascinated by. The belly dancers would work with live musicians and there would be this live sort of "body language" between them and their audience. The men would be quite passionate over the content of the songs, the dancers would express every tiny emotional nuance within the songs with a little bodily gesture of one sort or the other, this would be picked up by both audience and musicians alike, they would work and in the end it would be like a sort of dialogue between everyone. These events would take place late at night and there would be all the time in the world to allow things to unfold bit by bit. Climate wise it would be too hot to hurry anything too much anyway. 

Can this work outside the settings we had in Egypt? Interesting question! Obviously if you had loads of Egyptians, including the musicians, the belly dancers knowing the songs including Arabic, you could replicate the same conditions. But most Westerners do not understand Arabic and certainly don't have that sort of easy going bodacious ness the Arabs seem to have. Interestingly enough I have had some experience in Western settings where it can work! In all places but in Blackpool. These have happened enough times for me to say that I don't think this would work in restaurants with the general public. I have an interesting tale to tell, if you want to know more follow this link Raqs Sharqi in Blackpool.  Obviously the Egyptian Belly Dance style has found enormous favour with the Westerners. The endless fascination of the Egyptian belly dancers has created no end of analysing of styles and technique of each one but failing perhaps to appreciate that we are Westerners, not Egyptians and we are surrounded by very different things and conditions now are so completely different. More would be gained by daring to be different I think!