The shows often offer the so-called classical style.
The dancers, who move on tiptoe, offer a very intense during the performance while maintaining a posture soft but with control of muscles. Indossano often a mermaid skirts, narrow hips from which to extend their knees on the bottom.
There are also two lesser-used variants, a popular, though born in an urban context and a “folk”, typical of villages.
This variety shows the importance of dance in Egypt: Arab dance in society, which is to mould old, is very deeply felt that in the West and is very common even in private homes, not counting being experienced as real collective phenomenon to celebrate festivals and weddings.
Even Turkey can boast an ancient tradition by proposing a style that differs enough from that Egyptian: changes in fact the music that accompanies the exhibition and changing the very appearance of dancers who show a bearing less showy and more composed, wearing costumes and shoes more succinct with the heel. The movements of the dancers are quite vigorous and include movements on the ground as bending backwards and pushed forward with the sides.
For this reason it is not uncommon for wearing trousers odalisca. The sensuality and magnetic charm of the two styles is undeniable, but contrary to what one might mistakenly think of belly dancing began as a dance to entertain women and not men, in fact there are evidence that in mid-1400 in Constantinople the Gypsy dancers are esibivano for women and not for the sultan.
Some tribes’ Gypsy landed later in Egypt where spread the famous dance ghavazee, performed often with splashy accessories such as candles, veils and swords.
In 1834 Egypt were enacted restrictive religious laws that relegarono of belly dancing to go underground. At that time only to prostitutes (or even men dressed as women) was allowed to dance in public, which has long considered the belly dance as “sinful” giving life to the prejudices that only recently have been exceeded. It was exactly what the period when Europeans began to discover this wonderful dance.