QUIZ: what's your belly dance iq?

This fun quiz about belly dance is for all kinds of Middle Eastern dancer, including classical oriental, folkloric, cabaret, Tribal, or fusion. Give yourself 1 point for each correct answer. Total your score afterwards to see where you land on a scale from Un-Informed (0) to Un-informed (10).
In my blog for next month, we will discuss WHY you should be able to score a perfect 10. But for now, just enjoy. Maybe you’ll find yourself tapping into your dance history and roots.
Here we go:

1. Who is Badia Masabni?
2. What did Mahmoud Reda do for oriental dance?
3. Who put oriental dance in Carnegie Hall?
4. When were finger cymbals first used?
5. When did the maqam first develop?
6. How old is oriental dance?
7. Where did the hip scarf come from?
8. Where did the veil come from?
9. What is Orientalism?
10. What did Sol Bloom have to do with belly dance?

ANSWER KEY:

1. In the 1920’s, Badia Masabni was responsible for owning and operating the first famous nightclub In Cairo, Egypt, called the Casino Opera. In this night club, she developed the pioneers of oriental dance, Samia Gamal, Tahia Karioka, Naima Atef, and many others. She encouraged choreographing the movements, wearing glamourous costuming and high heels, and creating what we now think of as true classical oriental belly dance.
2. Mahmoud Reda, along with his brother, Ali, sister-in-law, Farida Fahmy, and his wife, a ballerina, founded the Reda Troupe. It became the national dance troupe of Egypt, fully supported by the government. Mr. Reda’s troupe included at least 50+ dancers (both girls and boys) at any one time to present Middle Eastern dance on stages around the world and in musical films. He researched dance from all over the Middle East and brought theatrical versions that were choreographed to the stage and the movies. Mr. Reda was nicknamed the “Fred Astaire of the Middle East”. The company’s music consisted of original orchestrated scores. People of all levels of society were exposed to the dance and fell in love with its beauty and authenticity. Throughout his lifetime, Mr. Reda trained oriental and folkloric dancers all over the world.
3. The late, great Ibrahim Farrah was the first artist to bring Middle Eastern dance to Carnegie Hall with the fine talents of his Near East Dance Group. The choreographies were unique, creative and visionary. No other artist has accomplished such a fine goal as he, and this was only one of many that “Bobby” accomplished. His standards, aesthetics and educational pursuits elevated oriental dance from ordinary to extraordinary. He traveled all over the globe to teach oriental dancers how to uphold artistry and dignity to our dance form. He published Arabesque magazine for many years, a valuable documentary of the dance. 
4. Wooden clappers are depicted in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs dating back as far as 3000 BC. In medieval Turkey and Greece wooden cymbals evolved into metal for better sound. Flamenco dancers began using wooden castanets since the 1400’s. From North Africa to India, metal clappers were played. In Egypt, the Ghawazee used small metal cymbals to accompany their dancing.
5. The maqamat are a system of melodic modes unique to Arabic music. In the harems of Turkey, around the 7th century, the maqamat (plural for maqam) thrived and eventually developed into the 72 complex scales used in the art of Arabic music today.
6. Oriental dance can be called the oldest recorded dance form in the history of mankind. We can clearly see it in hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt dating back 6000 years. There are also indications that the roots of oriental dance extend even farther back in time, with a connection to primitive ritual and ceremony.
7. Since the days of the Bedouins, dance costuming from all regions of what we now call the Middle East nearly always had a flounce, or short skirt, worn around the hips over a long skirt. Look at drawings of early Turkish dancers, the Persian court dancers, and Hagallah dancers and you will see that their costuming is very similar and all had a hip flounce. Eventually the flounce gave way to a scarf tied around the hips in order to accentuate the earthy pelvic movements. When dancers performed, they were rewarded by coins tossed at their feet by passers-by. Those coins were incorporated into their dresses, on the bodices, head coverings as well as on the hip shawls. To this day, the tinkling of jewelry and coin-fringed scarves provide an addition to the musical accompaniment of the dance.
8. A veil, or long flowing piece of silk, that a contemporary oriental dancer uses within her performance, is actually an invention of Western dancers who were intrigued and inspired by the Orient. In the last hundred years or so, the early pioneers of Modern dance such as Ruth St. Denis, as well as artists like Loie Fuller, used flowing veils. Western notions had great impact upon oriental dance costuming and accessories, changing the traditional costuming into something glamourous with a bare midriff and high heels. To this day, veils and other flowing accessories like wings and fans, originally come from the West and are usually performed best by Western oriental dancers.
9. “Orientalism” refers to a period of art in the 1800’s when Western painters were obsessed by the exotic Orient. Because of this period in art, we have beautiful paintings of people, places and dancers of that time. Historical accuracy and beauty have both been captured by these paintings, which continue to fascinate today.
10. Middle Eastern dancers first performed in the West in 1893 at the Great Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The dance was taken out of its cultural context and became a theatrical spectacle. Sol Bloom was responsible for the entertainment on the Midway Plaissance, where the dance was tagged “Danse du Ventre” or “Belly Dance”, and a Syrian dancer was nicknamed ‘Little Egypt’ and then copied in the burlesque era that followed.