The contradictary forces of globalization and Islamic ‘fundamentalism’ have dwindled the numbers of Egyptian women performing professionaly as belly dancers. Meanwhile, western tourists raised on “Aladdin” and “Jeannie” expect to see the show, so westerners have taken up the slack. The result is a spectrum from vaudville to folk-dance fusion.
The author describes one performance by a dancer from the UK aboard a Nile cruise ship:
“Once performed by peasants with staffs cut from the sugar-cane fields, this 21st-century dance looks less like an ancient fertility rite than a time-warped vaudeville act, a combination of cheerleader baton twirling, a Caribbean limbo contest and masturbation.
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