When one conjures up the images of belly dancing it is most generally female Indian belly dancers that saturate the visions in the mind however there is little known about Indian belly dancing men or the fact that they even exist. Indian belly dancing men do exist in fact and there are still many of modern day male dancers that exist in all areas of the globe from the Americas to Turkey and Egypt. The practice of men belly dancing has been going on for hundred of thousands of years and has even been traced back to the very beginnings of belly dancing.
Naturally the mind flows to cross dressing males that try to masquerade themselves as women however that is not typically the case and certainly it was not the case when belly dancing was just being introduced to the world. It is not uncommon to see Indian belly dancing men or to read of men from the ancient years that had amazing stage props to assist their dances. Many times they held such things as swords and wore capes and it was all part of the entertainment personality that the Indian belly dancing men would demonstrate.
Of course, there are also the cross dressing men that to try to try to be like women and the dances that they perform are very generally extremely feminine and beautiful. In fact, the Indian belly dancing men do such a fantastic job of setting out to impersonate women that most generally the audience has no idea that it actually is a male dancer. This is the exact goal of the Indian belly dancing men is to not be noticed as a male while they perform the most amazing dances with the demonstrations of physical dexterity, suppleness and abdominal strength.
The original reason the Indian belly dancing men first began is due to the fact that the origins of belly dancing began in the Middle East where society do not view women as equal to men and most generally are separated from the men. In fact women were not even allowed to belly dance in the presence of men and as a result the Indian belly dancing men would impersonate the women belly dancing in order to still have a performance to provide the royal men. There are still many Indian belly dancing men today that perform and in fact there are several all over the world however they are for the most part, no longer dancing to replace women dancers in the presence of men.