The Dance of the bee or Dance of the wasp was a provocative
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
ian dance, part of the repertoire of the dancing girls of the
Ghawazee. It was perhaps not unlike the famous
Dance of the seven veils. In the dance of the bee, the dancer portrays herself as having had a stinging insect fly into her clothes, and attempts to free the insect before she is stung by removing her clothes one by one.
The dance is mentioned in the travel accounts of
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
, and was performed for him by a Ghawazee dancer known only under the pseudonym
Kuchuk Hanem.
References
External links
From Egypt to Chicago''The dancer of Esna'', by William H. Peck
Erotic dance
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