CHICO — Devin “Kaira” McBain was still learning to walk when she started belly dancing in her mother’s footsteps. Now a mother and professional dancer and teacher herself, McBain is also a Belly Dance ...

For Ansuya Rathor, there was no questioning whether belly dancing would be a part of her life. Her mother, Jenaeni Rathor, was a blonde, blue-eyed belly dancer in the 1960s and '70s — an anomaly that ...

Eman Zaki is often called the Coco Chanel of belly dance. If you need a tiger-print mesh ensemble with a diamante halter top encrusted with fake pearls, she can make it. Same goes for a gold and ...

As much as belly dance has been caricatured, it’s actually a subtle art. Unlike other styles of dance — say, ballet — it’s not focused on movement of the limbs, but instead undulations of the torso.

A flyer and a simple “Do you like good music?” from a promoter led to an obsession. At the time, Rebecca Williams was 17 or 18 and went to a concert for a band she had never heard of, Beats Antique.

There were no hand cymbals or sequined harem pants, and no Middle Eastern music was playing in the background. And yet the rhythmic, wavy movements of an Iraqi woman's abdominal wall muscles resembled ...