Today, male belly dancing is gaining popularity in the world. Someone may consider it effeminate, someone the answer of men to the classic bellidance, but this phenomenon cannot be overlooked. Most people think that belly dancing is exclusively a female form of art, but few people realize that male belly dance originates from the depths of centuries.
The birthplace of belly dance has always been considered Egypt. However, medieval Islam was extremely disapproving of dances and secular (non-religious) music, and the public performance of dances by a woman was generally considered indecent for Orthodox Muslims. But no people can exist without a song and dance culture, because this is a natural human need. Therefore, in Egypt, the nomadic hawazi people were born and spread. Usually this nomadic tribe lived in tents near large settlements. Gawazi women were the first belly dancers, although at that time he was not like the classic Rax Sharkey.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, there was a sharp turn in the direction of tightening the Islamic order, and as a result of this, the hawazi people were expelled from Egypt. Officially, the reason for this was that the women of the Hawaii tribe did not cover their faces. The Egyptian nobility did not want to abandon the usual amusements and the male dancers came to replace the hawazi women. These boys and boys received the name “caval”, which means “feminine”. Basically, the style of their dance was taken from the hawazi. It is noteworthy that in ordinary life, the kawals wore women’s clothing, covered their faces and tried to behave like women.
To date, male bellidance has changed very much, continues to pace the world and develop rapidly. Men master various dance accessories and new performance technique, borrowing from women some elements and movements. Costumes for male belly dance have also undergone tremendous changes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoNDzzRi3N8
