The Belly Dance Reader 2 Paperback – July 29, 2014

If you've purchased the first Belly Dance Reader book, this second one is a must-have! A fascinating read with articles written by dancers with decades of experience bellydancing. This book goes into important history of the dance over the centuries, development of costuming and wonderful professional guidance on performing skills. I bought both books as a gift to myself for Mother's Day and could not put them down!

Amazing book. I recommend it 100% if you want to learn about Belly Dance, its history and facts from different points of view. Not the usual stuff you get on google. LOVE IT!

Awesome book. Very happy. 5***** Thank you.

Great

Detailed informations, all bellydancer need to know.

I like this very much.

DISCLAIMER: I contributed one essay to this book and also read a couple of the other articles prior to publication. That said, the rest of the book was a mystery to me. When I received my copy I really had little idea about the other articles that the book would contain, and I must say I am thrilled to be included among them.In the past few years serious academic analysis of this beloved and intriguing dance form and its world have really taken off, and the first Belly Dance Reader is a worthy contributor to it. This second edition is arguably even better. It's a fatter book at 343 pages with many lovely, albeit black and white, illustrations. As well as quite intellectual material and some great, up to date approaches to history, the Reader contains many practical articles on subjects that are important to working dancers and dance teachers - evaluation, technique, business, approaches to musicality, competitions, costuming, travel...There is a lot of space given over to what I think of as the serious meat and potatoes of this dance form in all its manifestations - the stuff that is often lost when we become obsessed with technical perfection or drills or "authentic" presentation of our particular preferred stye of belly dance. I have not seen articles like the ones on tarab, dancing with musicians, improvising and staging your performances before, never mind gathered in one volume, and this is incredibly useful stuff for dancers in far-flung communities (like mine in New Zealand) where we simply don't have quite the breadth of experience available to us. This is not style-specific stuff - any dancer can learn from these articles. I'd argue they would be of interest even to dancers and performers outside the belly dance world.There are some big names contributing to this work, as in the first Belly Dance Reader, both on the academic side and the practical side. And there are multiple voices at play on related topics, which provides a much more nuanced picture than your average "how to" book or a workshop or class with a single teacher.On a shallow level, I love the "postmodern orientalist" cover - that's a photo you're looking at - but what I really love most about this book, as a dancer at a certain stage in my dance journey, are the articles like Amani Jabril's piece on zeibekiko, which is really about seeking an authenticity that is personal rather than just imitative, and Emma-Lucy Cole's article on the tensions of representing authenticity at the cost of others.Unlike many books that strive to tell dancers about how to bellydance, this, like the first BDR, is a peer-reviewed journal. There are a few typos that weren't picked up in the proofing process, but overall, it's a handsome volume that invites dipping in and out of.

The Belly Dance Reader 2 is a fascinating sequel to the first tome of anthology, The Belly Dance Reader. Whether a dancer, musician, teacher, student or curious reader the articles in this volume will strick a chord with anyone and their interests. The best part about these books are that they are written by a variety of authors who have different areas of this subject that they are skilled in. What you read is a beautifully crafted anthology of historical, cultural, ethnocentered and advise written by those who know it to it's bones. It's a book of passion and delight. No matter what you are looking for, you will find it in this book.The writers are excellently skilled and the articles fascinating in their diversity and complexity. I believe that this Reader 2 as well as it's predecessor Vol. I will become a professionally sourced book to understand the myriad complexities and areas involving Middle Eastern Dance, Music, Belly Dance and History. A must read for any serious scholars working on degrees in the subject of dance or ethno regional cultural performance.

A very good selection of scholarly essays and chapters associated with the history of different cultures, symbols and dress. I am currently reading this and have not finished the book but other aspects of dance steps and performance are also included in this book. I would recommend for anyone wanting to study this subject and its associations.

Me compré este libro de danza oriental y es muy completo, desde luego estoy muy satisfecha con la compra y lo recomiendo.