The gypsies settled in the Middle East, from Persia, now Iran, to North Africa, and in many parts of central and eastern Europe, from the Balkans to Spain and beyond. In the 16^th century England, Shakespeare mentioned them, where they are thought to have arrived from Egypt. I recall myself as a boy in England seeing the horse drawn Roma Caravan traveling down the village street or parked at the fairground.

The Caravans, Gypsy Encampment near Arles 1888, Vincent Van Gogh

The gypsies were not readily accepted into main stream society and were often persecuted, as is still happening in parts of Europe even today.  The Romany retain many of their tribal associations and have preserved many dialects of their ancient language of Indian and Hindu origin.

But here, we are especially interested in the gypsy dancers. Gypsy tribes had a notable presence in Turkey and Egypt where they adopted many of the most ancient dance forms and dance rhythms of their new found lands. And in Egypt, the gypsy dancers known as the Ghawazee, said to mean “invaders of the heart”, were especially prominent, and for several reasons.

The ancient Arabic dance, the dance known in the western world since the end of the last century as the  “belly dance”, has long been, in the world of the Middle East, a special form of folk dance, called beledi,  performed on family occasions, at parties, anniversaries and such, usually within the confines of a private household or living quarters, an entertainment for young and old.  In Egypt, the Arabic belly dance was also performed in public by the Ghawazee gypsy dancers as a means of earning money.

A puzzling circumstance that might be worth raising here
Puzzling because the Oriental dance, meaning the dance from the east, also known as the Arabic belly dance, as well as being the family activity mentioned above, can have another character. In a family setting, the dance is just a dance, I’m sure there are no shades of sensuousness that can be otherwise connected to it by some extreme interpretations. Neither would there be that connotation for the popular involvements of today in our western world where we attend belly dance classes for enjoyment and personal development. But the puzzle remains because of other representations of the belly dance that have prompted so many comments from witnesses who have described some dance performances in the most critical ways, especially discussing their lewdness and overt sexual movements, whatever those may be. Such observations are nothing new, it certainly has been commented on for two thousand years or more, from Roman times to the present day. A case where interpretation really is everything. Perhaps further remarks on this topic should be made elsewhere at another time and place. But everyone who reads this is welcome to comment.

Getting back to the gypsies: it is a long time since the arrival of the gypsies in Egypt and we have few records to tell us how things have changed over the intervening many years but the dances apparently have changed little and thus provide a link with the past.

For the hundreds of years before the age of travel and communication, much of the world was unknown and mysterious for the majority of living people. Slowly the veil was lifted, especially so starting in the latter part of the nineteenth century when artists and journalists eagerly sought out and visited the lands of the Middle East and beyond, from where they reported and recorded the exotic and colorful sights they saw and visited. The world became aware, things began to change.

In Cairo in the twentieth century, the café and nightclub entertainment scene was established with dancers and acts specially tailored to meet the tastes of overseas visitors, eager to see what they believed to be an exotic Egypt and Middle East. It wasn’t necessarily authentic but it had excitement. A little earlier, in the 1870’s, the American author Charles Leyland remarked that most travelers, if given the choice, would rather see the dancers than the pyramids.

The Almeh and Ghawazee, the Oriental dancers of Egypt
Long before there were nightclubs there were paid dancers, skilled in the Oriental dance, the Arabic belly dance, they would entertain at festivals, celebrations, family gatherings and such. There was also a form of public street dancing.

The Almeh
Not gypsies, but more than 200 years ago the Almeh, named from the Arabic, the singular form being Awalim, were important and highly regarded entertainers, singers and dancers, catering to an educated Egyptian society. They were themselves well educated and cultured. They lived as a separate group and as entertainers they were well paid, attending at festivals, celebrations, banquets and family gatherings. They were frequently welcomed into homes and sometimes into harems, the harem being the quarters and resting place of the female family members from which non-family males are excluded.

When Napoleon conquered Egypt, 1798 to 1801, many of the Awalim felt so mistreated and disrespected by the French troops, they left the city of Cairo and did not return until the occupation was over. And the gypsy dancers, the Ghawazee described below, were also treated badly by Napoleon’s soldiers, many of them were killed when, apparently, they were merely being a nuisance as camp followers.

The Ghawazee
Unlike the educated and welcomed Awalim, for the Ghawazee the situation was quite different, they were considered to be of a much lower class. The Ghawazee would not be involved with the higher standing members of Egyptian society. But there were always exceptions.

The Ghawazee were the gypsy dancers of Egypt whose families, even with hundreds of years of history of residence in the country were little accepted by the rest of the Egyptian population. They have remained as gypsies and usually stayed at the fringe, considered as outsiders and tending to live on the edge of their communities.

Apart from their dancing skills, they were often little respected and, in the main, carried with them an unsavory reputation, seen as living off their wits, often blamed as thieves. So they were usually not welcome in peoples houses, as were the Awalim, and even recently, a gypsy dancer lamented how no Egyptian family would allow their sons to marry her. But it should be added that not all gypsy families were poor or unreliable.

David Roberts, 1847 Lithograph: The Ghawazee Dancing Girls of Cairo

Before modern times, certainly a hundred years ago, Ghawazee would travel from place to place. Often superb dancers, they would be hired to entertain for many occasions, often in family teams, dancing the day away, accompanied by their musicians. But they were not normally invited inside homes but had to entertain from a courtyard or outside the building or perhaps in a public place.

The Ghawazee were sometimes hired for less reputable male gatherings with which the Awalim never associated. They also danced in the public streets for money and they have been accused at times of allowing their performances to become a little more risqué than necessary. The words “lascivious movements of the body” have been mentioned from time to time. And the final criticism is that they were, or some of them were, not averse to prostitution. It is probable too that some of the Awalim were prostitutes also.

But those were many years ago and times have changed, there is a whole new influence from the American and Hollywood style of Arabic belly dancing and costuming, picked up by the Egyptians, copied and used in their successful movie industry and until fairly recently there was an active nightclub and entertainment scene that has helped build  star careers for many Egyptian dancers. But now they may be changing again, with a greater impact from religious fundamentalism and also because of the economic conditions of 2009, there have been setbacks.

A final comment on a famous family of dancers
Living today in Luxor, Upper Egypt, there are still a few members of the famous ghawazee Maazin dance family, four daughters, known as the Banat Maazin, daughters of Maazin. Their father often boasted he had four beautiful dancing daughters who would keep him in comfort. He is gone now, only one daughter still dances and that is not very often since she no longer holds a license to do so. And especially because of threats of violence by the religious authorities who have banned women from dancing at weddings. The wedding organizers are now afraid to hire dancers.

But not to worry, there is a lot more belly dancing to be seen in the US on any night of the week.

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From those primitive beginnings, as civilizations developed several thousands of years ago, the formal and refined form of the dance emerged to become what we know today, but retaining some hints of its origins.

The Oriental dance, known in the English speaking western world as the Arabic belly dance or just belly dance, is now mainly the domain of the female sex, whose curvaceous body-form seems so perfectly suited to execute its more graceful and alluring movements. However, male belly dancers have performed throughout history and are well represented in the dance world today. It is known that troupes of male belly dancers performed for the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire and the also performed in public which women were not allowed to do.

Dancing in all its versions, is one of the most ancient forms of outward expression and the Oriental dance in antiquity was considered a classic and respectable art form. But as the belly dance evolved, by its very nature, with its sensuousness and provocative gestures, it acquired a tainted reputation in some quarters where it was easy to exploit the human emotions that the dance evoked and not all dancers were averse to the benefits that might accompany such exploitation.

Most of us in the West have never seen a belly dance, at least not in person, we may perhaps have seen a short segment on TV or at the movies, enough to leave us with the impression that the dance and the dancer means to convey a message of sensuality.

In the western world, because of its portrayal in art, and fiction, the erroneous supposition arose that the belly dance was especially a dance from the harem of a desert ruler or wealthy man of the East. The harem being perceived as a gathering of young females, mostly slave girls, kept there for the pleasure of their owner and guarded to keep them away from the prying eyes or intrusion and temptations of outsiders. And the dance would entertain and please while promoting the performer’s own ambition to gain favor in treatment and preference of the ruler or potentate, the decider of their fate, their master. Master, a word that makes one wince in this modern era, but unfortunately the master-slave relationship still exists in some parts of the world.

In the pre-Islamic period, there certainly were slave-girl entertainers. Some of these, called the Qaina, although slaves, were well trained and very well educated, even in subjects beyond their music and singing skills. The Qaina are mentioned in the famous tale “One Thousand and One Nights”.

In Arabic society it was usual for the women to perform the dancing and singing roles while, quite often, the men would accompany them on the drums.

In the book “Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader”, edited by Ann Dils and Ann Cooper Al-bright, there is an interesting description by Karin Van Niewkerk of a class of professional female performers in late 18^th century Egypt, called the Awalim, who were not slaves. The Awalim were better educated than other women, they had to have a beautiful singing voice, a knowledge of language, and know the rules of poetry such that when called upon to do so, they could, on the spur of the moment, without preparation, compose and sing verses to suit any occasion.

And we should dispel the myths about harem life as depicted in Hollywood movies in which scantily clad females abound. But then, doesn’t Hollywood so frequently take the opportunity to deliver such scenes?

In the Muslim era, the harem, an Arabic word, referred to the living quarters reserved for the wives, concubines, and female relatives of the household. The women would not necessarily have been slaves, though some probably were. The word itself means forbidden, referring to a place where visitors must not enter and the only males who could enter, were husband, sons, brothers and fathers, in accordance with strict Muslim customs.

Harems do still exist, mainly in very conservative Muslim societies such as in Saudi Arabia where they are usually quite small. Even in the last century, harems were not uncommon in many Muslim communities.

But the Belly dance, a modern name applied in the English-speaking world, better referred to as Oriental dance, or raqs sharqi, as it is called in Arabic, pre-dates the Muslim era by thousands of years.

It does seem to have its origin in the ancient Middle East, possibly in Babylon, the cradle of our western civilization, where literature, art, learning, and culture gradually developed. And where there really were many rulers of small towns, cities, and regions, and ancient tales seem to support the general view that women slaves benefited by acquiring skills to sing and dance and provide the entertainment for their “masters”.

But even before that, as mentioned earlier, belly dancing was probably developing as a primitive tribal ritual, perhaps a fertility dance, and similar writhing and body-contorting dances are common in just about every primitive society and are today still a major element in tribal customs and rituals. Some of the slower belly dance movements, it has been suggested, imitate the movements of childbirth and in their earliest form may have served as preparation for the event of childbirth.

Since those early times, dance has been and is now a normal activity for family festive events, both inside and outside the home, at weddings and birthdays and other joyful occasions.

Its performance in public has occurred mainly during the last hundred years or so, and the Arabic belly dance, in Arabic the Oriental dance, is growing in popularity today, performances, demonstrations, and dance classes are offered in many venues, and persons of all ethnic origins are attracted to its many delights and possibilities, as entertainment, as exercise, and  as communication between men and women.

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In Greek myth, the earth was born of dance. A dance in which Eurynome, the Goddess of All Things, danced, danced, and danced, ever more wildly, until the watching serpent-snake Ophion, whom she had herself created, was so aroused and inflamed with passion that  — well you can imagine what happened – and in due time Eurynome gave birth – but what a birth, she gave birth to the sun, the moon, the planets, the universe.

Dancing is the result of the human urge to respond and give expression to feelings of the moment or to convey to others an interpretation of their inner emotions through movement of the body.

In her excellent book “Belly Dance”, published in 2003 by Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, the author, Tina Hobin, tells us that:

“The belly dance, which has survived for thousands of years and is believed to be the oldest form of dance, evolved from the worship of the great mother earth goddess and is associated with childbirth rituals. Belly dance grew out of a combination of fertility cults, religious rituals, magic and secular dances in ancient civilizations inextricably linked to the mother goddess cult.”

It is impossible to discover the true origins of the dance that we know today as the Arabic belly dance, somewhat of a misnomer because so much more of the body than just the belly is involved. There must have been a natural evolution as the centuries passed and as civilization slowly developed in the Middle East where, in Mesopotamia, ancient temple engravings depicting dancers have been found that attest to the ancient heritage of the dance. Arabs had introduced the belly dance to ancient Babylon but when Islam became the religion of the region belly dancing was banned.

Similar to the temple engravings discovered in Mesopotamia, scenes of music and dance have also been found in ancient Greece and in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings. Many centuries later, under the influence of the Arabs who settled in Egypt in the eight century, the belly dance was adopted by the Egyptians and Egypt became a source of innovation in the developing styles and techniques of the belly dance, more properly called the Oriental dance, or raqs sharqi in Arabic.

And influences arrived from other parts of Asia. Historians believe that gypsy tribes, leaving their home regions of northern India, carried their flamboyant and energetic musical and dancing abilities westward into the Middle East, especially to Turkey, adding a gypsy element to the already strong traditions of belly dancing that, in Turkey, has the name Oriyantal Dansi.

And so this ancient tradition lives on, influenced by the styles of different regions but always retaining the basic elements in which the female body is able to express something sensuous and provocative.

In the western world until the 19^th century, little was known by the general public about the belly dance, or other customs of the Arab world, although Orientalists, those who held a scholarly knowledge and curiosity about the cultures and peoples of Asia and the Arabic Middle East, were certainly intrigued by what was being discovered. Artists of the time, called the “Orientalist painters”, found inspiration in the locales and events of what they saw as the exotic and mysterious East.

But the general public’s lack of awareness was countered in 1893 when the Chicago World’s Fair opened in the United States to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the New World. The fair constructed a marvelous exhibit to represent a typical environment of the Middle East that showed the visitors to the fair, elements of the history, life, culture, activities, and surroundings of the then relatively unknown and somewhat mysterious peoples from that region, from the mosque to the market place, from snake charmer to performances of authentic folk dances accompanied by the Beledi Arabic belly dance music and the Arabic belly dance songs of the Middle Eastern and North African countries.

And while the term belly dance had been used before to describe Oriental dance, its popularization is usually credited to Sol Bloom, the promoter and entertainment director of the 1893 World’s Fair, possibly to titillate and attract the crowds to the Street in Cairo Exhibit where, it is said, the Arabic belly dancer Fatima,  also known as Little Egypt, stole the show and in doing so popularized the dance.

If it wasn’t Fatima then it was someone else because it did gain in popularity and versions of the dance were soon being performed in burleque theatres and at carnivals. Thomas Edison made several films featuring the dance, some of which can be seen through facilities of the Library of Congress, and various interpretations became a marketable commodity although some notoriety became attached and censorship applied to some of the more blatantly suggestive depictions.

Now, the belly dance has moved into the popular mainstream of personal development, with a wide range if Arabic belly dance videos available for demonstration and instruction, the dance has become something to enjoy while providing benefits to health and relaxation and an outlet for the human expression – but that, of course, is how it all started out in the first place wasn’t it?

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