TURKISH TAFFY BELLY DANCERS

Performance for all special occasions

Women have come a long way since the days when veiled, enslaved harem girls performed the ritualistic writhe and shimmy of the belly dance.

Referred to as Raks Sharqi, Dance du Ventre or Belly Dance it has endured since 25,000 B.C. , with the ancient dances of India, Africa, Polynesia and South East Asia showing resemblance to belly dance.  In the 13th century A.D., a gypsy-like people called the Ghawazee left their homeland of India and populated Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon.  On the shores of the Mediterranean they divided, moving north into Turkey and Greece, and south into Egypt, north Africa and Spain.  With them came the dance.

For western women, it is the music that draws them to the dance.  The music inspires certain movements:  a plaintive flute solo makes a dancer unwind her veil and twirl it around herself; an intense drum solo sets her hips shaking;  a rhythmic tapping of the tambourine makes her hips move sharply up and down.  

In our part of the world, the dance is constantly gaining the acceptance and respect it deserves.  This is being achieved by the increasing number of dancers who present it as the art form it is.  It is the dance of the earth and of our sisters.  It is an expression of our souls.