Egypt’s Rebellious Bellydancers

Sorry I’ve been out of touch. I’ve been holed up in my cottage researching Egyptian dance history for an eBook I hope to produce next year. Egyptian dancers, and especially women dancers, have had to persevere with great dedication against a frequently choreophobic society. Egyptians have a love-hate relationship with dance, sometimes insisting on its presence as a source of joy and pleasurable expression, but other times repressing it by force. Mostly they seem ambiguous about bellydancers, who are particularly reviled in the downtimes for their public display and titilating performances. Dancers face political, social, and economic hardship for their chosen profession and must constantly adjust to the current mood. This brief article reports on the current defiance of bellydancers in the face of the new revolutionary forces of Egypt.