Here are some related dance forms....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvd-MALA7tw&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ItUOuGp38

CANLI SAID: Belly dancing not just showing bodies movments,its how you move your body over the music so if anyone lower the music,you can almost feel it from the dancer movments and steps.
And THAT is an art,not anyone capable of.
And that is why you would find Egyptian belly dance is different than Lebanon's belly dance,different than Turkish belly dance,and so on Some you would feel they are doing some exercises not dancing,and some are really good.

YES YES YES! Perfectly said Canli. I fall asleep watching the "look at all the weird things my body can do" dancers. Expression is so important. Happy and playful are the expressions I like to see in a belly dancer. Like Lucy, a Beledi style dancer. My question is "How do you NOT smile when you hear the music!" I had to try not to smile when I was mocking the Turkish bellydancers in my videos.(Asena being the worst in expression in my opinion... 'bored super-model trying to dance')The Passion for the music!!! Expressing the music through the dance. Dancing is fun, if it isn't fun...if you are not in love with the music don't do it!

Coitus interruptus! (Wake up from your fantasies)

There is a family of simple rhythms called Turk aksagi. Those of us who were raised in this culture and all the others who have developed a taste for it respond to this "Turk aksagi" almost instinctively by moving their bodies to its magical rhythm. Females I spoke with would say it is something that they just can't control. Once the rhythm begins they rush to populate the stage and whether it be with men with other females or all alone, they start swaying their hips in belly dance fashion. As seen belly dance is largely a cultural thing for those people.

Truth be told there are all kinds of people in any society. Some of those people are perverts, some of them are extra horny and it is not uncommon to find people with other such problems yet I still believe a great majority of people in any society are more less straight when it comes to sexuality. After all, common people want order, peace and prosperity and any corrupt personalities are just the flaws in the functioning of society. That being said some of us constantly complain of pervert males who always try to captivate women, strip them off their freedoms etc. This is obviously an obsessive way of thinking.

Going back to our main subject; just like many other misconceptions, the notion that bellydance causes women to become submissive along with the cliché depicting muslim males in their harems enjoying the erotic dances of their wives is nothing more than a Western fantasy which is way too shallow to hold any seed of truth in it. We should actually be looking to find the traces of a Western voyeurism in this perspective. After all, complete operas telling the story of a young and handsome European penetrating into the harem and kidnapping the sultan's favourite courtisan were written by those same Europeans.
You might think that would be a far fetched idea but think for a second how different the Western and Turkish connotations of the phrase "Turkish Bath" are. In Turkey hamam is very much like a spa. In other countries it also means "a brothel". I have never heard of sex parties being organized in Turkish hamams here but the Western mind is adept in fantacizing hot "Turkish Delights" doing their "Belly Dance" service in a different manner.

We know those fairy tales and Arabian nights. Not long ago an Arab was nothing more than a Turk even Greeks were regarded as Turks and vice versa. They still think Muslim describes all Middle Eastern people. Browse songs from the 50's with themes touching Turks, Arabs and muslims and you will see it for yourselves. You will be surprized at how shallow their perspective was then.

A German friend of mine takes belly dance costumes for his wife whenever he comes to Turkey. He says, his wife orders those costumes because she believes belly dance is both very enjoyable and a healthy exercise too. Obviously he likes watching his wife exclusively and who doesn't?

Women don't become submissive when they do this dance. There is an Arabic phrase describing the female sex as "cins-i latif" meaning the beautiful sex. If you have the right hormones, you would feel horny just by seeing a woman walk in the street. It is in our nature to get attracted to the other sex. If you are unable to let the whole thing flow in its nature course maybe time has come for you to dismiss the monk in your minds.