“Belly dance, (Katayoun) Hutson said, while it can incorporate many of the traditional movements is not considered Middle Eastern dance unless it uses Middle Eastern music, specific rhythms and most importantly for Hutson, retains the blend of power and subtlety that she sees as inherent in the dance forms throughout the various regions.”
D. Bates, Falls Church News Press, April 2005 

The Beautiful Art of Middle Eastern Dance, popularly known as belly dance, teaches grace, flexibility, strength, and coordination, which provide many health benefits. Proper belly dance technique promotes a healthy posture and muscle conditioning that engages the entire body. It is also a mental activity that reduces stress, engages all the senses and nurtures a positive-self image. Belly dancers of all sizes, shapes, ages and abilities enjoy many opportunities to enrich their lives through social, artistic and cultural adventures.

Middle Eastern Dance, also known as Oriental Dance or Raqs Sharqi, (“Dance of the East,”) is the term applied to the traditional dance forms of the Middle East and the Arab World. These may include Egyptian, Lebanese, Turkish and Persian dance forms. Contemporary Middle Eastern Dance is known as "belly dance" particulary in reference to inspired and fusion forms such as American Cabaret and Tribal Belly dance, where elements from various cultures and genres of dance and music are mixed.

Resources & Links

Katayoun's Class Handouts

"These handouts are intended for educational use by students and instructors of Middle Eastern Dance. Please use these documents as they are. Do not make any changes to the original documents. I encourage you to contact me with feedback on the helpfulness of these handouts and any suggestions you may have for improving or expanding them. Thank you!" K.F.H.

Movement Vocabulary of Middle Eastern Dance
The movement vocabulary of Middle Eastern dance is not codified to a common body of knowledge and standards like many western dance forms such as ballet. In its countries of origin it is usually not taught using the western concepts of structure and technique. It is learned as a social dance and those who teach it as a performance art use the “do as I do” format where the student mimics the teacher. It is my understanding that for the most part, it is only when the student performs incorrectly the teacher will to break down steps or revert to other methods. Though there are benefits to this approach of teaching and learning when the student is open to and fully engaged in the activity, most learners, at some point in their studies need a vocabulary of words to organize, process, and later access that information.
Complete article: Middle Eastern Dance Movement Vocabulary.pdf

Egyptian Dance Technique & Performance Concepts: Course Description and Outline 
This course is designed for current and aspiring performers who wish to develop solo performance skills and a sophisticated approach to presenting belly dance as an art form. The prospect of performing for an audience is both a thrilling and stressful experience. At every level, whether novice or professional, a performer must always consider her audience before her own needs. In addition, the venue and the purpose of her performance are also important considerations, particularly when the desire to innovate or push the envelope is very strong. By displaying a high level of skill, professionalism, showmanship and cultural sensitivity, the dancer not only earns the respect and admiration of her audience, she instantly elevates the art of Middle Eastern dance one notch higher in the minds of those who harbor misconceptions and negative connotations of “belly dance” arts.
Complete article: Course Outline-Egyptian Dance Technique & Performance.pdf

Entrance Steps and Concepts
Basic Steps: Three-Step, Step-touch, Simple Walk fast or slow, Variations with pauses, pivots and full spins, Veil
Concepts: Floor patterns and stage dynamics, Making a good first impression, Greeting the audience
Making an Entrance, The Rules
Katayoun’s first rule: Never start on stage.
Complete article: Entrance Steps and Concepts.pdf

Explore Persian Dance, Music and Culture
Persian Dance Music, Vendors, Resources, Dancers and Companies
Persian Social/Classical Dance: Basic Movements, Floor patterns/formations,
Party Trends
Raqs-eh Bandari: “Spirited Iranian folk dance from the Persian Gulf”
Overview: In Farsi, bandar means "harbor." This spirited Iranian folk dance from the Persian Gulf reflects not only close ties with the peoples of the Arabian peninsula, but also tribal African traditions of trance dance, brought to Persia by the slave trade. (Gray, www.silkroaddance.com)
Cultural Context: Bandari reflects musical and dance traditions from neighboring Arab cultures, Persia/Iran, India and Africa. The population on the Persian Gulf originally lived from fishing and pearl diving. In this area Persians and Arabs have traditionally intermarried and produced a unique blend of the two cultures. A mix of Persian, Arabic and African dances, if there was such a thing as "Persian belly dance," Bandari would be it.
Complete article: Persian Dance Steps, Movements & Concepts and Music Recommendations.doc

Raqs Balady: Women's Improvisational Solo Dance
Beledi/Baladi/Balady means of my country. Each Middle Eastern country has its own unique, traditional form of dance, often thought of as more folkloric or rural. A baladi Masri, for example, is a dance of Egypt (Masr) and refers specifically to the folkloric style that is unique to that country. Egyptian Raks al Balady encompasses the fellahin (farmers) and Saidi (the Said region or Upper Egypt in the south) dances.
Complet article: Raqs Balady, Women's Improvisational Solo Dance.doc

To learn more about Middle Eastern dance forms and how you can become involved, visit:

Art of Middle Eastern Dance, The Art of Middle Eastern Dance Shira

Tiraz Dance Network, A Middle Eastern Dance Collaborative based in Norhern Virginia.

IAMED, International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance

Robyn Friend, Ph.D, Persian & Iranian Dance, Robyn's World of Persin and Iranian Dance

Helene Eriksen, Traditional Dances, Helene Eriksen's Traditional Dances of North Africa and Central Asia

Morocco's Meanderings, Carolina Varga Dinicu (Morocco) Casbah Dance Experience

Belly Dance Classes, Salome Production's Oriental Dance Resources

I use these titles for my own practice as well as in the classroom. However, everyone's taste is different. Listen before you buy.

~Practice & Drills Music~

The Dancing Drum
By Issam Houshan
Features the popular Arabic dance rhythms at manageable tempos and lengths, suitable for practice and teaching. Includes three short drum solos of 1 minute, 2 minute and 3 minutes in length, respectively.

Darbouka & Tabla
By Ahmad Nasr
Contemporary instrumental belly dance music featuring strong percussion and the most popular Arabic rhythms.  These are fun pieces that make you want to move.

Fate
By Susu Pampanin, Suhaila Salimpour
Features an almost 5-minute fantastic drum solo great for practice or performance and a 21-minute continuous percussion piece aptly named "Stamina."

Goddess Workout companion CD
By Lee Curreri
World percussion, flutes and strings. This CD is the music featured in Dolphina’s Goddess Workout DVD.  It is not traditional but is good for practice and something different.

Hatsheptsut and Other Dances
By Abed Halami, Abdel Hazim
Arabic rhythms in ethno-tribal compositions. Artist uses Egyptian percussion instruments and Lebanese variations of popular rhythms.

Itneen – Tribal Dance Tribal Drums
By Helm
Arrangements of rhythms from North Africa and the Middle East. Acoustic instrumentation featuring steady percussion pieces ideal for drills.  Some of this music is also available on the companion CD of the DVD/Book gift Set called Art of Belly Dance by Carolena Nericchio through Barnes and Noble.

Raks Zahra
By Michael Cox
New age versions of Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade. Contemporary compositions with classical Arabic flavor, new age original pieces using traditional Arabic rhythms, enhanced with electronic embellishments.

The Sensual Art of Belly Dance, Slow Rhythms and Fast Rhythms
By Ron Wagner
These CD’s are a bit artificial in their flavor and use electronic instruments. Phrasing is unstructured and hard to follow if working with combinations. However, even with its shortcomings, I prefer this set because they offer a steady beat and familiar melodies for engaging practice without complicated accents and changes.

Warrior Goddess
By Fritz Head
Original compositions with soft melodies, world percussion, flutes, and strings. This CD is the music featured in Dolphina’s Warrior Goddess Workout DVD.   Like the Goddes Workout CD, it is not traditional but is great for practice and offers the standard rhythms.

~Music Education & Appreciation~

Bal Anat 
By Ahmet Tekbilek, Ziad Islambouli
Features tribal and folkloric rhythms from Bal Anat's repertoire, a revival of Jamila Salimpour's original tribal improvisation troupe from the early days of belly dance in America. All acoustic instruments. Suitable for teaching and practice as well as short performances of folkloric flavored dances. 

Belly Dance with Kamaal & Anja
By Various Artists
Includes a variety of popular pieces including folkloric, pop, veil, classical and drum solos.

Claude Chalhoub
By Claude Chalhoub
Lebanese composer/violinist blends Western and Indian classical and Arabic music, occasionally mixing with modern influences such as rock and ambient. I love this CD for veil work and listening.

Jalilah’s Raks Sharki: Rhythm Workshop
A compilation of Egyptian rhythms as they appear in popular selections chosen from the Jalilah series by Mokhtar Said Orchestra.

Raks al Akordioun: Adewaya Festival
By Ahmed Nasr Group
Features accordian stylings of Ahmed Nasr and popular Egyptian folk songs including Ayela Tayeha, Salamaet Om Hassan and Bent el Sultan.  I love this CD for practice, but with some editing, a few of the songs can be good for performance.

Rhythm Identification
By Susu Pampanin, Suhaila Salimpour
Features 27 rhythms at various tempos with less to more embellishments. Suitable for teaching and practice.

Rhythms of the Nile
By Hossam Ramzy
Two-CD set includes voice over explanation of origin and purpose of common Egyptian rhythms and percussion instruments. Written script provided. Includes sample tracks with a variety of embellishments and a 10 minute rhythm progression piece featuring all the rhythms. Suitable for teaching and practice.

Rough Guide to Belly Dance
By Various Artists
A sampler of contemporary, classical, folkloric, and percussion selections of belly dance music including Egyptian and Turkish songs from popular artists.

~Performance Music~

The Art of Bellydance: Suhaila's Supreme Selections
By Various Artists
Selected by Suhaila Salimpour, all songs are Arabic classics every dancer should know.  Features orchestral arrangements of best-loved popular, Oriental and folkloric selections of manageable lengths for beginner or seasoned performers.

Aziza Raks
By Various Artists
A variety of Egyptian belly dance selections with traditional instrumentation. I like this CD for practice even though it is highly orchestrated. All of the songs are fun to dance to and are truly Egyptian classics that every dancer should be familiar with.

Belly Dance Super Stars Series
By Various Artists
Selected by the dancers of BellyDance Supestars touring company. Each volume features classical, remixed, contemporary and popular belly dance pieces.

Costumes & Accessories  "Never spend more money on costumes than on lessons."

Inspiring Dancers, Artists and other Gifted Souls

Sohair Zaki, Fifi Abdou and several other famous Egyptian dancers (Link to Yasmin's workshop page, scroll down for dancer bios)

Blue Rose Studio