Thread: Book Recommendations

What are your favorite or the best books to read to learn more about the history of bellydance? Not narrative personal stories but actual factual information.

..g.: -Heather

If you want reliable fact, these are my top picks:

• A Trade Like Any Other. By Karin Van Nieuwkerk. The best source I've found for reliable history of Egyptian dance. The negative is that it's someone's PhD thesis, so it's written in academic style, which makes it hard to read. But if you can push yourself to wade through it, it's worth it.
• Looking for Little Egypt. By Donna Carlton. An excellent history of what happened with "belly dancing" at the Chicago Columbia Exposition in 1893 and the next couple of decades that followed
• The Belly Dance Book. Edited by Tazz Richards. The historical section is excellent.
• Ancient Egyptian Dance. By Irena Lexova. Not about belly dancing, but does address the issue of what dance was like in Pharaonic times.

Ones to AVOID if you care about researched fact: Serpent of the Nile by Wendy Buonaventura (lots of pretty reproductions of Orientalist paintings that are fun to look at, but when it comes to the text the "history" has a lot of fakelore) and Grandmother's Secrets by Rosina Fawzia B al-Rawi (I like the anecdotal section that talks about her grandmother, but the rest has a lot of fakelore).

Another excellent book is Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism and Harem Fantasy edited by Anthony Shay and Barbara Sellers Young. It's a collection of academic essays about a variety of belly dance related topics, from a history of belly dance as a performance art (as opposed to something people do at parties) to men in belly dance to issues in tribal belly dance. The essays range greatly in terms of readability; some are densely academic while others are more narrative or even conversational. I highly recommend it.

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Belly-Dance-Orientalism-Transnationalism-Bibliotheca/dp/1568591837/ref=sr_1_1/105-2642592-8593264?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188328833&sr=8-1[/ame]

or

http://tinyurl.com/2mn3yr

if the long URL wraps funny.

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

Another excellent book is Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism and Harem Fantasy edited by Anthony Shay and Barbara Sellers Young.

Which reminds me, I have this book, but I haven't read it yet! I've read one chapter, the one on Egyptian cinema. That one made me want to read more, but I guess I need to find time to do that!

And speaking of Anthony Shay, folks who are interested in the historical context of Reda Troupe and how it fits into the larger genre of folk troupes around the world may enjoy Choreographic Politics by Anthony Shay. I haven't gotten all the way through it yet (the writing style is pretty academic), but I've found it useful in putting Reda Troupe in context. The book's overall theme is about how folk troupes came into being, what their dances represent, what their relationship is like to their country's governments, how realistic their portrayals are of the folk cultures they claim to represent, etc.

I did an Amazon list of books (and 1 DVD) I recommend for the history of our form. The list is called Raqsstorm: Raqs ("Bellydance") History For Everyone Who Cares, and it's includes a number of books already mentioned...

Hope it helps!

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Which reminds me, I have this book, but I haven't read it yet! I've read one chapter, the one on Egyptian cinema. That one made me want to read more, but I guess I need to find time to do that!

Clone yourself; it is so worth the read. I, too, loved the Egyptian cinema chapter, and I liked or loved every other chapter save the one on ATS.

Well worth the trouble, in my humble opinion.

Originally Posted by asim1

I did an Amazon list of books (and 1 DVD) I recommend for the history of our form. The list is called Raqsstorm: Raqs ("Bellydance") History For Everyone Who Cares, and it's includes a number of books already mentioned...

Hope it helps!

Ah, how refreshing to read a list of recommended resources on belly dance history that do NOT include Serpent of the Nile or Grandmother's Secrets! Thanks for creating such a great list!

Thanks for the recommendations! I have been looking and it is so hard to know (via online) what is good or not and I have found going to the book stores and asking I get a really odd and confused look from the employees and they send me to the workout section ,r:;

I really appreciate it!

Heather