The Your Belly Can Dance Magazine offers you interesting articles about everything Oriental dance. You will find articles about dance styles, music, language, costumes, culture etc. I run theme months on the Adelaide Middle Eastern Facebook page, and you will find all the links I have shared there in this magazine in addition to all the other articles I have written.
As a dancer and teacher, I have always found it very important to learn about the culture the dance exists within. You simply cannot learn to move your hips, but not understand why and how if you want to be a good dancer. When I started dancing, I didn’t have access to all this cultural context and information. It made me very frustrated. So, to remedy that, I went to uni, and studied the Arabic language and Middle Eastern politics and culture, before I traveled extensively to different countries in the Middle East, to learn first hand.
You don’t have to do this hard work, you can read these articles, and absorb this information from the comfort of your own home!