Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing

by Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi, Monique Arav (Translator)

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Historical, Memoir, Biography

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Hope]

I really, amazingly wanted to like this book. The first section is a little unbelievable, but a pleasant read, and who I am to say these weren't the author's experiences? I slogged through the so-called history section out of pure determination. Her 'history' was a self-serving collection of meaningless generalizations and unsubstantiated "facts".

I figured the section of exercises had to be worthwhile. Even if your history stinks, if you dance, how far wrong can you go in creating exercises for dancers? Right?

Wrong! This kind of pseudo-scientific semi-mystical crap is just not worth my time. Silly I could live with. Goofy I could live with. Blatantly false information (your spine is not actually ramrod straight unless you've been hideously injured) wrapped in pathetic attempts to ascribe all that is good and right in the world to an unbroken tradition of female dancing? I'm out. I'm done.

I'm sure this books speaks to someone. That someone is amazingly not me.

[Kip]

Deeply woven with family stories, the roots of dance, and the history of the oppression of the Divine Feminine, this book aspires to be great. I would say that it was very good, but fell just short of greatness. Parts became tedious with constant restating, others left out the very important roots of dance and divinity that come to us by way of rich African heritage (my particular specialty in dance/history). The book certainly inspires one to act from the center, to connect on deep levels with our ancestors, our spirituality, and the sensuousness of our bodies. Very informative, and a good kick in the pants to start this practice again.

[Kat]

Basic Premise: The importance of belly dance to culture and women.

Part memoir, part history, this book was an interesting read, if not quite what I was expecting when I picked it up. There were some interesting oral-tradition type stories from her family and culture that emphasized the importance of dance to women. For anyone looking about theory or how-to-practice of belly dance, you won't find it in this book.

[Mamfale]

- Didn't actually enjoy this book that much. Some parts of it were interesting, especially the parts about different cultural traits and different historical points but the belly dancing part was too "Follow these steps" which doesn't work for me in a book format.
- I did appreciate the importance of dancing though as it widened my eyes to how beneficial dancing can be as opposed to being just for entertainment.

[Marjanne]

This was a quick read about the history of belly dance, as well as some of the basic movements and traditional types of dances. I enjoyed learning a little more about the ethnic origins of the dance, though felt some of the movement descriptions difficult to follow. Overall the book felt like the author's personal take on the dance, with some history thrown in.

[Alexandra Alexyna]

I like the book especialy the chapter in wich she was talking about the ideea of dancing in difrent culture and difrent eras . The last chapter was so . maybe more pictures to visuale better the last cheppter would have been better

[Brynna Schiller]

This was entertaining as an insight into the middle eastern culture for women but it did not give me any insight into the dance as a performer.

[Sara]

This book has its high and its low points. But the wisdom that I felt it transmitted to me on the whole is so profound and meaningful for me that it still deserves five stars in my opinion.

Full disclosure: I am a feminist spirituality nut and am always looking for deep, authentic explorations of the divine feminine that are rooted in a holistic tradition that doesn't necessarily shun the masculine, but honours and reveres the feminine.

On the physical level, this book helped me access some belly dancing moves that have been difficult for me to perform since my youth. I come from an Arab family and always had trouble embodying the feminine art of belly dancing in a way that felt natural and fulfilling to me. This book really changed that for me--and I feel better able to root into my natural abilities as a woman to express this sacred art.

On the spiritual level, as a woman interested in Sufism, I felt very fulfilled by Dr. Fawzia's explanations of Sufi principles and feel inspired by her section on feminine rituals of dance and the stages of a woman's life. I definitely want to incorporate more feminine ritual into my own life so that I can pass on to my daughter(s) the confidence and self-love that is missing from so many young girls' lives today.

This book will not appeal to everyone, but if you feel inspired to explore feminine spirituality and/or want a glimpse into the Arab feminine untethered by patriarchal forms, this book may just inspire a new perspective for you.

On a personal note, I am a big fan of Dr. Fawzia and am glad to find so much of her wisdom recorded in this book.

[E.p.]

The interesting perspective of this book is that it is from the perspective of a middle eastern woman describing her experiences as a child. Often we have a tendency to assess the quality of a culture, particularly in areas concerning gender equality, from our perspective. I did appreciate the author's justification of separation of the sexes and roles of the different sexes. The history and anatomy and physiology of body functions related to belly dancing were a little questionable. The descriptions of belly dancing were helpful, but could really have used some diagrams. If this were a modern book, it would defiantly have come with a DVD of a belly dancing class. I enjoyed this book, but probably wouldn't consider reading this again.

[Sarah]

There is a paragraph in the foreword that I want to commit to memory. Basically this book talks about things that are significant to me because they structure my life in one way or another: gender, well-being of mind body and soul, and dance.

[Britta Stumpp]

This book was okay. Not the best thing I've ever read on belly dance, but still, not the worst either. Mostly her work seemed very disjointed. I was having a had time finding the cohesion between the different chapters. But I thoroughly enjoyed the section on ritual dance. Overall, an okay read.

[Heather]

Good overview of a background of bellydance, from a personal & cultural perspective. How one grandmother passed it down to her daughter.

[Meredith]

Powerful and engaging. A must read for anyone interested in the history and traditions of belly dance!

[Rose Martindale]

Great book! Love feeling like I'm getting in on some secrets of a grandmother.

[Angela]

The first section was reminiscences of the author's childhood, which was a lovely way to ground the dance tradition in a specific culture.

The second section gives an overview of the history of all time, and makes sweeping statements about large swaths of time and geography, with not much in the way of academic support.

The third section talks about how each body part is involved in the dance, and focuses more on imagery and philosophy than attempting to describe physical movements. This is a really nice section, and would be good to return to at various points in your dance journey. A book is not the best format for trying to coach specific movements anyway--but helping you to remember what the point is, bringing awareness, feeling, and intention to every body part, that's valuable.

The fourth and last section describes various types and contexts of dancing, which I enjoyed in a similar way to the first section. I'm glad I read it, but probably won't go back to it again.

The foreword to the book says "Belly dancing is an art and as such it entails three factors: theory, practice and the heart, without which no art form ever comes to life. This book is especially devoted to the first and third aspects of dancing, as they are often either neglected or totally ignored." I think it does a good job of achieving this aim. Just don't put too much weight in the bits of science or history that pop up every now and then.

[Celest]

This book moves from the author's personal history, through "history", to dance movement, to cultural rituals. I cannot say to the accuracy of her personal history or the cultural rituals outlined...that may be fact or perceived experience. The world history was over generalized and not at all accurate. The dance movements described were not very well explained, especially if you want to duplicate what is being described. I've studied Middle Eastern dance and couldn't believe how the author went about explaining things...way too misleading. Of course, this could also be something in the translation from original text, but I did feel like I was reading something meant for people who won't seriously want to pursue the dance movements.

[Niyyah Ruscher-Haqq]

Your rating of this book is going to vary depending on what you expect from it. If you are looking to learn belly dance from the book, you will be disappointed (I have never been able to learn much in the way of physical movement from written word at all). But if you want to read from a lifelong dancer who can guide through some of the feminity and history of the dance, you will enjoy it. Heavier on the spiritual side of dance than history, and part memoir, it is a book that helped me attune more to the meaning behind my own movement in “belly dance” and connecting to the feminine energy it possesses

[Jessica Kennedy]

I love that you could just feel her passion for dance and deep love of femininity and womanhood. That said, some of her descriptions of movements were a bit unclear. I also would have enjoyed more of the anecdotes centered around dancing and women's spaces that were included in the first part of the book. This probably would be a better read for people who have been dancing for awhile.

[cara bianca wiseroots]

one of the most influential books of my dancing career, loved it’s beautiful cultural content and feminine energy, i have read many many times over and over again . the stories beautiful rich and woven magically into chapters of the senses seen through eastern eyes

[Alex]

Essential reading for belly dancers

It's so nice to read something about Oriental dance written by someone for whom it is their culture. It just isn't possible to understand a thing from the outside as well as from the inside

[Tessa]

It was a good read, but the exercises were not well explained. I liked everything else except for that part.

[Bron]

The first section about Fawzia's childhood and the fourth section about different types of dances were interesting but the third section about different parts of the body and exercises/moves for each one was a bit lost on me. Even though I have a basic knowledge of bellydancing moves I found the written descriptions very difficult to understand. (I also found some of the reasoning "X is so therefore Y is a fact" a little dubious.) The section I enjoyed the most was the second, about the history of dancing through the ages. I would have liked to have read more about that and perhaps more about Fawzia's life.

[Mary]

Recently, I began learning about belly dancing, and trying to learn a few very basic steps from televised instruction programming. I quickly became hooked, and am planning to sign up for classes in this delightful art form this Spring. In trying to find out more about belly dancing, I found this book by Al-Rawi in my local library system. This book, which is partly a memoir and partly a history and instruction manual on the dancing itself, is a thing of beauty.

For my full review, visit http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.act...

[Sonya]

I bought this book about three months into the obsession that came about because of the tribal bellydance classes I started taking "for fun..and exercise". I never knew that this "art form" has ancient roots in fertility dances or that it was cheapened/exploited into the the sequined/shimmying/I-Dream-of-Jeanie fantasy woman that is typically conjure dup.

[Centennial]

I loved learning more about the cultural roots, folklore and beliefs surrounding belly dancing. However, there is a large section dedicated to specific body parts and movements which were not very easy to understand. I feel like the book should have had step by step pictures, in the way ASL dictionaries are written. But all in all it was a good read.

[Baroness]

Belly dancing is sensual. It ignites the fire within. With every move your energy flows through your body. Your vibration rises and poof...sexual healing, manifestation and empowerment.
This book focused more on the author and not as much as I would have liked on Belly dancing.
I couldn’t connect with this story.

[Michelle]

Very nice to get such an integrated, holistic, & ordinary perspective of bellydance.

[Sybil]

Every belly dancer must read this book.

[Natalie]

This book is a trip! It's all about how bellydancing came to be and how to write the arabic alphabet with your body. So entertaining!

[Odessa Dora]

Oh yeah... this is why I dance! This is why I must find movement within.