Date of Award

Summer 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

First Advisor

Rosana Barragán

Abstract

This thesis examines how colonization and commodification have shaped the codification of belly dance though the Salimpour Method. Codification here refers to the process of naming, categorizing, and organizing of movement into a teachable system. While codification inevitably transforms tradition, it also serves as a method of preservation. As the inheritor of the Salimpour lineage, I trace how my mother, Jamila Salimpour, first codified belly dance and how I built on her work to create a comprehensive pedagogical system that situates belly dance within artistic and academic contexts. This study argues that the Salimpour Method is a strategy of preserving, and transmitting Southwest Asia North Africa dance traditions, embodied knowledge, musicality, and improvisational practices while contextualizing them for contemporary performance, pedagogy, and scholarship. Codification emerges not as the conclusion of tradition, but as a dynamic process through which cultural memory and artistic practice are continually negotiated, adapted, and sustained.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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