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 of, dance and/or bee:
“I try to make a rough music, a dance of the mind, a calculus of the emotions, a driving beat of praise out of the pain and mystery that surround me and become me. My poems are meant to make your mind get up and shout.”
—Judith Johnson Sherwin (b. 1936)
“When we were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the Europeans. How many of us were taught the songs of the Wanyamwezi or of the Wahehe? Many of us have learnt to dance the rumba, or the cha cha, to rock and roll and to twist and even to dance the waltz and foxtrot. But how many of us can dance, or have even heard of the gombe sugu, the mangala, nyang’umumi, kiduo, or lele mama?”
—Julius K. Nyerere (b. 1922)
“Ah evil wedlock! Ah fate!
she incites all to evil,
she flutters over all things,
like a bee in flight.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)