This project is focused on examining the response of British and French colonial powers to female dancers in the regions of Algeria and India during the first half of the 20th century. The dancers studied in this project include the Devadasis from India and the Ouled Naïl from Algeria. This project will have a small pre-colonial component that examines the images, the actual dance form and the practices of these dancers. The majority of the project will focus on the colonial period and on two particular means that the livelihood and image of these dancers was attacked by colonizers: postcards (Ouled Naïl) and dance schools (Devadasis). The respective colonial forces arrived in both regions not too far apart from one another, 1757 for British colonization of India and 1830 for French colonization of Algeria, and their response to these women was similar in nature. Both colonial groups sought to strip these women of their art form through legislative and economic policies, and local and global social stratification. While examining the actual events that transpired during this time period, this project will also develop a collective framework as to how dancers have been viewed historically and their historic correlation with sexuality. This framework will be connected back to this case study throughout the project and connected back to the characterization of colonial fear. These groups of dancers shared similarities from their liminal position in society and their association with sexuality to their ability to independently earn a living through their dance form, all factors that made them a threat to colonial forces. On a deeper level, this project will look at the motives of these attacks on female dancers. By examining these motives, this project will argue that fear of powerful women was the primary driving force behind the attempted erasure of the Ouled Naïl and Devadasi dancers.