June 2007 Archives

Corrections are always a good thing. Reading this brief article on Sol Bloom, the man usually credited with the term "belly dance", was quite eye-opener. It seems Sol actually called it by it's French term danse du ventre, or "dance of the stomach", and, well:

[...]the public also discovered what danse du ventre meant in English and "dance of the stomach" quickly jumped to "belly dance." Bloom doesn't speculate how it happened, but it would have been an easy start wherever there was a French speaker to translate or a French-English dictionary. In an age when the word "leg" was not commonly used in polite society, it was highly unlikely that "belly dance" would have been publicly tolerated in advertising -- certainly not if the Exposition's management had anything to say about it.

Perhaps even more interesting is his opinion, years later, of the dance:

What artists they were! Particularly the ballet troupe with their great specialty, the danse du venture. People still talk about it … As a matter of strict fact, the danse du ventre, while sensuous and exciting, was a masterpiece of rhythm and beauty; it was choreographed perfection and it was so recognized by even the most untutored spectators. Whatever they had hoped to see they were enchanted by the entertainment actually placed before them.

Almost at once this dance was imitated in amusement parks all over the country. As it became debased and vulgarized it began to acquire the reputation that survives today -- that of a crude, suggestive dance known as "The Hootchy-Kootchy."

Of course, it would have been nice to have more sourcing in the article; the writer references "The Autobiography of Sol Bloom", so I can only presume it all comes from that one source....