Adryanna Shamsa - The Oriental Art and Dance

Raqs Sharqi, which means Oriental Dance in Arabic, is one of the oldest dance styles of the world. Some theories says that it was born in Egypt a million years ago and was spread to the ocident, Middle East and India by the gypsies.

In ancient Egypt women danced to celebrate life, fertility and to give a healthy birth to their children. The Egyptian priestess danced inside the temple of Isis, Godess of fertility, for religious purposes.Nowadays, women in the Middle East and Northeastern Africa dance in special occasions such as family parties, birthdays and weddings.

Belly Dance is fascinating to watch and marvellous to dance. The most important thing is that dancing is a body expression. The dancer does not need to have a certain body type, religion, social level, race or age. Raqs Sharqi can be danced by everybody.

The Oriental Dance practice improves your body awareness and self esteem, which estimulates having a positive point of view of your own life making you accept yourself exactly the way you are. It also helps creativity, making you develop your own style of dancing while you work with improvisation.