Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World - Hardcover

Buonaventura, Wendy

4.02

133 ratings by Goodreads

9780940793453: Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0940793458 ISBN 13: 9780940793453

Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Inc, 1989

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

"I think it is the most eloquent of female dances, with its haunting lyricism, its fire, its endlessly shifting kaleidoscope of sensual movement."

With these words, Wendy Buonaventura explains her own fascination with Arabic dance. Her book is a unique celebration of the female dancers of the Arab world, and their impact on the West. She explains the origins of this ancient art, which has survived in the face of commercialism, religious disapproval and changing times.

Focusing on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she shows how Arabic dance came to be influenced by Western ideas about art and entertainment. But the influence was two-way. In the heyday of "Orientalism," Arabic dance exerted a powerful influence on the Western imagination-on such writers as Flaubert, such artists as David Roberts and Jean-Leon Gerome, and such imitators as Colette and Mata Hari. Their fascination was often based on common fantasies about the women of the Middle East. Yet, as the book's sumptuous illustrations show, this obsession also produced wonderfully evocative images. At the turn of the century, the genre also had an impact on fashion, theater and popular entertainment.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Wendy Buonaventura is an Anglo-Italian writer and dancer. For the past ten years she has taught and performed Arabic dance. Her first book on Oriental dance was published in London in 1983. She has toured widely in Europe, teaching and performing in festivals.

Review:

'A delight to browse through and just as interesting to read...sumptuously illustrated.' Time Out 'A lively and lavishly illustrated excursion into the history of the solo woman's dance.' --The New York Times Book Review

"An articulate book that speaks with many voices of the glory as well as the shadows surrounding the oriental dance of yesteryear and today.
Buonaventura's amalgamation of materials-textual and visual-evoke a work by someone whose respect for the subject is both tasteful and thoughtful...Arabesque salutes the authoress..." --Arabesque Magazine

"Serpent of the Nile features a perceptive discussion of the history of female solo dancing in the Middle East and its effect on dancers and artists throughout the world. The ninety full-color and fifty black-and-white sumptuous illustrations communicate the color and sensuality, poetry and passion, sophistication and subtlety of her subject." --Dance Magazine

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.