- "Oriental dance" redirects here. For oriental dance in popular culture, see bellydance.
Musicians and a dancing boy (
bacha) in
Samarkand, ca. 1910
"
Köçek troupe at a fair" at Sultan Ahmed's 1720 celebration of his son's circumcision. Miniature from the
Surname-i Vehbi,
Topkapı Palace,
Istanbul.
The traditional dances of the Middle East (also known as oriental dance) span a large variety of folk traditions throughout North Africa, Southwest Asia, Central Asia (Greater Persia), sometimes also to the inclusion of the Balkans and South Asia (Greater India).
"Belly dance" is a western term properly applied to raqs sharqi, which is the Arabic for "oriental dance", but strictly a style developed in the interbellum period for professional performance in cabarets and the early Egyptian film industry on the basis of traditional Egyptian dance, by Samia Gamal, Tahiya Karioka, Naima Akef and others.
- Raqs sharqi (Arabic: رقص شرقي; literally "oriental dance") is the style more familiar to Westerners, performed in restaurants and cabarets around the world. It is more commonly performed by female dancers but is also sometimes danced by men. It is a solo improvisational dance, although students often perform choreographed dances in a group.
- Raqs baladi, (Arabic: رقص بلدي; literally "dance of country", or "folk" dance) is the folkloric style, danced socially by men and women of all ages in some Middle Eastern countries, usually at festive occasions such as weddings.
- Ghawazi, traditional performative dance of the Egyptian Dom people
- Çiftetelli, Turkish folk dance found in the core territories of the former Ottoman Empire
- Persian dance
- Traditional dance of Central Asia
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