Welcome to the world of Belly Dance. If you are already a dancer, you were drawn to the dance by something, exercise, costuming, a desire to perform or just something you did on a whim. For whatever reason you started dancing, there is something deeper that keeps you dancing. This is 'the soul of belly dance.' It's this deeper aspect of the dance, the history, the culture the feeling inside of us, that seems to get into our blood like a sacred calling that we've answered and continue to honor. It's an unseen force of women dancing throughout the ages and throughout the world, the knowing that we are connected in a time and space continuum to our sister dancers. It's about a dance that has traveled through time from the ancient to the present, changing and morphing, never limited or bound by societal constraints. In this book, some of the top names in the field of belly dance, as it's called in the United States, share their research and their experiences, making this manuscript a rich and unique resource for anyone who wants to know more about this beautiful art form. This version is also on available on Amazon in black and white."