The Herstory of Bellydance
What Bellydancing means to me
P.M. Staunton
Belly dance predates the spoken language. Before communicating with words we used our bodies to 'speak', in the present day human communication is still primarily through the body. Primal belly dance encapsulated the spiritual and metaphysical processes associated with creation and procreation. Fertility dances of old involved the belly, the place of creation of the unborn child. Through dance, people tuned into the rhythms and pulses of the universe. Dancing like this expresses the human longing to reach out beyond the confines of the ego and the personal body, to connect with the universal body of the great mother.
Some of the abdominal movements in belly dancing are designed to emulate the abdominal contractions of a birthing woman. It is widely documented how the dance functions to facilitate an easy childbirth and subsequent recovery. Belly dance as a birth dance relates it to religions of the ancient matriarchal societies. These cultures celebrated the fertility of women, animals and the earth. The body, particularly a woman's body was divine.
During the matriarchal period of human herstory, women and reproductive processes were regarded with awe. A woman's conception was believed to be caused by divine forces. The conclusion was that procreation was a supernatural and magical event. The first Temples to honour the divine were dedicated to the Goddesses and served by priestesses. The priestesses danced for the goddess and united with her through the dance. The women were channels for the flow of goddess energy, which was transmitted to the temples congregation. The dancing priestesses marked the transition of cult dance to religious dance.
Belly dance is an exploration of women's power, light and dark. It has been described as the dance of life and death. Because of this phenomena many people have strong reactions to it. The negative feelings are reflective of the unsaid societal norms of what constitutes normal female behaviour. Belly dance also contains many seemingly contradictory elements (E.g. power and femininity. Softness and strength, innocence and experience.) The reconciliation of opposites constitutes much of the Goddess religions that the dance celerbrates.
In mythology we can clearly see how the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy is expressed in mythological themes. We see stories of Goddesses being slain or transmutating into men. Many rituals of the great mother did survive after the inception of patriarchy. Many symbols were adapted and given new interpretations for the new male mythologies. At this time sacred women's dances began to take on new meanings the new emerging beliefs repressed the rituals that belonged to the old ideologies. This is how belly dance died in many places. In other parts (usually in more sex segregated places.) it has remained as way for women's social cohesion, entertainment, and artistic expression.
With the development of patriarchy came the separation of mind and body. It is this mistaken belief in separateness that prevents the worship of the body as a spiritual vehicle. In the final analysis every molecule is imbued with the life force of the Goddess. Dance is a deep and primal description of the sub atomic dance of life. In the 'Tao of Physics' Kapra shows an ancient Indian picture describing the dance of Shiva. Amazingly the patterns around the figure described exactly the pathways of subatomic particles that have only recently been discovered due to technological advances. All matter is in a perpetual state of movement. Dance is a metaphor for life. Belly dance with its circles, spirals and figure-eight configurations describes life at its universal cataclysmic inception. Dance in its truest form is an expression of the life force. When we dance we are always in the present moment the now. We can realise that life is spiritual and we don't have to wait till we die to become spiritual entities.