Arab music: dance

Belly dance
Debke
Ghawazee

Guedra
Hagallah
Shamadan

Shikhat
Zar

Dance: introduction

Dance styles in the Middle East

Middle Eastern dance rhythms
Explanation and examples

Dance of the Seven Veils
A European invention (shira.net)

El-Funoun
Website of a Palestinian dance troupe that founded the Popular Art Centre in the West Bank

Dance in Oman
Oman Centre for Traditional Music

The Omani dance of death
Fann al-dan is an ancient dance perfomed following a death. Article by Nasser Al-Taee

Life stories of female entertainers
by Karin Van Nieuwkerk (extracts from A Trade Like Any Other - Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt, 1995)

Cross-dressing in Middle Eastern dance
(shira.net)

Oasis Dance Camp
Dancing holidays in Morocco

Belly dance

"Raqs Sharqi" (literally: "oriental dance") is the name used in the Middle East. The term "Belly Dance" is said to have been coined in the United States to attract people to an exhibit called "The Streets of Cairo" at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

Belly dance
General background and explanation from Wikipedia

What is belly dance?

Roots of oriental dance
By Carolina Varga Dinicu (orientaldancer.net)

A brief history of oriental dance
From social dance to performance art. By Salome (orientaldancer.net)

Music and rhythm
A belly dancer's view, by Ann Sabin (bdancer.com)

Belly Dance Museum
History, plus some famous dancers

ShiraNet
The art of Middle Eastern dance - lots of information

Raqs Sharqi - Middle Eastern dance

Dabke

A line dance for both men and women. The national folk dance of Lebanon, also found in Syria, Jordan and Palestine.

Dabke
History and background (Wikipedia)

The Dabke – an Arabic folk dance

The Origin of the Lebanese Dabke
World Lebanese Cultural Union

Dabke dance of Lebanon & Palestine
"A symbol of national prestige and patriotism"

Mastering dabke footwork
Basic dance moves

Ghawazee

In his book, “An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians”, the 19th century British orientalist Edward Lane gave a disapproving description of the female dancers known as Ghawazee:

The Ghawazee perform, unveiled, in the public streets, even to amuse the rabble. Their dancing has little of elegance; its chief peculiarity being a very rapid vibrating motion of the hips, from side to side.

They are never admitted into a respectable hareem, but are not unfrequently hired to entertain a party of men in the house of some rake. In this case, as might be expected, their performances are yet more lascivious than those which I have already mentioned ... I need scarcely add that these women are the most abandoned of the courtesans of Egypt.

The Ghawazee of Egypt
By Jasmin Jahal

The Ghawazee tradition
(ghawazee.com)

Ghawazi
Historical background from Wikipedia

Guedra

A Berber blessing dance

Guedra
"Dance as community identity in selected Berber nations of Morocco." By Carolina Varga Dinicu (orientaldancer.net)

Guedra: the FAQ
By Karol Harding

Guedra dance of Morocco
By Jasmin Jahal

Hagallah

Originally from Libya, hagallah is performed by the bedouin of western Egypt. It has been described as a wedding dance and also as a girl's coming-of-age dance.

Hagallah
Cultural setting, costumes and choreography

Hagallah
(casbahdance.org)

Shikhat

The name - variously spelled Schikhatt, Shakhatt or Chikhat - means "female sheikhs". This is an erotic women-only dance, originally performed for the bride before her wedding, with the idea of teaching her how she would be expected to move in the marriage bed.

Schikhatt: from sex education to social recreation
By Carolina Varga Dinicu (orientaldancer.net)