When I turned 17, I wanted just one thing for my birthday: belly-dancing classes. The dance's beauty, grace and creative costumes, along with its strong connection to Arabic music, made it a natural ...

As belly dancing gains popularity internationally, young Egyptian performers are working to restore its reputation at home, pushing back against decades of stigma to reclaim the dance as part of their ...

It is 1:30 in the morning at the packed Al Rashid nightclub, and the scene is “Arabian Nights” crossed with Studio 54. A private nurse wearing an Islamic veil attends to a heavy-set Saudi man in robe ...

CAIRO, Egypt -- Egypt's foreign belly dancers have been given their marching orders. The government says it wants to protect homegrown practitioners of the seductive Middle Eastern dance form and is ...

How the Saudi influence is transforming Egyptian society. CAIRO, Egypt, June 20, 2008 — -- It was almost midnight at the five-star-hotel overlooking the Nile, but it was far from bedtime. The ...

At a Cairo wedding hall, Russian belly dancer Anastasia Biserova shimmied to the dance floor in a bright, high-slit skirt and an elaborately sequined bra top. She swirled her diaphanous pink shawl and ...

Belly dancing in Egypt faces stigma despite growing global popularity and heritage value Safy Akef, linked to a dance legend, has never performed on stage in Egypt due to lack of respect Choreographer ...