A Dream Of Arabia

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In The West

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In the Victorian era, the western world was introduced to what they believed was Middle Eastern dance at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. The World’s Fair introduced many famous firsts, and popular attractions in the dedicated amusement park on the Midway Plaisance included “Street In Cairo”. The North African-themed attraction, along with the mile-long Midway Plaisance, was created by a young music promoter and theater manager named Sol Bloom. “Street In Cairo” was Sol Bloom’s version of “Algerian Village”, an attraction at the Paris World’s Fair (Exposition Universelle) in 1889 that was inspired by France’s Algerian “colony”. Sol created his attraction by improvising a tune on the piano and he hired a burlesque dancer to present the dance of the “hootchy-kootchy”. The dancer was given the name “Little Egypt” and with her bare mid-riff, burlesque inspired “shake and shimmy”, and the tune later known as “the snake charmer music”, the Victorian-era audience was introduced to the “dance of the belly” or “belly dance”, a term designed to capture colonial imagination. Sol called his show “The Algerian Dancers of Morocco” but it was neither Algerian nor Moroccan (or Middle Eastern in any way). The tune made up by Bloom uses a Western scale, is not based on the quarter tone Arabic scale, and the harmony is completely foreign to Middle Eastern music. Hollywood soon followed and the suggestive, Western-fantasy of “hootchy-kootchy” [or “Middle Eastern dance” or “belly dance”] would become a part of every production attempting to depict anything from the Middle East. Costumes, based on colonial fantasies of the sari and choli of India, were glamorized to further emphasize the suggestive and erotic nature of the dance (e.g. Salome). The “snake charmer music” would later become an Arabic riff; the musical phrase which is used to represent anything Middle Eastern (e.g. Harem Nights by Irving Berlin, Show Boat, Little Egypt, Dance of the Snake Charmer, Hoolah Hoolah, Istanbul, Cleopatra, Aladdin’s Lamp, Ali Baba, etc.). This image of a seductive and erotic dance, performed by women only, became the Western view of Middle Eastern dance.

Discover A DREAM OF ARABIA®

  • The Show
    • About The Show
    • A Dream
    • Creative Team
  • Arabic Dance
    • History
    • In The West
    • Today
  • Dates & Tickets
  • Media
    • Videos
    • Photos
    • Press
  • Home

About Us

Broadway World calls it a “Majestic fusion of dance and theatre”, ABC Television refers to it as “magical” and “phenomenal”, and critics and dance luminaries describe it as “Spectacular”, and “Like a Middle Eastern ‘Riverdance’”. A DREAM OF ARABIA, a one-of- a-kind show, has captured audiences around the world and features stunning, highly stylized authentic Arabic, Middle Eastern, and North African dance and music. With an international cast of award-winning and renowned dancers, it is the first theatrical, Broadway-style production of its kind.

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Dates & Tickets

We are in rehearsals now and will be on tour in the 2019 season. Check back regularly for updates, tour cities, theater dates, and tickets!

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