Over the past fifty years national dance companies from Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, Greece, the former USSR and Croatia have dominated concert stages throughout the world. Anthony Shay makes coherent sense of these national programs, which have previously received scant academic attention. Specifically, [...]

From the kordax dancers of ancient Greece, to the pantomimes of ancient Rome, to the slave-girl singers in Caliphal Baghdad, to the dancing boys in present-day Afghanistan, and the belly dancers in Egypt, professional entertainers in the Islamic world endured low social status, were regarded as sexu[...]