Dance is an art form that is done with the body, mind, and soul, Bring out the beauty of the music or song. Also, The culture of dance has continued from ancient times until now.

Dance Appeared since the prehistoric time dancers come from pottery of Naqada I and Naqada II culture till now.

An example from Naqada II Period: a female figure in red color her hands up, this tradition goes back into the time of dancers.

We’ll talk about dancing in all eras.

Ancient Times

In ancient Egyptian dance come from scenes in Old Kingdom tombs of performers associated with funerals, and famous songs and poems are those that were written during the New Kingdom, so they were considered the dance represents the importance of the ancient times.
The clothes worn by Egyptian dancers were hardly elaborate or involved enough to even call them an actual costume.
In many scenes that have survived the ages, dancers (females), are found moving their arms and legs without being trapped by a cloth of any sort, except for the occasional small skirt or tunic, not always dressed together. There were other times when dancing took place in the nude, with nothing but a single ribbon tied loosely about the waist. Men typically wore the standard men’s dress (skirt); in the Old and Middle Kingdoms, they would also wear an apron with round edges in the front.

And there were several types of dancing but the most common and well-known dancing in Ancient Times as follows:

Types of Dancing

  • Festive dances
    Sed festival: the purpose of this festival was an extended rule of the pharaoh.
    Opet Festival: associated with God Amen’s visit to his wife Goddess Mut from Karnak Temple to Luxor temple.
  • Funeral dances
    It’s a religious ritual dancing for the deceased and his family, especially in New Kingdom tombs, were not all professional and sometimes included close family relations.

The women in banquet scenes playing music and dancing, the scenes reflected what was hoped to be replayed in the afterlife.

Greco-Roman Times

Greek dancing there were about 200 different traditional ancient Greek dances. (Pyrrhichios dance) It was an armed dance and the best-known war dance of the Greeks. It was probably of Dorian origin and practiced at first solely as training for war. 

Roman dancing was influenced by Etruscan and Greek dance (Pyrrhichios dance) for example, were invented by Greeks but popularized by Romans.

Dancing priests that were members of the noble class did war dances with a sacred shield in their left hand and a staff in the right hand, as you can see.

Old Cairo

The word Haramlek derived from harem (women), Every time you hear the work (Haramlek) you think about the slave women and wines but in fact, it had a special place in the sultan’s palace.
This place was only of the women and away from people’s eyes, and There were small Haramlek in public places.
Consists of different categories from the nobles to the common girls the And especially the lucky girls (الجاريات المحظوظات) they did nothing but dancing and singing in order to satisfied desire of the sultan in his leisure time.

A female figure dancing to the sultan in his leisure time

New Cairo

In New Cairo, the dancing in Egypt took a splendor place and many dancers appeared, The most known dancing that spread all over the world was the oriental dance (belly dance).
And few examples of the belly dancers were: Samia Gamal, Tahyya Kariokka, Naima Akef, Fifi Abdo lately Gawhara.

A lot of people love to dance, There are many types of challenging dances and no celebration would be complete without a dance.