History
The belly dance, as it is known today in the western hemisphere, is only one special form of the oriental dance. The roots are most likely in the traditional folk dances of the orient. The typical belly dance costume originates from the 1920th cabarets of Algier, Beiruth and Cairo. There the belly dance was performed as entertainment.
The term belly dance is not exactly correct as the belly is only of secondary importance. The main movement comes from knees, hip or shoulders. The arabic world calls the dance Raqs Sharqi which means as much as dance of the east. Therefore the term oriental dance would be more appropirate. Never the less the term belly dance is common language.
Pictures and descriptions of women doing the belly dance are known since many centuries. It has to be assumed that the belly dance is originally a fertility or birth dance. Possibly the dance was used to train the muscles associated with the birth.
The costumes changed of the time a lot. Today there are besides the costume described above even costumes with tight ropes or pants.
Typical movements, the costume and the fact that some dancers are performing the belly dance in a salacious way, led to the belly dance often being recognized as an erotic dance.