Birth Dance

2 Conversations

The Dance of Life


"It is believed that belly dance may be one of the oldest forms of dance and that it developed from the fertility dances of the mother goddess cult. It’s origins are closely linked to fertility and childbirth rituals which, through time, evolved in many different forms." 1


"Belly dance, in its oldest and purest form, brings women together in shared community to exchange knowledge about birthing, self love, self-adornment and sisterhood. The dance's deepest intention is to liberate the pelvis, free the belly and open the heart." 2




1 Introduction

Human beings have been dancing since the time of the earliest civilizations as a way of communicating with our environment and our gods and as a way of marking and celebrating the significant steps in the cycle of life. From the ritualistic trances of shamans to ensure a successful hunt to the energetic acrobatics of royal dancers in ancient Egypt, from the orgiastic rites of Cybele which shocked the Roman senate with the frenzied dancing of the followers of this ancient Turkish hunting and fertility goddess, to the rolling undulations of a modern ‘belly dancer’ – dance has a long and intimate association with how we express ourselves and how we ‘come home’ to our own bodies and our own wisdom.
Music and dance have been venerated and played an integral part of all religious rites from Palaeolithic worship of the Great Mother, to Judaism. Ritual dance was used by ancient communities to ensure the continuity of the cycle of life, and would have been performed for occasions such as birth, death, planting, harvesting and hunting.

“Belly Dance” or more correctly, Oriental Dance (from the traditional Turkish term Oryantal, which referred to the area now known as the Middle East, but once commonly called the Orient), has its roots buried deep in antiquity. The rolling and undulating movements of the abdomen and pelvis are age-old and mimic the moves that a woman must make to dance her baby into the world.

"All the movements are centered around the belly, the creative center for human beings. All human life begins in the belly." 3



2 History / Herstory

Oriental dancing, as the Arabs themselves call it, is one of the oldest forms of dance, originating with pre-Biblical religious rites worshiping motherhood and having as its practical side the preparation of females for the stresses of childbirth. Thus it is the oldest form of natural childbirth instruction. 4



2.1 The Cult of the Earth Mother

There is a growing body of evidence that the distinguishing moves of belly dance date back to Palaeolithic times and the goddess-based cultures that existed then.
The belly and the reverence for it as the "cup (or chalice) of life," is evident in many cultures around the world. Dance was an important and often sacred part of these cultures, and since their most revered painted and sculptured art works featured symbols of spirals, waves, circles, and other patterns found in belly dance, there seems to be a logical connection to the belly dance that exists today.

From the earliest cultures of the Palaeolithic era (50,000 – 10,000 BCE) to the Neolithic Era (10,000 – 3,500 BCE) there is evidence that sacred dance and ritual fertility dances evolved that were linked with the earth mother goddess. The earliest examples in Egypt are from the Neolithic Period:

Each depicted women with rounded buttocks and broad hips, large and heavy breasts, prominent bellies and genitalia, symbolizing the functions of motherhood, fertility, regeneration and abundance. 1


There is a naked image of this earth mother goddess carved into the entrance of a cave in the Dordogne, France that dates back to 22,000 – 18,000 BCE. She is most likely pregnant with bulging belly and pendulous breasts, with her left hand pointing towards her belly and the other hand holds a bison horn, painted in red ochre, which has been interpreted as being the moon. There are markings on the horn which some interpret as representing the thirteen months of the lunar year.

Caves have a correlation with the womb of the earth mother and have been used as places of goddess worship and female initiation into her rites throughout the ages.

The Minoan cave shrines of Ida and Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth and motherhood, provided a holy sanctuary for women seeking protection and mothers-to-be. Some large caves and caverns were found to have contained altars and others became religious centres of learning. 1


The idea of the Great Mother developed into complex and sophisticated mythology around the world, for example the greatest goddess of Ancient Egypt, Isis.

Isis was married to her brother Osiris, who was responsible for introducing religion, law and agriculture to Egypt, and was the god of fertility and resurrection. His brother Set became jealous and killed him chopped up the body and scattered the pieces throughout the land. In her sorrow, Isis gathered all the parts of her husband’s dismembered body and breathed life into him, giving him mortality and rebirth. Osiris then became the god of the underworld. Isis conceived her son, Horus after she had resurrected her husband through the use of her magical powers. In her grief at the death of Osiris, her tears flowed endlessly and became the waters of the Nile. Through Isis and Osiris the continuing cycle of regeneration through death and rebirth became possible.

Demeter, “Goddess of the Harvest”, became the greatest goddess in Ancient Greece.
Demeter’s daughter Persephone was abducted into the Underworld by Hades to be his bride. Demeter searched the world over for her beloved child but could not find her. In her despair, the earth suffered and the world knew winter for the first time as Demeter vowed that no seed would grow again. Until her daughter was restored to her, no corn would grow. Hades agreed to let Persephone go but had tricked her into eating some pomegranate seeds which meant that she had to return to him for part of the year. Demeter transformed the entire plain of Eleusis into corn when Persephone was returned to her, but still mourns whenever her daughter returns to Hades, and so winter falls upon the Earth each year.

Every year the ceremony of the ‘The Greater Mysteries’ at the temple of Eleusis on the island of Crete took place, which celebrated the myth of Demeter’s beloved daughter Persephone. The Eleusian rites were the most important Greek agricultural festival and were celebrated through ecstatic dance.


"I propose that the original Belly dancer was the great Goddess Gaia herself. Her body rolled and undulated the topography with which she would rock and cradle all the new life forms and prepare the way for the coming of humankind. Her watery, sun-lit womb was alive with the glistening of seeds, and fish, and fowl. A vital whirling dance began to the heartbeat of the pounding rains and drumming surf. A dance for the celebration of life!" 5


As goddess-centred religion and matriarchal societies began to diminish and change into patriarchal societies centred around male god figures, much of the significance of the ancient ways was lost, and the dance rituals of women often dwindled or became devoid of their ritualistic and meaningful aspects. The ancient dances that venerated fertility and depicted birth became sensual entertainment for the male audience, and any women involved in those dances were (and still are) seen as less than virtuous.



2.2 The roots of Belly Dance

Belly dance refers to the wide range of undulating movements that have their origins in Arabic, Oriental, African and Indian dance. The often used term Raqs Sharqi means oriental dance and has three main forms: Folk, Classical and Baladi.

Folklore has veiled the true source of the Dance. Nomadic travellers, Pyramid wall paintings, ancient childbirth ritual, dances of seduction in the Harem, the Dance of the Seven Veils, and Goddess worship are some of the theories ascribed to its' birth. Most dancers accept as true an ancient blending of elements from Turkey, India, Persia, North Africa, and the Middle East. 6

The term ‘Belly Dance’ is relatively new (and often frowned upon by dancers) and was coined by Mr. Sol Bloom at the Chicago World Trade Fair in 1893 as a corruption of the French Danse du Ventre (dance of the solar plexus). He brought Middle Eastern dancers and musicians to the Fair and used the term ‘belly dance’ for the first time. The Victorian audience was shocked with the sensuous movements and suggestive name, despite the dancers being fully clothed.

The dance we know today as belly dance can trace its roots back to the beginnings of civilization.



· Egypt

From as early as the 3rd millennium BCE, there are records that the ancient Egyptians appreciated the artistic dancing talents of African Pygmies and brought them to Egypt to entertain and dance in religious processions. One of the most significant movements that the Pygmies used in their dance was the rolling and rotating of the pelvis and abdomen, which “emphasised the abdomen as the seat of all sexual and childbearing activity.” 1

Dance played a very significant role in the life of Ancient Egyptians as there are many depictions of dancers seen in hieroglyphics dating as far back as 4000 BCE, and instruments found in excavations of tombs would suggest that this appreciation of music and dancing continued long into the afterlife.

Dancing women, rotating their hips, attended festivals worshipping Hathor and Bastet, the goddesses of fertility, but by 786-809 AD the female pelvic dance had become a non-religious rite.
It is interesting to note that the word 'Ab' (the root word of abdomen) is derived from the Egyptian word for the soul.

"Ab - Egyptian word for the heart-soul, most important of the seven souls: the one that would be "weighed in the balances" by the Goddess Maat in the underworld Hall of Judgment after death. As in India, the heart-soul was pictured as a tiny dancer treading a constant rhythm in the midst of the body, as Dancing Shiva or Dancing Kali kept the rhythm of life in the midst of the cosmos. The hieroglyphic sign of the ab was a dancing figure."7



· Ghawazee

There are a few ideas as to their origins, but one theory is that gypsies originated from the southern province of Hindustan (now Pakistan) and travelled through India, Spain, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. They are first mentioned in European history in the Romanian archives in 1385 as atsigani.
The gypsy people often made a living as musicians and dancers, and their dances evolved as they integrated the dance forms of the local people into their own culture and they often transformed the local culture with their own dancing and musical style.

Among the many styles of Romany dance, perhaps the most well known is Flamenco, the typical dance from Andalusia in the south of Spain. Other styles are Ghawazee (Egyptian Gypsies), Rom (Eastern European Gypsies) and Tsjengui (Turkish Gypsies). 8

Today the Ghawazee tribe are still entertaining people as they first did upon their arrival in Egypt. Their exact history is unknown, but there is an image of this caste of entertainers on an early 18th Dynasty tomb of Neb Amon. They have their own traditions, oral history and language.
Their traditional costume is one of a fitted coat and voluminous trousers, which emphasise the strong hip movements of their dance. Most of the belly dance styles performed today are based on the Ghawazee style that has been refined or modified.



· Ouled Nail of Algeria

These are another mysterious group of people that have maintained their ancient traditions. They were famous for their jewelled crown (zeriret) as far back as the 6th century BCE. Many of the symbols in their jewellery come from ancient Carthage or Babylon.
The women of this tribe leave their people and perform their dance in order to earn their jewellery, not their dowry as some sources maintain. Some say that they also earn money through prostitution. Under the layers of jewelled belts and caftans, their dance features the danse du ventre, a rhythmic rolling of the abdominal muscles.
Once they have earned enough, they return to their people, with no dishonour to their name, to marry and live according to the Muslim faith.



· Turkey

In Turkey belly dance is called gobek dans. It developed through the influence of many different cultures and continues its long process of development today. One of its origins may have been from the Greeks who participated in esoteric religious rites, which included dancing, throughout their history.



· Saudi Arabia

For Saudi women, the dance itself was considered to be sacred, and not intended to be seen by men at all.



2.3 Contemporary Belly Dance

Belly dance in the West today takes many forms, such as Raqs Sharqi, Baladi, Ghawazee, Turkish, Tribal (a modern invention that takes its inspiration from many different ‘ethnic’ sources) and Nightclub/Cabaret. Many different styles and costumes can be seen, but the one that we are most familiar with is the Cabaret style with the glittery bra and split skirt as a costume.

In Egypt, it is against the law to show the abdomen in public, so dancers must cover this area when they dance, often using body stockings or long baladi dresses.

In California, there is a belly dance teacher called TerriAnne Baglien who has also been a midwife for over twenty-three years, and who teaches belly dance movements to her clients to help them prepare for childbirth.

Because Baglien leads a cultural dance program that includes three dance troupes, she is also able to have dancers from her troupes assist in the home birthing process by dancing. She says, “The energy flow and relaxing effects of music and dance are very helpful. But even more important is the ‘tribal’ feeling that results, the powerful effect of the combined energy of women being together during the birthing process” 11




2.4 Music

Many of the instruments used in ancient times are still used by musicians today, for example the lyre, oboe, dulcimer, and of course drums of various type.

Western music is fundamentally different from Middle Eastern music in that Islamic music is monophonic (it has only one line of melody), has no notion of harmony and is concerned with the complexity of the rhythm, and Western music is polyphonic and has a structure based on the concept of harmony. Listening to Middle Eastern music induces a sense of the eternal due to its hypnotic and cyclical development and repetition, something that is intrinsic to the trance inducing possibilities of the continuous movements of belly dance.




3 The Dance of Life

"Through the seemingly endless succession of mothers and daughters, women became the mortal representatives of the Great Mother Earth, and the movements of their dancing reflected this." 9


As a woman wise in the ways of childbirth, a dancer can also be the means by which young women are introduced to the pleasures of the flesh.

In some Middle Eastern Countries, wedding celebrations traditionally require the presence of a particular kind of belly dancer – one who possesses knowledge, experience, and wisdom – specifically “carnal” knowledge. In Egypt she is known as the “Hannana”. The Hannana oversees the seven days of women’s ceremonies and rituals before the wedding and bestows her blessings on the bride.
11
One of the Hannana’s duties is to entertain the bride with ribald singing and lascivious dancing, and telling her of the pleasures that await her after her wedding night. 10




3.1 Menstruation and general health

Belly dance is a low impact way of keeping fit and supple through all the stages of a woman’s life as the movements of belly dance help increase the circulation in the abdomen and pelvis, and can therefore help improve PMS and other menstrual difficulties.
Iris J Stewart talks about how empowering it would be to have rituals for the milestones in a woman’s menstrual life of menarche and menopause.

"Performance of this dance by women in a circle around a girl as an initiation when she begins her menstrual period is an empowering way of welcoming her into adulthood and the community of women. It alters the prevailing attitude of the menstrual period as "the curse" and instead tells the young woman that she is growing into her spiritual power, into the ability to form her own rituals, to look to experiences of everyday life as her initiation ground. What a powerful difference it would make if girls were raised with a consciousness of their future roles as priestesses for the children they may have. Such a ceremony would be just as beneficial for a woman moving through menopause, a positive initiation into the freedom of the postmenopausal Crone phase. From our vantage point today of having scientific research data and from our ability to compare information carried forward from ancient centers of knowledge, we might conclude that our ancient Grandmothers were practicing an esoteric and holistic approach to health, harmony, and spirituality in this enduring dance." 11


Many women find menstruation and lower back pain is diminished through the manipulation of the hips and spine with the practice of Undulations and Hip Drops. The Camel Walk and Rib Circles and Slides also contribute to strengthening the abdominal muscles. The foundation for good posture, core stability, improved coordination, and supple joints has its roots in the combined exercise of these muscle groups. 12


A Finnish study has shown that belly dance (oriental dance) has a beneficial effect on the muscles of the pelvic floor, an area that needs to be worked by women at all stages of their lives to ensure good gynaecological health:

"A spontaneous increase in pelvic floor activity during oriental dance movements was found among all the dancers (of the study) and delivery had no significance to that activity.
Oriental dance may be a physical exercise worthy of consideration to prevent pelvic floor disorders and keep this dynamic unit in function." 13



Belly dancing is generally performed barefoot, thought by many to emphasize the intimate physical connection between the dancer, her expression, and Mother Earth.




3.2 Pregnancy

Belly dance is one of the safest exercises a woman can participate in.
As the dance concentrates on soft undulating movements and greatly strengthens the abdominal area, belly dance is ideal for pregnancy and preparing for childbirth as long as the body’s limits are respected. The increasing looseness of the ligaments in the body in the last trimester of pregnancy can mean that it is easy to over stretch and cause injury, so this must be kept in mind. As long as the movements are kept soft and gentle they will cause no problems.

Hip shimmies and hip drops are best avoided in pregnancy as they can cause the baby to drop prematurely, and backbends are best avoided due to the changing centre of gravity.

The undulating movement of the abdomen can help strengthen the abdominal muscles in preparation for childbirth, and help to keep the pelvic floor muscles strong. The shoulder movements that are practiced can also help to relieve tension that results from the weight of the growing breasts. The dance can also be a good way to make contact with the baby as it is soothed through the continuous hip circles, which results in a massage through the waters. 14


One great benefit of belly dancing during pregnancy is psychological. Pregnancy is a time of great physical change, and in a culture such as ours where the physical ideal is young and slender, women can suffer greatly from poor self-image. Belly dancing, by its very nature, celebrates the body and can help endow a woman with positive regard for her blossoming body and her creative power.


There’s a wonderful clip of a pregnant belly dancer here, under “videoklipp”:
http://www.stavanger-magedans.com/bildegalleri/bilder.htm


The usual precautions should be observed when starting an exercise program, such as informing your doctor and respecting the limits of the body. The exercise must be discontinued if there is any dizziness, pain or bleeding.
Extra caution should be exercised if the mother-to-be suffers from symphysis pubis dysfunction, gestational diabetes, multiple pregnancy, or any pre-existing medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart or lung disease etc.
The contraindications to any exercise in pregnancy are pregnancy-induced hypertension, risk of premature labour, bleeding in the 2nd or 3rd trimester and placenta previa. With placenta previa, no undulatory work or contractions of the pelvic girdle should be done even early in pregnancy if dance is allowed. Later in pregnancy, exercise must be discontinued because this is considered a high-risk pregnancy.




3.3 Birth Dance

Some of the movements in belly dance are based on the movements of labour and childbirth, such as rolling and fluttering the muscles of the belly. The hip shimmies and hip drops that were avoided in pregnancy are extremely useful during childbirth; in fact many women do these actions involuntarily at some stage in their labour. Studies have shown that a woman that exercises regularly during pregnancy will have a shorter labour.

Belly dance makes use of the breath to accentuate abdominal movements, and to mirror the movements made in labour.
During labour, the woman’s breathing changes from lower abdominal breathing, to chest breathing to panting. Belly dance has developed these types of breathing into individual movements that come together, as in the climax of labour, in the ‘belly roll’.


"In several ways, belly dancing depicts the birth process. It starts with slow, relaxing, hypnotic movements, hand movements, hip circles, hip figure-8s, torso undulations. The dancer learns how to relax her whole body and isolate and move only one set of muscles at a time, belly, shoulder, and rib isolations. After a while, the dance builds up. The climax of the dance is the drum solo, in which the dancer moves to the rhythmic beat of a drum that builds to an intense peak until finally she is totally lost in herself." 15


An important aspect of belly dance is floor work. Symbolically, in the floor work, the woman is close to the earth, which is also seen as the giver of life.
The popular floor work position of getting to one’s knees and performing a backbend is especially good for strengthening and stretching the abdomen and inner thighs, and when it is combined with belly rolls, it is a depiction of the labour process.

"When I studied in Fez in 1929, I was told by my teacher, Fatma, that the danse du ventre was of ritualistic origin, and was, at that time, still performed at the bedsides of women in childbirth. She also told me that in its ritualistic form, men were not allowed to see the dance." 16

Traditionally in the Middle East when a woman gave birth, all the women of the village would gather around her and dance certain movements and encourage her to do likewise
which would ease the birth and strengthen the bond between the women. Having been well practiced in these dance moves since childhood, their muscles were stronger and better prepared for childbirth. The circle of dancing women would help to induce a trance state in the labouring mother and assist her in moving with the contractions of labour.

According to Farob Fidoz, a dancer from Saudi Arabia, the dance was still performed in the less Westernised parts of her country in the 1950’s around the bedside of a woman in childbirth by a circle of her fellow tribeswomen. In this ritualistic form men are not allowed to watch It [emphasis mine]. The purpose here is to hypnotise the woman in labour into an imitation of the movements with her own body. This greatly facilitated the birth and reduces pain from womb contractions. It helps the mother to move with instead of against the contractions. - 4


A professional dancer in New York by the name of Caroline Varga Dinicu claims to have been present at a ‘traditional’ birth in Morocco, by masquerading as a dumb servant. She says of the experience:

"(She) was squatting over the hollow, sweating up a storm. The other women had formed a series of circles, three deep around her. All the women were singing softly and undulating their abdomens, then sharply pulling them in several times. They repeated the movements while slowly moving the circles clockwise.

The cousin would get up and do the movements in place for a few minutes and then squat for a few minutes and bear down. She didn’t seem particularly agitated or in any pain. The only sign of strain was the perspiration that soaked her hair and forehead. We stopped only for midday prayers.

Less than half an hour later, she gave a gasp and we heard a soft thud. She lifted her kaftan and there was a baby in the hollow. She held up her hand: it wasn’t over yet. Approximately fifteen minutes later, another gasp and another soft thud. It was twin boys. They were cleaned with soft, white tufts of lambs wool dipped in cool tea, but the umbilical cords weren’t cut until the afterbirth had been delivered. Then the cords were cut with a silver knife and the afterbirth was buried in the hollow that had received the newborn babies.

While I had been watching her give birth, I could see her abdomen moving underneath the kaftan in involuntary undulations…I asked my "mistress" later if she had still been dancing at that point, or if natural movement had taken over, and she said, "Nosotros hacemos una imitacion de los moviemientos naturales. Ella tenia que hacer esos moviemientos cuando dio a luz porque no pudo menos." (“We imitated the natural movements. She had to do these movements when she gave birth -- literally, ‘gave to light’ -- because she couldn’t do otherwise.")" 17

Interestingly, the Arabic for contractions is Talq, which translates literally as to be free. It is also interesting to note that there is an Egyptian myth that tells of three goddesses attending the birth of a semi-divine child, who were disguised as musicians and dancers. They remark, “Let us in, for lo, we are skilled in midwifery.” 18

I personally had the fortune of attending a birth this year, and so had the opportunity to explore some of the theories of belly dancing during childbirth. The mother had been a professional (modern) dancer in previous years, so was fit and supple and with an appreciation of movement. We practiced circling our hips and figure-of-eight movements during the last few weeks of her pregnancy. During labour when the contractions became so intense that her whole body tensed up with the pain, I began circling my hips and asked her if she could do the same. When she began to move in this way she was able to let the energy of the contraction flow through her body, and found that she could move with the contraction instead of fighting against it. As soon as she started moving, her body became less tense and the pain became more bearable.




3.4 Post-natal Dancing

Dancing can be a great way to re-establish a woman’s ‘ownership’ of her body after pregnancy and “can be practiced as a way to tone the abdominal muscles and to recall the depth of the female sensuality, a sense as an individual that is often lost to women postpartum.” 11
It takes 9 months to make a baby, so women shouldn’t be surprised if it takes 9 months (or longer) for their body to come back to similar levels of strength and fitness as before pregnancy. During this time belly dancing is a way of celebrating a new mother’s extra curves, and can help her come to terms with her changing body shape, as well as helping to heal any physical trauma held in the pelvic region from the birth. Involvement with the local belly dance scene can contribute greatly to the woman’s self esteem at this time, in part because of the sense of community with other women.





4 Conclusion

The movements of this dance form are particularly well suited to prepare a woman for giving birth. In essence, belly dancing is a life and fertility dance… A woman’s body is strengthened by the dance form, which also helps her to relax and give her the baby the space needed to find it’s way out of her body. 9

The underlying connection in belly dance is derived from fertility, birth, and the body as a vessel for life. It is a dance uniquely designed for the female body with its emphasis on the abdomen and pelvis, and is firm and earthy with bare feet connected to the ground, Mother Earth.
Belly dance is an excellent form of gentle exercise for all women, especially during pregnancy, and is the traditional way of preparing the body for the rigors of childbirth.





5 References

1 - Belly Dance: the dance of Mother Earth (2003) - Tina Hobin
2 - http://www.visionarydance.com/HealingDance.html
3 - http://www.visionarydance.com/mother.html
4 – http://www.casbahdance.org/bdance+childbirth.html
5 - http://www.visionarydance.com/BirthDGM.html
6 - http://community-2.webtv.net/hathor2bastet/EgyptianDance/page4.html
7 - The Women's Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets (1996)- Barbara G. Walker
8 - http://www.belly-dance.org/museum.html
9 - Belly Dancing: unlock the power of an ancient dance (2001) - Rosina-Fawzia Al Rawi
10 - Dance as Community Identity Among Selected Berber Nations of Morocco, Proceedings of the Society of Dance History Scholars Joint Conference with The Congress on research in Dance, New York City (June 1993) - Caroline Varga Dinicu
11- Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance (2000) – Iris J. Stewart
12 - http://community-2.webtv.net/hathor2bastet/EgyptianDance/page5.html
13 - http://www.continet.org/publications/2002/pdf/140.pdf
14 – http://www.learn-to-belly-dance.com/dance_GreatMother.html
15 - http://www.thegoddessdancing.com/dance_of_childbirth.htm
16 – Total Education in Ethnic Dance (1977) - La Meri
17 - http://www.casbahdance.org/give2lite.html
18 - http://www.dehara.co.uk/bdfactsancientbeg.htm



Suggestions for further reading:

http://www.thegoddessdancing.com/reading_list.htm

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