Talk:Belly dance

Costume section

add images of costumes BellyDances (talk) 11:10, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Deleted submissions?

I recently added some relevant information on this articles health section but it's been removed twice now. The first time I understand why as I included links to the website and I can see how you might think it was spamming, so I removed the link and just left the RELEVANT information but again it's been deleted and I checked why to find this reason:

"Please stop adding inappropriate external links to Wikipedia. It is considered spamming and Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising or promotion. Because Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, additions of links to Wikipedia will not alter search engine rankings. If you continue spamming, you may be blocked from editing Wikipedia. OhNoitsJamie Talk 15:08, 20 June 2011 (UTC)"

Firstly, I'm not trying to spam the article or get extra hits to the website. The information I am adding is from a health and fitness professional who specialises in Belly Dance teaching. She has written a scientific paper on the health benefits of Belly dance in regards to motor skills in adults. This paper is in the process of being submitted to the appropriate organisations. Any information pointing back to the website is relevant as the belly dance instructor is the person involved. I do not understand why you keep removing it like it's some sort of disease or something, I thought the whole poit of Wikipedia is to inform people of the relevant information regarding articles and subjects, which is exactly why I added the information.

There are a lot of belly dancers out there teaching with no actual teacher training or health and fitness training and so this is why Lindsey Marie Silver chose to do the research, to inform and make it safe for anyone interested.

This is the text I included:

"Belly dancer, Lindsey Marie Silver, has looked to clarify some claims of the health given benefits of belly dance and published a scientific research paper titled, "Does Bellydance Improve Motor Skills In Adult Females"

I think it's important that this information is included to show that the research has been done instead of just empty claims all over the place that other dancers put on their websites, which as a result misinforms and could be dangerous. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.175.94.164 (talk) 17:41, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Introduction

Hi everyone! I see my edits of the article's introduction have been reverted, but I find the current intro is not clear, and quite repetitious, considering raqs sharqi and raqs baladi are much better explained in the body of the article, and in their own respective articles, which are not even linked to in the current lead. The explanations are not well connected to the rest of the lead anyway, they just seem dropped at the end of the lead without any perspective.

Besides, the distinction with the tsiftetelli is not clear. The Arabic and Turkish dances are of very different origins. Tsiftetelli is not a mere translation of "raqs sharqi" or "raqs baladi", it's a different dance, even though it looks the same for people in the Western world. It's like saying that "Gheimeh" is another word for "Irish stew"; it doesn't make sense. Therefore I think the lead should start right away with the explanation that "belly dance" is a 19th century expression, because as you can see, "belly dance" means nothing close to "raqs sharqi", and the first lines are rather destabilising concerning that point. And also repetitive, considering the first line says it's a "Western-coined word", and the second paragraph repeats that idea.

Also, the wide array of nicknames such as "Middle Eastern dance" or "Arabic dance", besides being very unprecise, and even erroneous when stating later on that "tsiftetelli" is a mere synonym, are not even real and distinctive names of these dances (anyone can call a dance from the Middle East a "Middle Eastern dance", so there is no need to say it comes from the Middle East AND that it is sometimes called "Middle Eastern dance"), and therefore should not appear in the intro, in my opinion. The goal of this article should be to teach the reader that the word "belly dance" is just a Western substitute and not the real name of these dances. If we encourage them to say "Middle Eastern dance" or "Arabic dance", which are very approximate names, then they wouldn't have learned anything, and this article would be pointless, since each dance already has (or should have) its own article. These expressions should be a matter of redirects and should not besmirch the lead.

Honestly, I think the current intro is something of a cockblock lol at least that's the impression I had when I read it for the first time. I'd like to hear your opinions. Bye! Bryan P. C. C. (talk) 21:06, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Under the Costumes heading, a word has been edited out. Perhaps it's the word Egypt? UserHoople365 03:37, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

Inconsistent Capitalisation

I've noticed throughout the article 'raqs sharqi' and 'Raqs Sharqi' are both used (two and three time respectively). Is there a proper form for this word? Yurell (talk) 00:16, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

No mention of India?

You know before islam, this was a land of ancient Hindus and Aryans. And there are many people who will tell you that belly dancing originated from a form of ancient India. And here, there is no mention at all! Not even as a possiblity! Wow. Another example of how wikipedia is so fair! 71.106.222.108 (talk) 22:01, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Find a reliable source for that and you can include it. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 22:07, 1 February 2012 (UTC)