Tribal Belly dance of Tunesia: dancing with props and jars - acrobatic bellydancing

Tribal sword dance

Dancing with swords is an ancient skill in North-Africa. Especially bedouin dancers of the sahara used to do it as a sing of the women that they carry the honour of their husband. Some tribes had sword dancers at their wedding to bring good luck. A few paintings and engravings of the french artist Jean-Léon Gérôme (who stayed in Egypt in the 18 th century) show sword dancers balancing an sabre on their head. Sword dancing - in arabic called Raqs al Saïf - is widely spread in Turkey, the Middle East as well as Pakistan-India (remember the sword dance in the movie Qurbani?) and Iran (Shamshir-bazi).

According to tradition the woman who dances with a sword on her head carries the honour of her husband. She is untouchable by other men. In fact this ritual dance also had consequenses. A married female sworddancer who was unfaithful to her husband, would loose also her dance soul. Or in other words, she would loose everything, including her dancing skills.

Raqs al juzur

Dancing with props on their head is not exclusively a Tunisian thing but Tunisian dances are the real specialists in this case.

Dancing with a jar on the head is not only done by female tribal dancers but men do it as well. In Tunisia some men even dance with a bicycle balancing on their head!

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