Belly dancing is a dance that is danced to the beat of a body drum, usually by a woman.
Belly dancing started in the US in the early 1920s as part of a dance craze called ‘mash-up,’ where the audience is often made up of several individuals whose dances have been combined and danced to a song, often with the words ‘mash-up.’
The first belly dance was held for a show in New York City at the Hotel Belvedere, and the first belly dance was at an event in the city of New York at the Hotel Roosevelt in 1919.
The first ever US national competition for belly dancing was held in 1922 and was judged by a panel of judges from around the country:
New York judge, Harry G. Lewis,
Atlanta judge, Harry L. McArthur,
Washington judge, Jack F. Spade,
Chicago judge, Robert B. Minton,
Philadelphia judge, George B. Cady
Chicago judge, Edward B. Dillard,
Chicago judge, John F. Kelly,
Philadelphia judge, W. C. Macgregor,
Detroit judge, Charles B. Macdonald,
New York judge, Harry B. Lefranc
New York judge, C. C. Hester,
New York judge, C. E. Ritchie
And it was to become an international trend in the 1930s.
The US national competition for belly dancing was held in 1936, and featured:
New York City judge George Minton (“I’ve Got a Hotty Hotty,” 1937),
“The Hotty Tots’ Dance,” as performed by the New York City Hotty Tots,
and the New York City Dancing Club,
as performed by the New York City Hotty Tots:
And the Chicago dance club: “T. Minton’s ‘Belly Dancing.'”
And the New York American:
and the San Francisco American:
and the Portlandian:
and so on.
The dancing world would expand quickly from there, and some of the competitions in the next 40 years included:
Boston
Chicago
New-York City
New York
Detroit
Philadelphia
Miami
Chicago
Boston
New York and Chicago
And several smaller contests:
Detroit,
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