Dance Quotations

Belly dancing is natural to a woman's bone and muscle structure with movements emanating from the torso rather than in the legs and feet. The dance often focuses upon isolating different parts of the body, moving them independently in sensuous patterns, weaving together the entire feminine form. Belly dancing is generally performed barefoot, thought by many to emphasize the intimate physical connection between the dancer, her expression, and Mother Earth.
IAMED Site

Training classes, such as Education for Childbirth courses given at one of the major hospitals in New York City, try to accomplish in a few short months or weeks what should have been started in childhood: namely the shaping-up of pelvic muscles used in pregnancy and childbirth and to regain shape and muscle tone after birth.
 Morocco: "Belly Dance" and Childbirth

...any person professing to be knowledgeable about this dance form who uses the misnomer coined by Sol Bloom in 1893: "belly" dance, is perpetuating racism, colonialism, and mid-Victorian Orientalist misconceptions. The translation of "Raks Sharki" (what it is called in Arabic) is Oriental Dance , but since that term in America has become narrowed by common usage to designate just the Far East, Mideastern Oriental can be used to more clearly designate a geographic area.

There is no term in Arabic ever used for the dance that would translate as "belly" dance, nor is there any other dance form anywhere in the world that is named for a body part, especially since only two of the myriad movements involved are done with the aforementioned muscle, whose proper name is "abdominal" to begin with.
"The Ethics of Ethnic" by Morocco

Amid the jungle of confusing women’s images, belly dancing can help women in the search for their own identity, as women and as human beings. It can pave the way for a process of self-awareness that helps them acknowledge and defend their own needs and wishes, regardless of sexual determination and the allocation of roles.
Grandmother's Secrets by Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi

I have to admit that I am never very impressed with all those "Belly Dancer" of the Year, Universe or other grandiose titles. The dancers who most impress me have never even entered contests and many do not think this is a dance that should be competitive since unlike ballet and other forms, there is too much room for speculation about what is good and what is not.
A'isha Azar - posting to Med-dance list