Review of Existing Indexing Languages

Because the websites that do deal with bellydancing are relatively new, all created within the last decade, the ThoBe researchers accessed a large number of sites. This was to ensure broad coverage of the domain – bellydance costume items – and to supplement the experiential knowledge of the researchers themselves. Though they are all bellydance practitioners, the dance form is so fragmented into different styles that it is quite possible that the researchers might be unaware of items specific to a particular dance style.

Due to the large number of sources reviewed, it would be complicated and somewhat redundant to annotate each individually. The sources reviewed do fall into four categories, according to the function of the information presented – and  so the researchers deem it useful to annotate generally by category. The categories are:

• Vendors 
• Glossaries 
• Costuming 
• General information 

The most useful resources were vendor websites, those constructed by manufacturers and retailers of bellydance costume items. These are the members of the bellydance community who deal with (and sometimes generate new terms for) the language of costume items on a daily basis. Vendor websites thus serve as the main source of terms used in this thesaurus.

Vendor websites indicated to the researchers ways of describing costume items. The terms used on these websites must be understandable to bellydancers from a variety of backgrounds, who practice a variety of styles. Thus vendors describe costume items according to shape or possibly function, but refrain from connecting a costume item with a particular dance style. This was a key factor that the researchers considered when building the thesaurus.

As stated above, vendors cater to dancers who practice a variety of styles, and so tend to stock a large, diverse inventory of costume items. Vendor websites enabled the researchers to get the broadest sense of the domain of bellydance costume items. These websites also provided the basic hierarchical relationships of costume items, because vendors tend to organize their wares in rough top-term hierarchies.

Finally, vendor websites were invaluable in determining literary warrant. Because there is no existing controlled language, literary warrant was the sole method of designating preferred and non-preferred terms.

Asad, Dee Dee, and Ahmed Asad. Little Egypt Costumes. 2000. <http://www.littleegypt.com/> (2 February 2002).

Audrena’s International Bazaar. [n.d.]. <http://aleena.com/audrena/index.html> (2 February 2002).

Baladi Boutique. 28 January 2002. <http://www.baladiboutique.com> (8 February 2002).

BellyDanceShoppe.com. 2000. <http://www.bellydanceshoppe.com/> (2 February 2002).

Chandra’s Dance Extravaganza. 11 February 2002. <http://www.chandras.com/> (2 February 2002).

Cost Less Belly Dance Costumes. [n.d.]. <http://www.costlesscostumes.com/> (2 February 2002).

Desert Dancer Imports. [n.d.]. <http://www.desertdancer.com/pics.html> (2 February 2002).

Dhyanis. 2000. <http://www.creativei.com/dhyanis/> (2 February 2002).

Feldthouse, Sulyman. El Coyote Enterprises. [n.d.]. <http://www.sirocco-music.com/~elcoyote/index.html> (2 February 2002).

Hendrix, Terri, and Stephanie Elle. Judith’s Head. [n.d.] <http://www.judithshead.com/>. (2 February 2002).

Ice Cube Imports: Middle Eastern Dance Supplies. [n.d.] <http://www.canada-shops.com/Stores/carrie/> (2 February 2002).

Joharah International. [n.d.] <http://www.joharah.com> (8 February 2002).

Merrifield, Beka. BellyRoll Costumes. [n.d.]. <http://www.bellyroll.com/> (2 February 2002).

Michele, Alia. Alia Michele Designs. 23 January 2002. <http://www.aliamdesigns.com> (8 February 2002).

Scheherezade Imports. February 2002. <http://www.scheherezadeimports.com> (8 February 2002).

Shaheena’s Bellydance Supplies. February 2002. <http://www.uniquewear.com/bellydance_supplies.htm> (7 February 2002).

ShimmyShimmy.com Inc. ShimmyShimmy. 2001. <http://www.shimmyshimmy.com> (8 February 2002).

Shoshanna. L. Rose Designs. 11 April 2001. <http://lrosedesigns.com/frameset.html> (2 February 2002).

Theora’s Bellydance Boutique. [n.d.] <http://www.theorabellydanceboutiq.com> (8 February 2002).

Turquoise International. [n.d.] <http://www.turquoiseintl.com> (8 February 2002).

We3 Belly Dance. [n.d.]. <http://www.we3bellydance.com/homepage.html> (2 February 2002).

Wood, Nicola, and Irene Wood. Aladdin’s Cave. [n.d.] <http://www.aladdinscave.uk.com/> (7 February 2002).

Zaramaya. Zara’s Emporium. 14 February 2002. <http://www.zarasemporium.com> (8 February 2002).

Existing glossaries, though few in number, were used to confirm literary warrant. They were especially useful in that they go into great detail about the functionality and relationships between terms. Glossaries are the only thing approaching a controlled vocabulary of bellydance terms; however, where literary warrant (determined from a poll of vendor websites) differed from the term used in a glossary, the researchers went with the literary warrant.

Belly Dance Moves and Related Terms. 28 January 1996. <http://www.bdancer.com/glossary.html> (7 February 2002).

Shira. Belly Dance Terms: A Glossary. 16 June 2001. <http://www.shira.net/glossary.htm> (7 February 2002).

Websites dealing with costume design and ideas are also scarce, but the few available provided further definition of the function and relationships between terms. The costuming websites played a large part in helping the researchers to determine the level of exhaustivity of the thesaurus. The terms used in costuming websites are described by their function as part of an assemblage of costume items, or by the process necessary to sew or construct them. After consulting the costuming websites, the researchers were able to discard a number of terms from the list of those being considered for inclusion in the thesaurus, as the discarded terms would not have contributed to a useful level of exhaustivity.

Brown, Dawn Devine. Homepage. December 2001. <http://www.davina.org> (8 February 2002).

Omphalo-Stepses: Easy Costuming Ideas. 2001. <http://shanmonster.bla-bla.com/belly/costuming/index.html> (7 February 2002).

Sheikhani Middle Eastern Dance Troupe. Sheikhani Mid-East Dance Troupe. 10 January 2002. <http://geocities.com/sheikhani_troupe/> (7 February 2002).

Belly Dance Home Page. 1 October 1998. <http://www.bdancer.com> (7 February 2002).

This is an extensive list of links to belly dancing websites. While the researchers did not obtain terms from this website, it was a good starting point, and gave a sense of the potential domain of the thesaurus.

Oxford University Press. OED Online. 2002. <http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl> (18 February 2002).

This resource was used to determine the scope of terms which are common to both bellydancing and more general uses, for example, the term “fringe”.