Ancient Greek art in paintings, pottery and sculpture is a reliable source for what ancient belly dance looked like because of their pioneering the "natural," "realistic," or three dimensional type of art. It is more reliable than ancient Egyptian art which was done by a mathematical "grid" because of the ancient Egyptians craving for uniformity. Later, under the influence of the realism movement in Greek art, Egyptian art began to change.

The reliabilty of the ancient Greek art proves that Greece indeed had belly dancing which is based on ancient fertility rites because the Greek men's dances, line dances, etc. were the same steps and movements observed in Greek nightclubs over the years as well.

My mother Johanna worked in Chicago's Greektown very often on tour and she particularly loved an engagement at a club where immigrants from the Isle of Crete were patrons. She had a special dance rapport with the Greek instrument called the Lyra. The Lyra player was brought over especially from Crete. The dances the patrons did were unchanged from what you saw on pottery.

Before the modern mass media of the last half century or so, news traveled slower, customs remained amazingly intact.

The Greeks used to carry their candles en mass into the Greektown NYC clubs after their Greek Easter celebrations to see the belly dancers. In the days of yore, no doubt it must have been "Athena" they paid their homage to.

Modern Greeks are Christians which is "Patriarchal," but the Greeks still have the veneration for women. Businesses were always registered in the woman's name so a husband could not take it from her in divorce, etc.

The Greeks love of the "democracy" ideal they pioneered was also evident in Greektown NYC for one. The Greeks paid their entertainers handsomely through a special method. My mother made more in a week than her husband made as a printer in the union at the NY Times Newspaper.

Modern Greeks, unfortunately, are forgetting their ancient ties to fertility dances. They are thinking of belly dance as only "Turkish" in origin. This is just not the case.