Reclaiming Belly Dance as a woman’s ritual
The image of belly dance in the west is one of male gaze and seduction In the west we know it as Belly Dance and it has a somewhat seedy sexy connotation, but I would like to address that image of the belly dance in today's post. In the Middle East, Belly Dance is called Raqs Beledi (and other variations) meaning folk/regional dance with the word Raqs also translating to celebration or joy. There are a number of modern western dancers who would like to revert the name back to Oriental Dance to move away from the western legacy of the name Belly...