I. Pharaonic Dance at the Egyptian Coptic Festival 
Arising as one of the only—if not the only—diasporic festivals dedicated exclusively to the Coptic heritage and culture, the Egyptian Coptic Festival takes place in Mississauga, Canada. The video displayed is a clip from the first annual festival, taking place in 2018, in which two Coptic women are dressed in costumes symbolic of pharaonic times, and dance to instrumental music. Despite lacking the typical raqs sharqi setting and costume, the movement of the women carries many elements of this traditional dance form. Although, due to the costume, they use their arms much more and in different manners than is common in raqs sharqi, the belly undulations are almost identical to that of contemporary Egyptian belly dance. While it could possibly be an extraction from the contemporary movement canon, there exist a great deal of speculation that belly dance has its origins in the Pharaonic Kingdom. Regardless of arguments surrounding the genuine origins of both belly dance and Copts, this is the medium through which the Coptic women express and experience their Egyptian heritage. If the public belly dance scene is not one that Coptic women can easily or comfortably engage in, then other ways to experience their identity and culture are constructed, hence the pharaonic themes clearly present in the dance and in popular Coptic discourse.

Hong, George. "Egyptian Coptic Festival dancers MAH02324." YouTube, 17 Sep. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYmQWP1g4dM&feature=emb_title.

II. Liturgical Canon of Coptic Movement Conversations of Dance and Movement are inextricably tied, and while we have explored a Coptic relationship to the traditional conception of Egyptian dance, we now explore exclusively and distinguishably Coptic movement, particularly, liturgical movement. In the displayed video, a Coptic monk explains the specific form of prostration utilized in Coptic liturgy. He explains how the form of the fists is symbolic in representing a certain level of strength and resiliency, countering Satan’s flat-handed fall from grace. Not only is the prostration, or metonia, utilized in liturgy, but is also an individualized experience used in personal prayers, particularly as a form of humility and piety. Although this seems to fall far from the conventional discussions of dance in Egypt, every group’s movement canon reveals insight into their collective and individual experiences within a society: whether they be marginalized or not. For example, many secular dances of the region draw from the religious and spiritually significant spinning dances of the Sufi Muslims. Thus, the lack of an echo of Coptic movement in mainstream dance can be understood through the more general marginalization and religious repression of the group rather than a separation of the religious from the secular. 

Kartaev, Vladimir. "How to do prostrations?" YouTube, 3 May 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd66Zx8ED90&feature=emb_title.