Customer Reviews

Ancient Egyptian Dances

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Excellent resource on the history, mystery and origins of belly dance. Has sections on purely movemental dance, gymnastic dance, imitative dance, dramatic dance, lyrical dance, funeral dance, religious dance, accompaniments of the dance, dance with musical instruments, movements of the legs, arms, and trunk, costumes of the ancient Egyptian women and men dancers, a note on the historical development of the ancient Egyptian art of dancing, and a note on the Egyptian dances, as performed by modern women dancers.

This nice book contains many interesting and thought-provoking studies on ancient Egyptian dances, being the only book (known to me) on the subject to deal with the same in a wide-range way. The authoress analyses not only relgious or "sacred" dance, but also those apparently belonging to more "profane" aims. She also proffer several hypothesis concerning the movements of certain dances, which is not usual in other treatises. A most welcomed title.

I was expecting a book on egyptian dance instruction, but this book is strictly a book on the history of egyptian dance. As a history of dance book it is excellent. However I found it hard to connect the drawings in the back of the book with the references in the text.