Ghawazi (also ghawazee) (Arabic: الغوازي) are female dancers who danced in return for money in public settings, and the streets. There were male dancers as well, including men who performed movements associated with women and who were pejoratively called khawal.

Traditional Ghawazi dancers have become less common as time passes. There are main movements and positioning of two of the most popular Ghawazi groups that are found in modern Egypt; the Banat Mazin (Arabic: بنات مازن) and the Sumbati Ghawazee (Arabic: غوازي السنباطي). The Banat Mazin are famous for their traditional Upper Egyptian vintage-style costume, so you can see how the movements would be affected by the costuming. The Sagat (finger cymbals), are optional but recommended in the Upper Egyptian/Saidi style.

The Arabic غوازي ghawāzī (singular غازية ghāziya) means "conqueror", as the ghaziya is said to "conquer" the hearts of her audience. They were also known as awālim (singular alma, transliterated almeh in French as almée), but in Egypt, Awalim are the traditional Egyptian dancers and singers of the city, not rural areas, who used to perform in respectable events such as the weddings and festivities of notable people.

Both terms are 19th-century euphemisms for "erotic dancer"; almeh literally means "learned woman" and came to be used as a replacement for ghaziya after the ghawazi were legally banned in 1834.

An almeh originally was a courtesan in Egyptian culture, a woman educated to sing and recite classical poetry and to discourse. After the ghawazi were banned, they were forced to pretend that they were in fact awalim. The term almeh was introduced in French Orientalism as almée and used synonymously with "belly dancer".

The practice began as a few Egyptian Domari refused to dance for free, unlike the custom among all Egypt. Rural Egyptians or Fellahin adopted the practice, developing a more rural and traditional style accompanied by rural Egyptian songs and the colorful dresses of the Fellahin, becoming a theme of rural Egypt.

In 1834, the ghawazi were banished from Cairo to Upper Egypt by Muhammad Ali. Initially, the Ghawazi were a very small group who were banished because of their low-class dancing. By the time of their banishment the term had become a general term for any dancers as it included all the traditional and folk dances of Rural and Upper Egyptians, mainly featuring mizmars and heavy bass lines and other traditional Egyptian music in the background.

Beginning in the first half of the 19th century, descriptions and depictions of ghawazi dancers became famous in European Orientalism, and the style was described as danse de ventre or belly-dance from the 1860s.