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Mata Hari, an exotic dancer.

The terms exotic dancer and exotic dance can have different meanings in different parts of the world and depending on context. In the erotic sense, "exotic dance" is a euphemism for stripping and is often the title used by strippers to avoid the negative connotation of their job title. In a non-erotic sense, it can mean many forms of foreign or cultural dance.

Forms of exotic dancing

In a non-erotic sense, the word "exotic" applies to the fact that something is out of the ordinary or perceived by spectators as unusual. It can also apply to those dancers who master a rare or largely lost art form, including whirling dervishes, shaman dancers and religious dancers. Middle Eastern dance is often referred to as exotic dance in this way, though its use of hip/pelvic movement and isolation often results in its conflation with exotic dance in the erotic sense.

Other forms of exotic dance are aerial dance, many forms of experimental dance, Pogo, Breakdance and all other dance forms with unconventional movements. Strictly speaking, many anarchistic dance forms in wild parties can be considered as exotic dance, when movements take place that are not used in standard or Latin dance.

In an erotic sense, the term "exotic dance" is used as a euphemism for erotic dancing. While there is overlap, they are not the same. The origin of this erotic interpretation is similar to that of the term massage parlor, in that a description for a non-sexual service was co-opted to describe a sexual service.^[1]

See also

• Belly dance
• Striptease
• Strip club
• Erotic dancing

References