Where does the "egyptian walk" come from?

[Kent_Clark]

@Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker

The first time I ever saw it “on screen” was in some cartoon, probably of late 1950s to mid 1960s vintage.

It’s also in the 1959 movie Rally Round the Flag Boys. Joan Collins wraps herself in a sheet and does a little one arm up, one arm down dance somewhat similar to the opening credits of the TV sitcom I Dream of Jeanie (which came along a few years later.)

[Scougs]

@CookingWithGas

I have been to Egypt six times. I have seen hundreds and hundreds of depictions like the flat style linked here, but have never seen a single one with one arm up and forward and fingers pointed to the front, and the other arm down and back and the fingers pointed to the rear. And I’ve been looking for them.

Substitute your six times for my once, and that’s what I came hear to post. Call me a saddo, but on my Egyptian tour, I really, really looked for the “classic” pose in the paintings. Never saw one.

[Sapo]

@MarcusF

As far as I remember the museaun did not really present any strong argument for why they are different. Possibly just the painter was a genius and refused to be confined.

I am guessing that the artist worked from a photograph for that particular piece and didn’t know what their profile looked like.

[bordelond]

Some Balinese dancing resembles the “walk like an Egyptian” pose. Could there have been a conflation in the popular media at some point in the past?

[MarcusF]

@Sapo

I am guessing that the artist worked from a photograph for that particular piece and didn’t know what their profile looked like.

Of course :smack: Can’t think why the British Museum didn’t suggest this…

[bonzer]

@chowder

I blame Wilson, Kepple and Betty

This interesting paper (a pdf) on the act claims that “sand dancing” had a prior history in music hall, but they surely are how the style became so famous in the Twenties and Thirties. I’d suspect that all subsequent instances derive from their example.

[MerryMagdalen]

@Johanna

I actually had that painting in mind as a counterexample. I wondered why it would be an exception. The subject as a whole is a late (New Kingdom) departure from classical Egyptian artistic conventions. Old Kingdom art was limited to gods, royalty, and aristocracy, in highly formal scenes and those formalized poses. Naturalistic art like the Nebamun fresco didn’t develop until the New Kingdom, and was not the norm. Do look at the dancers too, their bodies are shown from the side or maybe a three-quarter aspect, which is another departure from convention. It would be kind of impossible to suggest any dance movement at all if limited to the classical conventions. That’s my guess anyway.

Note that the people on the top of the painting (who I’m presuming were guests) were shown conventionally (face profile, shoulders front, feet profile). People of lower social status, children, and animals could be shown much more freely than others since they didn’t have any dignity to protect. (According to Barbara Mertz, anyway.)

I believe the god Bes is never shown in profile.