When I turned 17, I wanted just one thing for my birthday: belly-dancing classes. The dance's beauty, grace and creative costumes, along with its strong connection to Arabic music, made it a natural ...

Farid Mesbaah, male belly dancer, hopped on a car in Cairo's Shobra district and strutted his stuff. He clanged metal castanets, magically converted his hips into pistons and twirled his head around ...

Mesbaah was performing at the opening of the Old-Time Moon Cafe, a gig that -- along with weddings, birthdays, night clubs and circumcisions -- is typical for belly dancers. Untypical, at least in ...

In a fitness studio in Saudi Arabia, dozens of women sway to Arabic music as they practise belly dancing -- an activity that many feel compelled to keep secret.

Belly dancing classes at Adult & Community Enrichment are providing fitness benefits along with community connection for ...

SEQUIM — Laura Samperi-Ferdig has been studying belly dance since she was 8 and teaching since she was 16. “Belly dance is one of the oldest known art forms,” she said. “Its true name is Raks Sharki ...

CAIRO -- Egypt's top religious body demanded Wednesday a new belly-dancing TV show be suspended for "corrupting morals" and serving "extremists" who could use it as a pretext to depict Egyptian ...

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s vice police on Thursday arrested the owner of a belly dancing TV station on suspicion of operating without a license, inciting licentiousness and facilitating prostitution, a ...

At a Cairo wedding hall, Russian belly dancer Anastasia Biserova shimmied to the dance floor in a bright, high-slit skirt and an elaborately sequined bra top. She swirled her diaphanous pink shawl and ...