Please note that this is an extract from the great book Bellydance by Keti Sharif (click  here to buy this book from amazon.co.uk):

This is how bellydance started:

"The posture and movements of bellydance have a long and interesting history. Anthropologists have suggested that dance was a form of ritual celebration of fertility from the time of the Upper Palaeolithic age, from around 30 000BC. Since the finding of the 'Venus of Wilendorf' sculpture dated at approximately 25 000 BC, some of the world's oldest artefacts have depicted the female figure - often in postures similar to those used in today's bellydance. As art has always reflected society's primary concerns, we can assume that ancient female iconography portraying dance suggested a religious, if not spiritual, connection between femininity, dance and fertility. The wall paintings of dancers in the old Neolithic shrines of Catal Huyuk in Turkey (6000 BC) are further evidence of this.

From around 4000 BC, early civilisations that originated in the Middle East, like the Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian cultures, worshiped female deities. Mythology born of this era focused on the 'birth dance' - a celebration dance that formed a direct relationship between the seasonal, cyclic fertility of women and the fertility of the earth. The biblical 'dance of the seven veils', which many associate with the tempestuous nature of bellydance, is believed to be aberration of the myth of the 'dance of shalom' (literately the 'welcome dance'), associated with the deity Ishtar. The mythology of the Ishtar revolves around the goddess as representative of the seasonal birth and death of vegetation. Ishat's descent into the underworld is reflected in the barren winter, and her ascent in the rebirth that commences in the spring - hence the name 'welcome dance'. The mythology tells of her journey into the underworld, where she shed seven attributes, later metaphorically called veils, in order to pass through the gates of that world and save her husband, Tommuz. Many myths and legends can be traced back to the eras between 4000 BC and 500 BC, when feminine-based religious worshipping a 'mother figure' abounded.

There were many pre-Christian and pre-Islamic religious that involved dance as part of religious worship. One can still visit the ruins of old temples and amphitheatres in Turkey and Greece, where priestesses once danced during the reign of the matriarchal religious, devoted to figureheads like Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love. During the same era, dance also evolved within the Egyptian Pharaonic dynasties. Predynastic Egypt , around 4000 BC, was an agricultural society, but from around 2700 BC it rapidly developed into a cosmopolitan one where philosophy and the arts, including dance, flourished. Images like 'The Banquet' from the tomb of Netumun, dated at 1400 BC, illustrated the development of chorography and music in Egyptian culture. From this early era in Egyptian history, dance has featured prominently as a stylised entertainment art.

Since the days of the spice route, the Middle East has been a central site of cultural exchange. Persians, Ottoman Turks, Phoenicians, Indians and Spaniards have warred and traded throughout the area known as the Levant , and their legacy has been a fusion of cultures and of art. In the area of dance, the ancient Indian temple dancers, for example, are believed to have inspired the ornamented danced of the Middle East . Nomadic gypsies, travelling the vast expanse of desert, can be traced back through their genealogy to India . Their form of dance brought much of the lively spirit still seen today at weddings, births, festivals and other celebrations. Many Middle Easterners like to claim that gypsies - 'Cengi' to the Turks or 'Ghawazee' to the Egyptians - are responsible for the more lewd and suggestive styles of bellydance.

Since the advent of the patriarchal religious of Christianity and Islam, women's dance has been viewed with a mixture of fascination and contempt. The dancer/entertainer tended to be well versed in storytelling and consummate musician who became a courtesan or concubine. Yet, regarded as a violator of fundamental religious laws, the female was often outcast, sometimes even replaced by male khawals (impersonators of female dance). From the harems of the Ottoman Empire, where oriental dance, flourished, to the traditions of the prostitute - dancers of the Ouled Nail in the Sahara desert, women's dance became the cutting edge of sensual expression. Even non-dancers in this otherwise strict society, somehow kept traditional bellydance alive in the confines of their homes for generations.

In some cultures, certain genres of dance were still viewed as an art form. In Egypt , female intellectuals that become 'Almeh', or 'learned' dancers, were highly sought after as entertainers, especially for weddings and festive celebrations. The mature Almeh trained the highest quality troupes, and were therefore respected in society. The Almeh and other 'high society' dancers became the Western artist's muse as the West's fascination with the East developed into the burgeoning orientalism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. European artists and travellers brought back tales of opulent harems and dancing girls, and the 'odalisque' became the single most influential icon in European art during that time.

It is generally believed that when Turkish dancers were brought to the San Francisco Fair of 1889 the French term danse du ventre (meaning 'dance of the belly') was adopted by the Americans and translated into 'bellydance'. Since then, bellydance has become a popular theme to represent the 'exotic East', both in movies and on stage, from famous stage performers of the time, like Little Egypt of Oscar Wilde's character, Salome, to Mata Hari.

Many Western notions of the orientalised bellydancer - for instance, that she is always dressed in a sparkling two-piece costume - were in fact Hollywood inventions. More fascinating still - and something of an irony - is that the East favoured the glamorous new look and adapted it to suit their flourishing cinema industry!

Over the previous century, the constantly evolving art of bellydance, from traditional to cabaret, has undergone a greater number of shifts and changes than ever before. The dance has journeyed to every continent of the planet and has been kept alive through both original cultural migrants and keen enthusiasts. Indeed, the concept of bellydancing has often been misunderstood, westernised and de-authenticated; yet we could look at this expansive dance as a starting point for many other varieties of human expression and actually as an improvised art, a theatrical inspiration, a healing and therapeutic practice and a cultural study.

Bellydance has always fascinated both the East and West. It is also an art that continues to grow, and makes the best advances with an understanding of the basic sources of the dance - the music, the rhythm, the people, the stories and the moves."