Dances of The Middle East
The traditional dances of the Middle East (also known as Oriental dance)
span a large variety of folk traditions
throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Different
regions have their own style of dances.
Ardah
Ardah is a type of folkloric group dance in the Arabian Peninsula. The
dance is performed with two rows of men
opposite of one another, each of whom may or may not be wielding a sword
or cane, and is accompanied by drums
and spoken poetry. Originally, the "ardah" was performed only by males
of tribes of the Arabian Peninsula before
going to war, but nowadays it is done at celebrations, weddings, and
national and cultural events by males of all tribes.
Bandari dance
Bandari dance, a chain dance, is often referred to as Persian bellydance.
Bandari dance is a chain dance that
often involves multiple people dancing and often perform this at
parties, traveling around in a circle and sometimes
stepping into the centre for a solo with encouragement from other
dancers, the only variations are in the arm movements
Khaliji
Khaleegy' or Khaliji is a mixture of modern style and traditional
folkloric dance from the countries of Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The name of
the dance literally means "gulf" in Arabic and
it is performed by women at weddings and other social events. Over time
it gained popularity among belly dancers. This
dance entails rows of women in close proximity to one another who move
in a slow, shuffling fashion while rhythmically
swaying their hair. Women's hips mainly remain stationary while
performing this dance. The costume is an important aspect
of this dance; it is associated mostly with colorful embroidered
garments. Many regional variations of this dance are practised.
