This paper focuses on the performance process in Egyptian-style Oriental dance and the phenomenon of tarab, or emotional ecstasy. Music frequently identified as being tarab music includes musiqa al-gadid, specifically that of Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. Oriental dance is customarily performed to this genre of music, which dancers acknowledge as an inseparable part of the dance. Another important component in the overall Oriental dance performance is the folkloric section, which includes the raqs assaya, or cane dance, and music identifiable through specific rhythms and musical instruments as originating from the Said region of Egypt. This paper will illustrate how the Oriental dancer, in tandem with the music of Umm Kulthum and references to the folkloric culture of the Said region, engages with the audience to create the experience of tarab—a deeply emotional state generated by the invocation of personal, public, and cultural memories that are often collectively experienced by dancer, musicians, and audience. While the compositional elements of musiqa al-gadid (maqam, instrumentation, improvisation, and decoration) and the lyrics of Umm Kulthum drive the tarab experience, I argue that the memories which emerge associated with the great singer Umm Kulth?m, the physical engagement of the audience during the Saidi section, and the various levels of interaction that unfold over these portions of the performance create the potential for an enhanced tarab experience. This study is based on interviews with both Egyptian dancers and North American dancers who performed extensively in the Middle East as well as data collected over a period of ten years observing Oriental dance performances. This paper, while both building on and theorizing from the current ethnomusicological research on tarab music, foregrounds the dancer’s voice and her experiences while embodying and performing to this music, offering a new analysis that brings the dancer into the discourse and expands our understanding of Oriental dance as a performance and aesthetic experience apart from the traditional notions of Orientalism.