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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.
Set your mind
to dreaming of far away places and exotic cultures. Earth Dancing
is the perfect vehicle to open a new door on how to view the female body,
what it can express, and the power that real feminine sensuality holds.
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