Kathleen W. FraserBefore They Were Belly Dancers: European Accounts of Female Entertainers in Egypt, 1760-1870

This book provides an excellent scholarly review of writtings, paitings and drawings by westerners traveling to Egypt in the period 1760 to 1870.. It you are interested in serious research on this dance, this is an excellent book. It not only provides information but provides all the references. As a dance researcher I found it very valuable.

Accurate/ very well researched. I'm recommending it in my next book on the subject.

Turgid and scholarly. Long paragraphs with little regard to the reader in the presentation of what is essentially data, Lots of author references and dates throughout the text. I think the whole book is a thesis and has not been changed to suit a a wider audience.It is full of data/information but is very dry and is definitely a reference book - there is a more dynamic and interesting book for the average - or above average dancer - in there somewhere.The extracts from European travellers are short and not very numerous and where they do appear are not very informative and are generalised. The descriptions of costume are good but is crying out for more pictures and or diagrams; which you could do yourself from the text but what a wasted opportunity to provide detail and interest.The descriptions of choreography or dance movements are vague beyond what seems to be a lot of shimmies (unspecified in type, except in one instance where it is mentioned that shimmies alternate between shoulders and hips) some mention of frenzied, erotic, lewd and lascivious movements and that's about it. A dance mentioned several times 'The Bee' which involves searching for this scary insect in the costume and removing same in sections does not - or cannot because of lack of information, go into details. The descriptions from the audience are just not detailed enough. Arm movements are mentioned and then a whole list of illustrations which are scattered throughout the book (not many or enough) are used to describe commonly used arm movements but you then have to search through the book to find what the author is referring to. Also tiny steps and leaps. That's about it.It may be a very worthy book but is 95% boring and I wish I'd got it from the library. I really don't know how I managed to finish it - I've read more interesting Chemistry text books (which I did my degree in)

Rich in content and historical research. It presents so many sources and I'd say it is the most complete work about the subject of Belly Dance.