Little Egypt

There are several fascinating videos uploaded on Youtube of belly dance more than a century ago. One is a very short clip of 14 seconds from 1895 of a dancer named “Princess Ali.” Another is an early Edison film of Ella Lola, made in 1898, combined on Youtube with a 1900 track of Turkish music. The video lasts over three minutes. Ella was in costume, but another early video from 1904 shows “Princess Rajah” in the dress of the day dancing away her hoochie koochie as a circus act complete with chair. The queen of the art, at least in hindsight, was “Little Egypt,” who is also to be found in a clip from a movie about striptease. Although not an original film video, there is an interesting Youtube video with vintage “Orientalist” commentary about Egyptian and other North African belly dance at the 1889 L’Exposition Universelle, especially along “La Rue du Caire.”

For an overview of belly dance, see the excellent article by Najwa Adra.