Belly Dancing Moves : Middle Eastern Belly Dance History

In this clip, we're going to talk about Middle Eastern Dance. There are many different forms
and styles of Middle Eastern Dance, from many different countries of the Middle East. And
many of them are folkloric dances and traditional dances of each country. There's also what
we call Belly Dance, which is, has become one of the most popular forms of Middle Eastern
Dance. And in the following clips, I'll be showing you some Belly Dance moves. Belly
dance is an ancient art form, steeped in antiquity. There are many different types of belly dance.
There's Egyptian Belly Dance and Turkish Style Belly Dance and many other styles of Belly
Dance. Middle Eastern Dance also encompasses the social and folkloric dances of the countries
of the Middle East. The thing that makes Belly Dance different from many different types
of dances that we might be more familiar with are the isolations of the body. For instance,
we isolate our head, we isolate the shoulders, the rib cage and of course the pelvis. And
then we add these altogether, moving back and forth between different parts of the body;
head, shoulders, chest, hips, and the hips move in many different planes. We have circular
movements. And then we have sharp movements and then vibration type movements, such as
the shimmy.
So we put all those together to make the beautiful art form that is the Belly Dance.