Abstract
The relationship between identity, nationality and ethnicity has been an ongoing dialogue in the global belly-dance community. This chapter discusses the role of nationality in relationship to ethnicity and identity via the performance histories of the Reda Troupe in Egypt, the Arabesque Dance Company and Orchestra in Toronto, and the Belly Dance Superstars. It considers the representation of identity or its opposite, the appropriated dance form. It demonstrates how the ethnicities of North Africa and the Middle East and the related diasporic community are represented in these performances in terms of movement vocabulary and narrative structure. As such, it examines the historicity of the impact of Orientalism’s discourse.
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Sellers-Young, B. (2016). Belly Dance and the Stage: Nationality, Ethnicity, Identity. In: Belly Dance, Pilgrimage and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94954-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94954-0_7
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