Before They Were Belly Dancers ─ European Accounts of Female Entertainers in Egypt, 1760-1870

With the help of accounts from European travelers, Fraser takes on the task of reconstructing the lives of professional female entertainers of eighteenth and nineteenth century Egypt, and filling in the blanks for the Middle Eastern dance form often known today as raqs sharki or raqs baladi, and belly dancing in the West. Focusing on the period between 1760 and 1870, she aims to provide a meaningful picture of these entertainers, to see them as professionals in the arts rather than anonymous ethnic dancers of dubious reputation, to create an analysis of the contexts of this dance, and, finally, to recreate the choreography. There are 26 chapters divided into eight sections: background; setting the stage; going to the show; the lives of female entertainers; biographies; gossip, hearsay, rumors and myths; building the aesthetic of performance; choreography and performance. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Kathleen W. Fraser has had a varied professional career encompassing magazine publishing, foreign development, human rights education, employment equity, and the teaching of essay writing and dance history at the university level. Her dance-related writing has appeared in Dance Research Journal (reviews), Impulse magazine, the UCLA Journal of Dance Ethnology, and Canadian Dance: Visions and Stories (articles), and she has presented at professional conferences held by Dance History Scholars, Conference on Research in Dance, and the International Bellydance Conferences of Canada. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.