She can shimmy, she can roll, she can backbend. She even sports a teasing, low-slung skirt around her waist. But the performer of these undulations is no fleshy temptress. Instead, she is a ...

EGYPTIAN MUSIC BOOMS through the amplifier at 6:15 p.m. as instructor Leslie Rosen leads her belly-dance class through what she calls a shimmy warmup. She gives gentle instructions every few seconds ...

Debapriya Das spent her childhood in Kolkata and Mumbai, where her fascination with dance began very early. She started training in Bharatnatyam at the age of eight and went on to study other forms ...

Google the term “belly dance” and the first images the search engine offers are of white women in flowing, diaphanous skirts, playing at brownness. How did this become acceptable? The term “belly ...