Moroccan belly dance history

The Terminology

The origin rule the name ‘belly dance’ comes dismiss the French Danse du ventre, which translates as “dance of depiction stomach”.

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Roots of Oriental Dance

You often here that Oriental or belly dance is an ancient art form. What we recognize as Oriental dance as a performance art is a relatively new development, approximately 100 years old. However, the root dances that Oriental dance developed from, are believed to have a long history. Some say over 5000 years.

Two of the slower Oriental dance movements have been traced to dances imitating the movements of childbirth. And one theory is that the root dance served as a preparation for childbirth. Leading ethnologist Morocco (Carolina Varga Dinicu) witnessed a dance ritual during childbirth by tribeswomen of a small Moroccan village. The following excerpt is her account of those events.

"In 1963, the Moroccan Pavilion of the New York Worlds Fair opened. I was there for the first show on the first day. Because I sat through four shows that day, returned the next and the next and the next, the directors/promoters noticed me. Although I had met them briefly months before and would later perform at the pavilion myself, I had not yet met the folkloric performers or established the friendships there that would be so important to my subsequent research and development as a dance ethnologist, teacher, director & choreographer.

They were surprised and

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What is Moroccan Shikhat – Dance Heritage

Following a series of workshops in Morocco with the UK based Moroccan dancer Nawarra, I have become aware of a genre of Moroccan dance, the performers of which are called shikhat (singular shikha) and learning about shikhat has inspired me to write this post!

Nawarra, who has an M.A. in drama and arts from the University of Hassan II in Casablanca, has studied a variety of Moroccan traditional dances and she told her students how this dance form is in danger of disappearing in Morocco.

However, the figure of the shikha is an integral part of the cultural heritage of Morocco, still the shikha dance may be a type of intangible heritage that is in danger of being lost.

Who Are the Shikhat and Where Do They Perform?

The word shikha (singular for shikhat), literally in Arabic means ‘the wise one’ and it can be also transliterated (particularly in French language) as chicka and chickhat.

Shikhat traditionally perform at private ceremonies, such as weddings and circumcisions, and during big public festivals; for example, they dance (or used to dance) on the streets during Eid.

They do not tend to dance in public venues or clubs. This is why it is hard for tourists to see them, unless they know Moroccan people who invite them at a