In this chapter, I explore a contemporary oriental dance venue in America, the Arizona Renaissance Festival. I examine how oriental dance functions at the festival and how the festival uses the past as an exotic entity. The Arizona Renaissance Festival creates a fantastic culture of entertainment and strengthens America's ties to European heritage. Contemporary representations of belly dancing are examined, illustrating how this multifaceted dance simultaneously connects and negates its orientalist roots in America. I also examine the impact of 19th century oriental dance imagery on contemporary dance through costume inspiration. Due to the many styles of belly dancing in America today, I focus on only two different forms of belly dancing, American Tribal Style Belly Dancing or as it is called ATS and Egyptian Cabaret. Renaissance Festival CultureDisplaying a constructed view of Europe that is predominantly historical. culture, the Arizona Renaissance Festival loosely follows the format of 19th-century world's fairs. The festival is a fair that spans thirty acres with stalls selling merchandise, food and hosting games of skill. The festival includes eight stages which constitute the center of entertainment. The Arizona Renaissance Festival's reproduction of past European culture and society confers minimal educational benefits. The central goal of the festival is entertainment and revenue. The participant is removed from everyday life and placed in an alternative culture where knights, pirates, fairies and belly dancers coexist, generating a fantastical world. The Arizona Renaissance Festival does not have a specific space dedicated to Middle Eastern culture. The entire festival is a journey... in the middle of a sheet of paper... these questions may not have complete or satisfactory answers. The concept that belly dancing is an ever-changing dance might surprise most people, as the static orientalist The image of the belly dancer is one that permeates American popular culture. Other researchers and I are trying to extricate belly dancing from the striated framework of orientalism and harem fantasy. By describing how belly dancing came to America and how images of belly dancers and harems became part of Western visual culture, I have attempted to demonstrate that there are aspects of power and that a Different playback of belly dance images is possible. Through continued research and scholarly inquiry, I look forward to the emergence of a new image of belly dance, one that represents the power and beauty of this dance, one that is respectful of the many cultures that she represents..