"This strikingly graceful and original book explores the world of the dance known in the West as ""belly dancing."" It is the story of a young Arab girl's initiation into womanhood at her grandmother's knee; a history of the dance from pre-Pharaonic times; an investigation of the dance's effects on body and spirit; and a guide to the actual techniques of mourning dances, pregnancy and birth dances, and other age-old rituals."