The dance of the bee or dance of the wasp was a provocative Egyptian dance, part of the repertoire of the dancing girls of the Ghawazee. It was perhaps not unlike the famous Dance of the seven veils. In the dance of the bee, the dancer portrays herself as having had a stinging insect fly into her clothes, and attempts to free the insect before she is stung by removing her clothes one by one.
The dance is mentioned in the travel accounts of Gustave Flaubert, and was performed for him by a Ghawazee dancer known only under the pseudonym Kuchuk Hanem.
Famous quotes containing the words dance and/or bee:
“You whig emblem, you woman chaser,
why do you dance over the wide lawn tonight
clanging the garbage pail like great silver bells?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Like the bee that now is blown,
Honey-heavy on my hand,
From his toppling tansy-throne
In the green tempestuous land—”
—Edmund Blunden (1896–1974)