danse du ventre

French

Etymology

The phrase danse du ventre is first attested in 1864 as a nickname apparently given by the French press to the Orientalist painting La danse de l'almée (The Dance of the Almeh) by Jean-Léon Gérôme.^[1]^[2] The term enters the English language by 1883, "The Russian gypsy dance has little of the provocatively voluptuous character of the Granada Ole, but there must be some connection in the history of dancing between the danse du Ventre of the Almee and the fluttering spasms of the Moscow Tzigane", and other European languages over the course of the 1880s.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /dɑ̃s dy vɑ̃tʁ/

Noun

danse du ventre f (plural danses du ventre)

belly dance

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Hawthorn, Ainsley (1 May 2019). "Middle Eastern Dance and What We Call It". Dance Research 37 (1): 1–17. doi:10.3366/drs.2019.0250. ISSN 0264-2875.
^ Hawthorn, Ainsley (23 May 2019). "Why do we call Middle Eastern dance "belly dance"?". Edinburgh University Press Blog.

[:0-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Hawthorn, Ainsley (1 May 2019). "Middle Eastern Dance and What We Call It". Dance Research 37 (1): 1–17. doi:10.3366/drs.2019.0250. ISSN 0264-2875.

[2] Hawthorn, Ainsley (23 May 2019). "Why do we call Middle Eastern dance "belly dance"?". Edinburgh University Press Blog.

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