Intangible Cultural Heritage Beyond Borders: Egyptian Bellydance (Raqs Sharqi) as a Form of Transcultural Heritage

The 2003 UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage highlights the importance of safeguarding traditional practices. While some of these practices are only performed in their place of origin, others (such as yoga and flamenco) take place worldwide. In this paper we explore what happens when a form of ICH that originated in one place becomes global. For this, we use Egyptian raqs sharqi (bellydance) as a case study. This is a dance genre with strong cultural roots in Egypt but is also hybrid and now practiced worldwide. Theoretically, we draw on a holistic view of living heritage, Welsch's transculturality and Urry's mobilities. Research methods include one-to-one interviews, analysis of written sources and of online dance videos. Raqs sharqi emerges as hybrid and transcultural, yet strongly connected to Egypt as the origin of its heritage. We conclude that ICH can be transcultural and global, whilst maintaining a strong connection to its place of origin.