Grandmother's Secrets

In her lovely and lyrical book Al-Rawi explains how the ancient Eastern art of belly dancing is both source and symbol of women's identity and strength in the Arab world, and how she gained this knowledge from her grandmother. Part memoir, part dance history and part instruction guide...Al-Rawi offers women of all ages a window into another culture and into themselves. Her earthy wisdom may remind readers of such fictional works as Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Anita Diament's The Red Tent.

Al-Rawi has written a strikingly graceful and original book that blends personal memoir with the history and theory of the folk dance known in the West as belly dancing.... Grandmother's Secrets is a unique and highly engaging work of considerable merit."

Al-Rawi relates movement to ideas and art to philosophy so that...'belly dancing becomes a source of inspiration...and a clear and dynamic way of discovering...understanding oneself.' An interesting glimpse into a culture, an art form, and a means for women's healing and self-expression.

Warmly readable...Unpendantic and enjoyable reading, the tale reveals astonishing similarities between East and West when it comes to the use of breath and the body.

In a strikingly graceful and original book, Al-Rawi tells the history of the dance from the earliest times...to the Arab world of the last three centuries....inspired...Most important, she explains the significance of belly dancing as an expression of the feminine principle and a way for all women to find their inner strength.

A significant cause for celebration....This beautifully bound book is an ambitious attempt to cover as much ground relevant to the dance as possible...a worthy contribution to the discourse on Middle Eastern dance.

A beautifully written guide to a much-misunderstood tradition.

Both a philosophy of belly dancing and a primer....provides clear instructions on how to perform belly dancing...the results are lucid and informative. The book also provides important insights into Sufism...so engagingly written...that the reader longs for more...This view of the dance is new to the literature and provides a fascinating contribution to belly dance theory....It provides original and valuable perspectives on a dance form and life style that are misunderstood.

More than a dance book. It is about being a woman; about female empowerment, from its early connotations to the final vestiges of matriarchal societies.

Upon careful reading, the seemingly incongruous mixture of personal narrative, historical analysis, and technical discussion blends serendipitously into an intriguing and insightful interpretation of the spiritual and social roles of belly dancing as a uniquely feminine and personal expression of women's life experiences, desires and emotions. Due to the highly technical nature of the discussion, this book will be most appropriate for specialists in the anthropology of dance and for teachers and practitioners of belly dancing.

'Belly dancing, so aptly named, leads to the deep, dark cave, the center of the earth, before flying, in all its pride and life-force, up to the light, to inspiration, and to new awareness. The way to the spirit is found via the body, via the matter.' With words fluidly chasing the literary face of an intangible essence-a fleeting silhouette veiled beneath music, dance and ritual-Al-Rawi cleverly reveals the secret of ancient Oriental dance, and revels in its mystery. Al-Rawi, an Arabic studies and ethnology authority, presents her impressions in this book that melds memoir, history and philosophy in an effort to capture and celebrate the timeless feminine spirit that is incarnated in dance. Launching into a delicate web of dreamlike vignettes within the opening pages, Al-Rawi warmly draws readers into her childhood awakening to her culture and her place therein. Following these passages of personal inflection, she supplies a comprehensive, yet refreshingly concise history of cultural and ritual dance ranging from primitive to present day civilization. Concurrent with the tracing of this history is Al-Rawi?s careful attention to the social and spiritual position of women in each successive era, as well as the specific influences of religion and economics. Al-Rawi discusses the ancient goddesses that once represented the Divine Feminine, the decline of ancient matriarchal times and ascension of the modern day patriarchal worldview. The inclusion of this analytical and philosophical retrospect is an unexpected and surprisingly powerful turn for the book. The author?s lucid account of the shifting feminine role in society provides an effective springboard into the instructional balance of the book. The book transforms again, becoming a guide to awareness of the body, in and out of motion, while outlining numerous techniques of dance. The inclusion of numerous photographs for posture and stance garnish the pages. The book may have, however, benefited from diagrams or a photo series to better illustrate movement. Well suited for a general audience in addition to cultural dance or women's studies enthusiasts, Grandmother's Secrets flows easily, untaxed by its serious undertone. With the descriptions of ritual dances that mark a woman's life-her birth, womanhood, seduction and mourning-this book unveils a commonality that transcends all cultures and offers hope. These women pass their lives gently, each one as a single day in the greater, endless lifetime of a collective spirit, dancing to a rhythm nearly circadian in nature.