The geographic origins of belly dancing are unknown — it developed somewhere in Africa, the Middle East or the Mediterranean — but it is certainly thousands of years old. That's plenty of time for misconceptions to emerge, and plenty of them certainly have. For example, most people assume that belly dancing is strictly a woman's dance. Historically, though, belly dancing was prevalent among men, and even today, arguably some of the best belly dancers in the world are males. Although the dance has gradually adopted itself to the woman's form in modern times, Moon Belly owner Kandice Grossman asserts that the door is still wide open for men to get into belly dancing.
More recently, many dancers have begun using various props in performance. By contrast, the finger cymbals (called zills or sagats) used by Moon Belly's dancers have historical roots as far back as the Ottoman Empire. Listen to the clip below to hear the finger cymbals in action, as well as a description of their history and use by Kandice. (1:06)