CAIRO, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Russian and Australian belly dancers have lost their appeal to perform in Egyptian night clubs.
Top belly dancers can earn $3,145 a night in Cairo where "Oriental" dancing, as it is known, is big business. A recent influx of foreigners prepared to undercut those fees is believed to be behind the Egyptian court ruling, the BBC reported. Foreign dancers are thought to have accounted for up to a third of belly-dancers in Egypt.
Some night club managers are admirers of the newcomers.
"The foreigners were creative, looking at old Egyptian movies to come up with new routines," one club manager told the New York Times. "They are not like the Egyptians, who think they just know how to dance and because they are Egyptian, everyone will love them automatically."
While many Egyptians are anxious to preserve the belly dancing tradition, parents are less willing to allow their daughters to participate.
