* Middle Eastern Belly Dancing * Stories for Dancers *
* Methods and Techniques * Dance Quotations *
* Books for Kids *

* Authentic Costume * Costuming * Tassel Making *
* Textiles *

* Egypt * Turkey & the Ottomans * Morocco *
* Gulf States * Africa *
* Tuareg * Berber * Bedouin *
* Contemporary Middle East * The Harem *
* Arabic Poetry * Books for Kids *

* Techniques & Methods * Creative Process *

* Orientalism * Ottomans * Arabic History *
* Moorish Spain *

* Strengthening * Pilates * Stretching * Healing *
* General Health *

* Arabic Music * Arabic Singers * Ear Training *
* Drumming *

* Makeup Technique * Stage Makeup * Cosmetics *

* Orientalists * Design Images * Ancient Egypt * Erte *

The Music of the Arabs Habib Hassan Touma

An excellent book for learning about the structure, beauty and significance of Arabic music. A bit technical, but there's terrific information here! Good photos of the various instruments, excellent explanations. Composer and musicologist Touma provides an overview of Arabic music through history to contemporary production, and elucidates typical musical structures for secular and sacred, instrumental and vocal, improvised and composed music. He also explains the unique modal system and improvisation style. Includes a glossary, a guide to pronouncing the transliterated alphabet, and a discography.

A Trade Like Any Other - Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt, also Paperback Karin van Nieuwkerk

An excellent book on the cultural ideas and experiences that surround women entertainers in the middle east. Looks at the historical and current realities and traditions.

Donna Lapre: I recommend this book to all serious dancers interested in Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian society in the Twentieth Century. It is of the same caliber as "Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt" by Karin van Nieuwkerk. It has a wealth of information about music and song.

Ear Training for the Body - A Dancer's Guide to Music Katherine Teck

A wonderful instructional book on how dancers can use, learn, interpret and explore music... without having to become a musician first! Lots of techniques and exercises that can be easily applied. Wonderful for expanding your expression and interpretation skills!

When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm Layne Redmond

Booklist: Women's spirituality circles have taken to drumming in a big way. Redmond has been a leader in reintroducing the frame drum, which, she persuasively argues, has been an instrument of spiritual transformation for millennia. Her marvelous book brings together mythology, history and prehistory, personal experience, musical lore, and scientific information on the healthful effects of drumming. Scores of illustrations show stately goddesses holding frame drums, wild maenads tossing their heads as they pound, and priestesses sanctifying space with the rhythms they beat.

The Drummer's Path: Moving the Spirit With Ritual and Traditional Drumming Sule Greg Wilson

The Drummer's Path: African and Diaspora Percussive Music/CD and The Drummer's Path/Tape

I don't have any info on this one yet, but it looks interesting.