Through the Eras

Dancesleeved cloak sometimes wearing a belt over the cloak.Many New Kingdom female dancers wore only a belt,performing in the nude. The Egyptians exhibited few inhibitionsabout displaying the female body. Since a funeralreenacted the steps leading to re-birth, theEgyptians regarded funerals, in part, as containing eroticelements that would lead to conception and birth intothe afterlife. Children were also depicted as dancingnude. Most representations of pre-pubescent boys andgirls in all situations reveal a lack of clothing. Girls oftendanced wearing a belt to emphasize the movementof the hips, just as modern Middle-Eastern dancers tiescarves around their hips. Egyptians felt no embarrassmentat young children dancing, playing, or living withminimal clothing. Most Egyptian men wore kilts as theirnormal “street clothes” as well as for dancing. Sometimesmen added a belt with a suspended panel to the front ofthe kilt. The belt sometimes also had fringes attached.These elements would have emphasized their movementsby enlarging them. Men’s costumes for dance exhibit littlechange over long stretches of time.HAIRSTYLES. In the Old Kingdom, women woretheir hair short. Representations of women with longhair usually include visual clues that they were wearingwigs. Egyptologists call the long wig the tripartite hairstyle.The hairdresser arranged the hair of the wig inthree sections with one section over each shoulder andthe central mass of hair down the back. Dancers sometimeswore this style, and it was common for singers.Other dancers wore their natural hair very close-croppedin a style resembling men’s hairstyles. Some scholars believethat women represented with short hair were wearinga close-fitting cap. The third typical hairstyle forwomen dancers was a ponytail weighted at the end witha disk or ball. In many representations this disk is paintedreddish-orange, the same color as the sun. This elementthus might relate to the cult of the sun-god, Re. MiddleKingdom female dancers also wore this ponytail witha disk-shaped weight. Others wore three pigtails, thoughthis style was less common. New Kingdom women weresubject to more quickly changing styles. Though boththe close-cropped style and the tripartite hairstyle continuedin popularity, women also wore wigs that entirelyenveloped their backs, shoulders, and chests, and dancerssometimes imitated this fashion. Some female dancerswore complicated hairstyles that scholars believe camefrom Nubia, in the modern Sudan, just south of Egypt.Perhaps some of these changes from the earlier periodsresulted from artists’ increased interest in representingthis kind of detail. When men danced, they normallywore their hair in a close-cropped short style. They mightalso wear a tight-fitting cap. The only specialized headgearthat men wore for the dance was the tall, crownlikemuu-hat. This distinctive headgear identified themuu-dancer with ferrymen who conducted boatsthrough Egypt’s canals, and revealed their function inthe dance as conductors of the funeral procession fromplace to place. The muu-hat was made from woven reedsand was rather tall and cone-shaped. Though rare, representationsof men wearing ponytails with the diskshapedweight more commonly worn by female dancersdo exist. This style possibly associated the dance withthe cult of the sun-god, Re.ACCESSORIES. Women’s accessories emphasizedparts of their bodies important to the dance. Braceletsand armlets drew attention to their arms and large goldearrings brought focus to the head. The same was trueof the headbands and fragrant cones that women woreon their heads as a perfume. Finally, many women worestraps crossed over the chest and back as part of the dancecostume. The only accessories that male dancers worewere bracelets and collars. While the precious metalsworn on the wrists and around the neck served to drawthe viewer’s attention, this jewelry was similar to whatmen wore in other situations and so was not particularlysignificant to the dance costume.SCHOLARS’ REACTIONS. Western scholars in thepast have often expressed discomfort with the relativelyrevealing costumes that Egyptian dancers wore. Theywere reacting, in part, to the issue of public nudity, butalso to the real presence of erotic intent that was integralto Egyptian funerals. Egyptian funerals led the deceasedto rebirth into the afterlife. The Egyptiansbelieved that this rebirth required a sexual conceptionresembling conception and birth into this world. Revealingclothing paired with movement played an obviousrole in this process.SOURCESRafael Perez Arroyo, Egipto: La música en la era de laspirámides (Madrid: Ediciones Centro de Estudios Egipcios,2000).Fr. W. von Bissing,”Ein altägyptische Mädchentracht,”Zeitschrit für Ägyptische Sprache 37 (1899): 75–78.SEE ALSO Fashion: ClothingTHE DANCERSPROFESSIONAL BUREAU. Most dancers werewomen who belonged to the bureau called the khener.A smaller number of men were also khener members.Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 69