Most of the ordinary public have a clear perception of what a belly dancer is, usually a woman, dressed in a characteristic costume with music that would have a Oriental feel, and do moves where the actual body would be involved. This would be moves that would be of a shaking, bending, undulating, snakey quality and usually in a solo capacity. Most would see the dance as "sexy," but not much more so than some other forms of dance such as Latin and much less so than Samba in a Brazilian costume at the Rio Carnival. Also most would see the dance as having the potential to being extremely skilful, but accept that a lot of dancers especially in restaurants may not be. Because of the name most seem to think that the actual "belly" is the centre of all the action which of course it isn't, hence the "Jewel in the Naval" jokes. Also the public would associate the dance with what is now the "Middle East," which is a phrase that only really applies after WW2. This takes in a broad sweep of many diverse countries and cultures starting with North West Africa with Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, then going Eastwards you have Egypt, then Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, above you have Turkey and westwards Greece. Below you have the Gulf States. Over to the East you have what is now Iraq and Iran and you could go even further and include Pakistan. Most are Arabic but Greece, Turkey and Iran are not. 

Up to now the general public has had a somewhat, almost comedic attitude towards belly dancing, not taking it particularly seriously. The commonest thing that I hear people say to each other "You have the Belly for it" implying that you need to be somewhat overweight and have a large belly. The actual name does not have a particularly high cultural flavour about it, after all belly dance does not have the same ring as Ballet or Raqs Sharqi. The word "Line dancing" sounds somewhat less snooty and cultural than Ballet, but set in that context, belly dancing certainly has a tint of a vulgar and cheap flavour. 

Its got nothing to do with skimpy costumes, dance shows such as Chicago and Burn the Floor have far more skimpier costumes than most belly dancers would wear and even Ballroom Latin would flash more leg than most belly dancers would as would most dancers on every Pop programme and even cheer leading groups of young girls show more leg than belly dancers do. Even the Samba dancers of the Rio Carnival who are more or less completely naked apart from gigantic head gear seem to be held in greater reverence. 

A lot of people put this down with the associations with Burlesque, Little Egypt and the Dance of the Seven Veils play but most of the general public don't even know anything about these things apart from a few seem to have heard of the phrase "Dance of the Seven Veils." 

As you, dear reader, go through the various chapters of this section you may come to some of your own ideas as to why the general public perception is not that great. 

The actual name "belly Dance" is relatively new, coined around the turn of the century and we shall cover that later but the actual dancing itself is far older than that. 

We make a start by trying to define or describe what actually is belly dancing and then start looking at the various labels we could use and how long has it been going on for and where it started and all those questions. 

Looking at things superficially we said that Belly Dancing involves the actual body far more than other forms of dance. Generally if you think of belly dance moves, you think of the hips moving in all sorts of ways, the trunk bending and waving, shimmies and shaking, shoulders moving around and arms doing snakey types of moves. Apart from some aspects of Latin dance in most other dance forms the actual body does not move as much but travels far more in space and legs and arms are used in a far more in a bolder and angular fashion. The belly dancer may snake her hands and arms but the Latin dancer would throw them out, the hip hop dancer will punch with them and the ballet dancer will hold them out elegantly. 

In a nutshell, the impression you would get with most forms of dance is that the body is kept largely still and moves around in space and it is the legs and arms that do most of the work, whereas with the belly dancer the body itself and what it is doing is far more the focus rather than the way it travels around in space. 

Excellent example is Irish dancing where you hold yourself completely rigid, arms pressed down your sides and all the work comes from the intricate footwork and the movement that you make through space whilst holding yourself quite rigidly. 

A lot of the more traditional forms of Ballroom involve elegant travels whilst the body is held largely still. Even if the partner is held as in the Waltz the body is still largely still. The same goes for folk dance. 

In Ballet it is to do with the shape the body makes in Space rather than the way the actual body moves is the focus. IN other words the ballet dancer would make their body take a certain orientation and shift from orientation to orientation, and any movement is to do with the body transporting itself from one area in space to another area in space. 

With belly dance the actual body is doing lots of things and that is the focus. 

My boyfriend reports that he had this very long conversation with someone who saw me dancing and who is very intelligent and well educated, works in local government as a senior public health inspector. 

He reported that he spend ages trying to convince this person that I don't have leved thoughts as I dance. Those who practice hip drops I am sure will report that sex is the last thing you will be thinking of. The body is the body, whether you have leved thoughts or not depends on what is going on in your head rather than what is going on with your body. 

Yes its true there are certain moves such as thrusting the pelvis back and forth that are moves which are involved in sex but in all honesty I haven't seen any belly dancer using these moves. There are those who say that it improves your sex life but I fail to see a direct connection, I suspect that what has improved the sex life is being more fitter, healthier and happier through finding a lovely interest such as belly dance. 

I can make the grand and bold statement that it is normal and natural to move ALL of the body, just look at a picture of a skeleton and if you see dance as MOVEMENT then you will have to give me some good reason why the joints within the body, such as the joints within the neck and spine, shoulders and hip have to move less than the joints within the extremities. 

Some belly dance authorities use the term "muscle Dance" but logically this is a weak argument. You use muscles in all forms of dance, yes in Belly Dance you would use the muscles in a different way than in other forms of dance, but you would not use muscles more in belly dance, just use them in different ways. The Spinea Erectae are used to lock the spine rigid and still in Irish Dance and used to move the spine in Belly Dance so in both cases used, though in completely different ways. 

I then move on to make an even more bolder statement which is that I believe that Belly Dance is the Mother of All Dance! 

If we accept that belly dance is the dance form where the actual body is used freely and there are no moves that are specifically "Non belly Dance" so far as the body is concerned. Yes I know all about different styles but I can't think of any move that is done with the body that would be excluded from the belly dance repertoire. Now regarding the traveling in space that is simply a question of intensity. Belly Dance can involve moving around in space a lot, it does not make it less Belly Dance, only practicalities make it so, ie moving within confined spaces rather than a whole stage. In my group the Urban Gypsies we use some really energetic routines to Klezmer and Cossack music where the group really move around in space a lot and the effect is more from them moving around in unison but people, even the general public, still call it belly dance and that is because they also move their actual bodies a lot, whereas if they didn't the public I suspect would label it as some sort of Gypsy Folk dance. 

So I believe at some long and distant past people would move their bodies in a far more comprehensive way and over the ages different styles emerged where largely the body was then schooled to be more still, and the focus goes onto the way it moves through space. Meanwhile the idea of moving the whole body still remained largely in African Dance and along the edges, influenced by this culture or that, and constantly changing emphasis on different aspects but nevertheless, I still maintain that because in this dance we are free to use THE WHOLE BODY, this makes it the Mother of All Dances, something that I am really proud to be associated with.