Traditionally, Oriental Dancing was spontaneous and so was its music. Live musicians (or even just a single drummer) would play while the dancer interpreted the music. The music or rhythm might change and lead the dancer in a new direction and vice versa.
Today, composed music is often used by belly dancers and moves may be choreographed and practised.
Today not all dancing is performed to traditional compositions. Egyptian Cabaret Dancers may perform with live musicians or to recorded music - sometimes to traditional music and other times to modern Egyptian pop music.
ATS dancers often maintain a folkloric sound using traditional instruments, but fused with instruments from India or the Far East, while ATS offshoots will perform to anything from Goth bands to Hip-Hop, Electronica to Latin pop.
As a dancer, the music should speak to you on a personal level, whatever the style. Personally, there is nothing like the music of Israeli singer Ofra Haza to make me shimmy (my own belly dance teacher introduced me to her music through the pop song "Show Me"):
If the music "sings" to you and makes you want to dance, it doesn't matter what it is.
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