You've been waiting for Aisha's Dance. Hope it doesn't disappoint.
Chapter Fifteen – A Magical Dancer
Tariq called to the musicians outside to begin. The three simple instruments (unchanged in Bedouin culture for many hundreds of years), combined with a droning chant, were not intended to play melodies or chords as Western music contains, but to provide a beat and rhythm to the dance. Notes existed merely to punctuate the beat. The tempo varied as the players would mount a crescendo of faster play then slow and unravel the music to a languid timing marked with staccato drum beats.
The slim, petite girl stood alone in the center of the tent, arms entwined above her head, motionless. Almost imperceptibly, her body began to move, swaying ever so slightly with the insistent beat of the music. Gradually, the motions increased, parts of her body began to move separately, her arms lowering and curling to frame her upper body. Her feet, which at first had seemed fixed, were stepping ever so delicately, adding to her movement and weaving of her arms.
Aisha twirled, bowed, flexed backwards, and moved her hips in all directions. The contortions of the young, female body, though fully draped, were highly suggestive and erotic.
The hypnotic rhythm of the music slowly sped up and Aisha’s body, as if controlled by each note of each instrument, sped up with it. The loose scarves swayed with the dance, covering her body but enhancing the motion as waves of color undulating to the beat.
Her sweet arms were unfolded on the air like floating flowers, and, in the gradual bending of her small hands, there lurked a grace that no man could withstand. The rocking and pumping of her hips made her veils shimmer in the light. The men lustily imagined how her body would move with them.
The music accelerated to a rapid beat with the girl moving, spinning and thrusting to the sounds. Then, the string and recorder abruptly halted, as did the dancer. The drum continued to beat a slow, erratic tattoo. With each solitary beat, Aisha’s hips thrust, forward and back, side to side, her hands weaving the air like an orchestra conductor. Though she was an innocent virgin and fully covered by veils, Aisha projected a hot sensuality that drove the men to a state of high arousal.
The German Officers knew nothing of this art form, but they recognized that they were watching a consummate artist who could weave a magic spell with the palette of colored fabric in motion.