Movies & TV Shows with Belly Dancers
Or Middle Eastern Touches

Table of Contents Introduction Movies Made in the West (U.S., U.K., France, etc.) Made in the Middle East or North Africa Cartoons Television Shows Other People's Lists of Television Shows & Movies Introduction Every time a movie or television show features a belly dancing scene or even just a "harem girl" scene, it shapes someone's attitude toward our dance form. It can be useful to show some movie clips to our students to help them understand the role the mainstream entertainment industry has played in creating public opinion. It can also be fun to watch them, to see how portrayals have changed over the years. The flag icons refer to Amazon sites which sell either the VHS Tape or DVD. Amazon pays a small commission from each purchase to Shira for the referral, so each purchase you make through these icons helps keep the Shira.net web site operating!

Movies

Made in the West (U.S., U.K., France, etc.)

Bagdad To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1949 Dancer Maureen O'Hara and Others Shira's Feedback Forgettable dancing. Maureen O'Hara, believe it or not, stars as a Bedouin princess who was raised in England. The dancing is mostly dull 1940's-style choreography featuring ensembles of women spinning in full skirts. If you're collecting videos of movies that feature some facsimile of Middle Eastern dance, this one belongs at the bottom of the priority list. It's not particularly interesting, nor is it bad enough to be funny. Just boring. Brass Bottle, The To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1964 (according to Internet Movie Database) Dancer Lulu Porter Shira's Feedback Hooray, a "real" belly dancer! The scene with dancing is about 5 minutes long. Tony Randall's character is entertaining his fiancée and her parents for dinner, and his genie conjures a tent scene for the occasion complete with dancing girls. First a group of dancers emerges, doing very simple belly dance traveling moves such as hip-sway walking and step + hip lift. They wear costumes foreshadowing the I Dream of Jeannie television show and dance for about 60 seconds. Then Lulu Porter comes out in a belly dance costume with coin bra/belt set and chiffon skirt and does a performance that goes for about 1 1/2 minutes. It offers a taste of what belly dancing was like in the U.S. in the 1960's. Carry On Follow That Camel (also known as Carry on in the Legion) To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1967 Dancer Anita Harris Shira's Feedback Insulting to belly dancers Somebody should tell Anita Harris that she should stick to acting, and not attempt to belly dance. The moves she chooses to do are openly slutty, such as doing aggressive forward pelvic thrusts with her feet wide apart and shimmying her breasts in Phil Silvers' face, all in the name of comedy and all without any dance skill. Some people might find this one bad enough to be funny - especially if you like the lowbrow flavor of British humor. Flame of Araby To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1951 Dancer Unknown Shira's Feedback Eminently forgettable dancing. The dancer in this movie is a "bad girl" - a woman who hangs out with the villains of the movie. The dance itself is somewhat boring, and there's nothing Oriental about it at all. Though I did like the way her skirt flowed.... From Russia with Love To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1963 Dancer Lisa Guiraut (Leila) Shira's Feedback I love the opening credits segment. The "Gypsy camp" dance later in the movie is also fun to watch. Leila is indeed a "real" belly dancer, not just some actress in a costume. The opening credits are superimposed over the dancer, for about 2 1/2 minutes. The performance in a "Gypsy camp" about an hour into the movie with about a minute of dancing. Leila's dance scene gives us a real flavor for what belly dancing in the U.S. was like back in the 1960's. (Although Leila herself was British, she learned to belly dance when she was living in the San Francisco area.) Glass Bottom Boat To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1966 Dancer None Shira's Feedback If you're looking for movies with belly dancer scenes, don't bother. At least one list of movies featuring belly dancers or Middle Eastern scenes mentions this one. Well, I watched it and I didn't see any belly dancing. The closest thing to it occurs when Rod Taylor's character fantasizes about Doris Day's character being Mata Hari, and imagines her wearing a swimsuit top, hip scarf, skirt, and outlandish headdress. It's the outfit she wears in the photo on the DVD's cover. In this dream sequence, she just stands there, no dancing. Given that Mata Hari was not a belly dancer, but rather used dances of Java as inspiration for her exotic portrayals, this really doesn't have anything to do with belly dancing. All that said, the movie was fun to watch. Just don't expect to see anything resembling belly dancing. On the Town To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1949 Dancer Ivy Smith Shira's Feedback Entertaining and fun, but disappointingly short. Three sailors (Gene Kelley, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin) come ashore in New York on a 24-hour pass to kick up their heels. One falls for a lovely young lady (Ivy Smith) he believes is a high-society woman, only to discover she is a cooch dancer at Coney Island. The dance scene is the cooch performance, and includes our three fine young fellows dressing up in the women's costumes and dancing on stage. Roustabout To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1964 Dancer Wilda Taylor Shira's Feedback So bad it's entertaining - it makes me laugh every time I see it! While Elvis Presley sings the song "Little Egypt" (the same one recorded by the Coasters), an ensemble of women in bikinis makes a very bad attempt at blending belly dance moves with those stupid bent wrist/elbow poses that so many people erroneously associate with Pharaonic dance. I find it highly entertaining, but in a "so bad it's funny" kind of way! Salomé, Where She Danced To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1945 Dancer Yvonne DeCarlo Shira's Feedback DeCarlo is a credible ballerina, but as for her attempt to portray Salomé, well, she should have stuck to ballet. There are two dance sequences in this movie. In the first, DeCarlo dances ballet en pointe (in toe shoes) to the Blue Danube Waltz. In the second, she portrays Salomé with a lot of peculiar leaning back with pained facial expressions. Samson & Delilah To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1949  Dancer None Shira's Feedback If you're looking for dance scenes, don't bother with this one. But if you'd enjoy looking at sumptuous costuming, you might think it's fun. Hedy Lamarr & Victor Mature star in Cecil B. DeMille's version of this Bible story. There's no dancing at all, but the costuming is fabulous to look at. In fact, Edith Head and her associates won an Academy Award for the costume design. In one scene, Delilah wears a beautiful costume made of tulle bi telli (assuit) fabric. Solomon & Sheba To Purchase from Amazon Year Released  1959 Dancer Gina Lollobrigida Shira's Feedback The costume is definitely a belly dancing costume, but the dancing is more like modern dance. Yul Brynner (back when he had hair) and Gina Lollobrigida star in this story loosely inspired by the Biblical book 1 Kings. About an hour and 26 minutes into the story, Solomon agrees to let the Queen of Sheba and her people hold a festival dedicated to their goddess of love. While leading the festival, the queen casts aside her robe to reveal a belly dancing costume complete with navel jewel required by the Hayes Code, and begins to dance while her people do a hypnotic dance around her. Couples start coupling in the background, and Solomon can't resist joining the orgy. Son of Sinbad To Purchase from Amazon Out of print, not available from Amazon. Try looking for the VHS tape on eBay or other used-video sources. Year Released  1955 Dancer Nejla Ates Shira's Feedback The opening market performance by Nejla Ates is excellent, and one of the best portrayals I've seen of belly dance in a Western-made movie. The movie contains four dance scenes, but only the one in the opening market scene by Nejla Ates could be considered belly dance. But ah, that opening dance scene! It lasts nearly 4 minutes in length, and Nejla is a "real" belly dancer from Turkey. She moves beautifully, and does a magnificent standing backbend in which her head nearly reaches the floor. Her costume is an attractive bra/belt set with a 3-panel circle skirt that has slits on either side of the front panel, exposing her legs all the way up to the belt. The second dance scene is mostly what I'd think of as modern dance with a few belly dance moves (snake arms, veil swishing, hip circles) inserted for flavor. It contains about 1 1/4 minutes of dancing. The third dance scene features a dancer named Kalantan. Although she wears a costume that looks like belly dancing garb, her actual dance consists of modern dance style moves. The fourth and final dance scene features Sally Forrest as the dancer. It's about 2 1/2 minutes in length, and is definitely based on modern dance, with lots of high kicks and such. Wee Wee Monsieur (The Three Stooges) To Purchase from Amazon Year Released 1938 Dancer None Shira's Feedback I find it hilarious. This is not belly dancing, but rather a lot of prancing around. It reminds me of modern dance. The dance scene is a couple of minutes long. The Three Stooges join the French Foreign Legion. In an attempt to rescue their captain from the bad guy, they dress up as harem girls and dance. This harem scene is one of my favorites to show at video parties.

Made in the Middle East or North Africa

Gharam fi al-Karnak (Love in Karnak) To Purchase from Amazon Try places that sell Arab movies with English subtitles, such as Rashid. Year Released  1965 Dancers Mahmoud Reda, Farida Fahmy, Reda Troupe Shira's Feedback Lots of excellent dancing, wide variety of dance styles, highly recommended! A fellow named Salah (Mahmoud Reda) starts up a dance company (Reda Troupe) and prepares it to perform at the Luxor temple. Salah and his dancers must overcome a number of obstacles, but in the end they succeed and the movie ends with an extended dance sequence showing their debut performance. There are a total of 9 dance scenes in this movie. Some of them are very reminiscent of the Hollywood movie musical, in which people are doing ordinary everyday things (such as going to the train station to board the train to Luxor) and then dance just bursts out of them. Others are more folkloric, such as the rehearsal scenes and the grand finale. All of them are delightful to watch. Highly recommended! Tamra Henna (Henna Flower) To Purchase from Amazon Try places that sell Arab movies with English subtitles, such as Rashid. Year Released  1957 Dancer Naima Akef Shira's Feedback This is my favorite Arab-language movie with dancing. There are three dance scenes featuring Naima Akef, and I love the way she dances! This movie is sort of an Arab version of My Fair Lady. A rich fellow named Ahmed uses his wealth to help a Gypsy dancer (Naima Akef) transform herself into an upper-class lady. In the first two dance scenes which are 5 minutes and 3 minutes respectively, she performs as the star of the show at a moulid (saint's day carnival), which offers us a glimpse into what one of the environments for public belly dancing was like before the nightclub industry arose in Egypt. In the third dance scene, which lasts about 3 1/2 minutes, she is a guest at a society party and is bullied by her rival into dancing. Habib el Omr (Love of My Life) To Purchase from Amazon Try places that sell Arab movies with English subtitles, such as Rashid. Year Released  1947 Dancer Samia Gamal Shira's Feedback Of all the clips I've seen of Samia, the ones in this movie aren't my favorite because most of the music and accompanying dance is very, very Westernized and not very Oriental. Still, it's nice to see some of her dance scenes in the context of the movie they come from instead of isolated on a compilation of dance clips. Six musicians (including Farid al-Atrache) and a dancer (Samia Gamal) travel from the small town to the big city to seek their fortune in show business. The dance clips all show Samia performing in various nightclub environments. The editing interferes with enjoying the dance scenes by cutting away from Samia too often to show close-ups of other characters. It seems to treat the dancing itself as unimportant, as peripheral. Khally Balak Men Zouzou (Pay Heed to What Zouzou Says) To Purchase from Amazon Try places that sell Arab movies with English subtitles, such as Rashid. Year Released  1972 Dancer Souad Hosni Shira's Feedback Lots of dancing, insights into Egyptian culture of the 1970's. Other movies have stronger dancers, but still definitely enjoyable. A young woman named Zouzou leads a dual life - college student by day, working dancer by night. There are 7 dance scenes total. These include three dance scenes in which the character Zouzou performs as a soloist, two featuring a group of college students rehearsing an ensemble piece, one in which Zouzou's clan dances around at a party, and a brief one in which a fellow does a comic dance in his boxer shorts. Souad Hosni was never a working dancer - she was an actress who was coached to dance for this movie role. But even though dancing wasn't her primary profession, she performs well and this movie is enjoyable to watch.

Cartoons

Television Shows

Batman Episode Season 2. Hizzoner the Penguin (17th Episode) First Aired November 2, 1966 Dancers Little Egypt Shira's Feedback Wild, playful, fun to watch. In this episode of Batman, the Penguin runs for mayor. His campaign rally showcases the band Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Little Egypt does a high-energy belly dance performance with lots of spinning and torso undulations. It's about a minute in length. I Dream of Jeannie To Purchase from Amazon Episode Season 1. The Lady in the Bottle (1st Episode) First Aired September 18, 1965 Dancers Barbara Eden and Others Shira's Feedback Silly and playful, but short Jeannie transforms Tony's living room into a harem scene. She and some lovely ladies that she blinks in for the occasion dance a bit for Tony. Jeannie herself does some good head slides and hip-twist shimmies. The other women have chicken-wing arms as they attempt to do hip lifts and other moves, then they run in a circle around Tony. It's silly and fun to watch, but very short - only about a minute in length. Max Headroom To Purchase I got my set from www.rewindtv.biz Episode Season 1. Body Banks (3rd Episode) First Aired April 14, 1987 Dancers Suhaila Salimpour Shira's Feedback Entertaining, but hard to see the dancing A young Suhaila Salimpour dances in a seedy bar on a stage next to an enormous pig. The mood lighting and makeup make her appear rather unsavory, but her dancing is beautiful and fluid. The dance scene is short, and it's often hard to see her because she is mostly in the background while the show's main characters talk. Altogether, there is about 1 1/2 minutes of dancing, but only about 30 seconds of that is easy to see. Sex and the City To Purchase from Amazon Episode Season 2. The Awful Truth (2nd Episode) First Aired June 13, 1999 Dancers Raven and Shantal Riley Shira's Feedback Insulting to belly dancers. Although belly dancers are present and appear to be "real" belly dancers, there isn't much on-camera dancing - there's a bit of arm-waving and the occasional veil floats past the camera. The script makes two references to the belly dancers doing lap dances (even though real belly dancers certainly don't, and there is no lap dancing done by the dancers in this episode), and Mr. Big makes an annoying remark about having no money for cab fare because he stuffed all his 20's into the belly dancer's crotch. Yech. Sex and the City To Purchase from Amazon Episode Season 3. Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl (4th Episode) First Aired June 25, 2000 Dancers Jenna Rosenberg Shira's Feedback Huh? This is the episode where Carrie and Miranda, in an effort to be more feminine, sign up for a "Goddess Workout" class. This is also the episode of Sex and the City that Dolphina refers to in her marketing materials when she talks about how one of her belly dance students at Crunch wrote her class into an episode. Well, there isn't much belly dancing to it. Mostly, people in the class are aimlessly waving a pair of scarves around in the air. The closest thing to belly dancing is when the instructor tells everyone to "Pop your hips!" Though I rather enjoy it when the two heroines decide they're out of there. All in all, kind of boring and I don't see what it has to do with belly dance. But if you don't like all the New Age-y chakra talk on Dolphina's DVD's, you might enjoy the way this episode makes fun of her. The Simpsons To Purchase from Amazon Episode Season 1. Homer's Night Out (10th Episode) First Aired March 25, 1990 Dancer Princess Kashmir (Animated Character) Shira's Feedback Insulting to belly dancers. Homer goes to a bachelor party, which features a belly dancer as entertainment. Her skimpy costume is basically a bikini with a chiffon scarf tucked into the hip at each side. Later in the episode, when Homer goes looking for her, the places he visits in his search include girlie clubs - the sorts of places that have Vegas-style showgirls in bikinis and feathers. Star Trek: The Original Series - The Menagerie, Part 2 To Purchase from Amazon On DVD: On VHS tape: Episode Season 1, Episode 12 First Aired November 24, 1966 Dancers Susan Oliver Shira's Feedback A reasonably positive portrayal, actually. Very short. There's only about 45 seconds of actual dancing in this episode, but it's quite intense. A character named Vina, with extraterrestrial assistance, crafts an illusion of herself as a sexy Orion Slave Girl. In the Star Trek mythos, Orion Slave Girls are the most desirable females in the galaxy. The dancer is a seductress, a vamp, a creature to be desired. Star Trek: The Original Series - Wolf in the Fold To Purchase from Amazon On DVD: On VHS tape: Episode Season 2, Episode 14 (Episode 36 overall) First Aired December 22, 1967 Dancers Tanya Lemani Shira's Feedback A positive portrayal of our dance form with excellent dancing. This episode opens with a belly dance scene. A dancer named Kara (Tanya Lemani) performs in a nightclub sort of setting as the officers from the Enterprise watch with great interest. The behavior of the audience is somewhat stereotypical - they're a group of men salivating over a beautiful woman, and Captain Kirk has arranged for the dancer to come to the table after her performance to meet Scotty. But I like it in spite of this because the dancing is worth watching. Whose Line Is It Anyway? To Purchase from Amazon Not available on home video. Look on Comedy Central for reruns of the version hosted by Drew Carey, and you may be lucky enough to find it. Episode Season 5, Episode 25 of the version hosted by Drew Carey First Aired July 25, 2003 Dancers Veena & Neena Bidashi Shira's Feedback Not much dancing, but I enjoyed lots of laughs! I feel good about how they represented belly dancers! Whose Line is an improvised comedy show, so the appearance of the twins focuses on being a catalyst for comedy, not on dancing. For that reason, if you're looking for a dance performance, you'll probably be disappointed. Identical twin dancers Veena and Neena appear in three sketches as guests. In the first sketch, "Duet", Wayne Brady and Chip Esten sing an improvised song as the twins dance around them with snakes. It's almost 4 minutes in length. In the second sketch, "Living Scenery", Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie use the twins as living props, such as a milkshake machine, a craps table, and a vibrating bed in the hotel room. This one is about 5 minutes in length. In the third sketch, the twins provide a belly dancing lesson to the regular cast as they read the credits.

Other Lists of TV Shows and Movies

Other people have compiled lists of movies and television shows set in Middle Eastern locales or featuring belly dance scenes. It's not my intent to replace their compilations, and their lists are much more complete than mine. But they don't necessarily give you much information about each sighting beyond the titles. Maria's List (Boulder Bellygrams): Bellydance Movie Stills (be sure to view all six pages!) Bellydancers in the Movies Bellydancers on TV Aziza Said's List: Dancers and Harem Girls in the Movies So, if the above lists are so comprehensive, why did I create yet another, much shorter, one? Because the other lists don't really tell you much about what the dancing (if there even is any) is like in the movies and shows they list. How long are the scenes? What kind of dancing (if any) does it contain, and how much of it? Is the portrayal accurate, favorable, tacky, or stereotyped? Is the dancer skilled? I wanted to buy or rent some videos that had dancing in them, and I found that the above lists didn't give me enough information to help me choose which to get. So I've created the kind of list that I wished could have helped me make good choices.