DANCING QUEEN

Those who know that the seductive art of belly dancing is not meant to be done by gyrating, bikini-clad women in nightclubs have Tunisian-born Leila Haddad (a/k/a the Queen of Oriental Dance) to thank. For more than 25 years, she’s made it her goal to have belly dancing in Western culture recognized as a thrilling and refined art form meant for the stage, and in tonight’s In the Trail of the Ghawazee: Gypsy Dances of the Nile, she’ll show off all the intricacies and styles that make the form so mesmerizing (in traditional body-covering costumes, of course) with a program of dances from Southern Egypt, accompanied by the seven-member ensemble Gypsy Musicians of Upper Egypt.
Fri., March 7, 8 p.m., 2008