A Blog history of bellydance…….Part 6

Part 6- The Recent Past and The Future

Bellydance is an ever evolving, dynamic dance form, so who knows what the future of Bellydance will hold or how the dance will develop.

For the last 40 years bellydance has become an increasingly popular pastime for European and American women and Popular even in Japan and Korea since the early 90's. Various pop artists, in particular Shakira have brought world wide publicity to the dance. Huge touring dance troupes such as the American 'Bellydance superstars' help promote the dance to a new level touring worldwide. ATS and Tribal fusion have come into being, showing that there is more than one way to do something and even in Egypt trends come and go.

In 2003 Foreign dancers were banned from performing in Cairo, for fear of there not being enough jobs for the Egyptian dancers, but diversity rules and the law was changed again in 2005 with dancers from around the world (including Scotland!) now shaking their stuff along side the Egyptian ones. Fresh ideas, variety of cultures and styles all go to ensuring a competitive scene in which the dancing never gets a chance to grow stale.
It is still to be seen what new ideas from Scottish culture may be added into my bellydance repertoire and how Egyptian audiences will respond to it!