TIPS: Making the Most of Your Classroom Experience (by Mirah Ammal )

Good tips, with the bellydance student in mind...

Maybe you've just started taking dance, or maybe you've been studying for years, but in any case, you've decided to brave the exciting world of group dance classes. How can you make the most of your classes and see improvement in your dancing? A few important tips:

1) Pay attention what your instructor says to the whole class. Treat corrections or clarifications directed at the group as though they could be directed at you personally, and look for ways to adjust your own body/dancing. Generally, in a group class if an instructor makes a broad comment, it means that many or all of the people in the room can use hearing it (some to a greater extent, but most everyone can get something out of it.)

2) Develop a thick skin. When your instructor corrects you, she’s not picking on you. She’s trying to help you get better! Sometimes she may be trying to help you correct a critical flaw, but sometimes, she may see you’re very close to getting something well and she’s trying to help push you to the next plane. It’s hard to take correction or criticism, but it’s the only way we can get better. Avoid making excuses, and ask for clarification if you're not sure what she's telling you.

3) Seek out feedback. Ok, so now you’ve worked on thickening that skin…now ask for the tough feedback. Don’t just fish for compliments, actually ask to know how something is going and (if you’re ready for it) let the instructor know you’d appreciate her honest assessment. (Remember, not everyone takes feedback well, so your instructor may be a little nervous about hurting students' feelings or angering people. Letting her know you *want* honest feedback lets her know she can give it to you, and that helps you get better.)

4) Avoid moving up a level for social or ego reasons. Be sure your technique development matches your class level. When in doubt, ask your instructor’s opinion. Also, when moving up, consider taking two classes simultaneously for a session or two—one at the lower level (where you feel confident and can continue to really master techniques)—and one at the higher level where you will feel challenged. This is good for your technique, and it can help for you emotionally. When you move up to the next level—to a class populated at least in part with people who’ve taken that level before—you may feel clumsy, awkward all over again. But in your old class, you’re the old pro.

5) Try not to compare yourself with others. Everyone comes to the dance with a different set of experiences, different strengths, and a different biology. Every dancer had her movements she struggled to get, and some that came to her easily. Be patient, give yourself permission to not be perfect right away, and remember, it's not a contest.

6) Train your eye for detailed observation. Train your eye to watch movement carefully. Notice where your instructor places her weight. Which muscles are working and which are relaxed? What are her hands, feet, arms and hips doing? And how is what you're doing similar or different? Being able to observe the details and observe specifically what you need to correct in your movement is the first step toward being able to do the movement properly.

7) Recognize that the darkest hour is often right before dawn. Sometimes you’ll hit plateaus where you feel like you’re not moving forward quickly or at all. That’s ok. We all go through periods of this. Also, recognizing what you’re doing wrong is a huge step toward being able to do it right. So, when you see what you’re doing wrong but your body won’t correct it just yet, don’t despair and don’t give up—change is coming!

8) Practice ALWAYS! Practice in the shower, the office, the grocery store, or anywhere you go. Not all practice needs to be a serious 60 minute concentration session. The shower is an excellent place to practice your undulations. Pumping gas? You can get several minutes of shimmy practice! Waiting on line at the grocery story? Dainty hip-drops! Alone in the bathroom at work? Three-quarter shimmy and Tunisians! Look for little moments throughout the day when you can practice the moves you're working on. A few seconds here and there (tummy flutters on a conference call….) can help you get better, and can give you a lift during the day. (Note: if you're too weirded out to dance at your own local grocery store, go to the Chicago Ave. Kowalski's in Minneapolis. They're used to it by now.)

9) If you don’t know what the most important parts of a movement are, ask. I once substituted for a Level 1 class that was working on a choreography. They were doing very well, but at one point in the dance, the ladies did something I can only describe as "the chicken walk". I watched, baffled, for several moments. Then it hit me. Their instructor had shown them a walking movement…but they'd focused on her kicked-up foot (a particular stylization of hers), not the "core" of the movement (which was in the core of the body). They were so focused on this stylization that they had missed the actual movement entirely! It was an understandable error (and easily fixed), but it serves to illustrate the point—recognize what the important parts of a movement are, and what is just optional stylization. You'll never be worse off for asking, and one question might prevent hours of public chicken-walking.

10) Take classes from more than one instructor. Of course you'll develop a taste for your favorite instructor and it's good to have a primary relationship, but if there's more than one instructor in your area, take advantage of your good fortune! Different teachers have different styles and methods, and you can learn from them all. Plus, sometimes you can hear the same comment 500 times from one instructor, but simply hearing it in a different voice makes it hit home. So challenge yourself to try out someone in addition to your regular instructor (and be wary of instructors who don't want you to go to anyone else!)

(c) Mirah Ammal, 2006

Source: Mirah Ammal's website

Adina Gamal Shimmies Her Way Out of Belly Dancer Stereotypes

June 27, 2012
By Bonnie Caprara

Belly dancing. Cabaret dancing. Burlesque dancing. They all evoke visions slim, seductive and exotic women whose movements glide through a room, stirring the visions and souls of wanting men in a seductive, teasing way.

They’re the fantasies of many women, too. Housewives. Students. Even teachers like Jeanine Wilson.
They’re fantasies of the women they want to be.

“When I went through my second divorce, I was looking for things to do to make myself happy,” Wilson says.

However, Wilson put off her exploration into belly dancing for a month “I thought I’d be the only African-American and the only big girl in the class,” Wilson says. “But I’m not a quitter. I believe in seeing things through. After my first time, I thought, ‘Wow! I did this. I did this as well as anyone else.’”

Not only did Wilson see things through, but as her alter ego, Adina Gamal, she and business partner, Zaniah Amairah are tantalizing audiences as teachers and performers of Detroit Shimmy.

After several years of learning, Wilson brings a philosophy to primarily belly dancing that speaks to non-Middle Eastern women or women with perfectly proportional bodies.

“I am constantly trying to help the girls because I know what they’re going through,” Wilson says. “You strive to be the best dancer that you can be with belly dancing. You are too beautiful no matter what size you are.”

Since taking up belly dancing, Wilson has dropped from 280 pounds to 226 pounds in a regimen that also includes dieting and water aerobics. And since she and Amairah have taught and encouraged women of every size, shape and color to embrace, accept and express themselves through belly dancing and other forms of dance, what had once been a hobby is now a busy performance schedule, which has included performances at Ferndale Pride and River Days.

As for breaking down the myths that professional belly dancing is only for slim Middle Eastern women, Wilson says, “The people in the Middle Eastern community really love me because I can really dance … I’m not doing it to get anyone hot and bothered, I’m doing it for me.”

Source: The Urbane Life

Dancing With No Arms or Legs

This was so inspiring, I had to share it: A quadruple amputee from Oregon dances at NYC's prestigious Juilliard school.

Source: ABC News

An Introduction to Belly Dance

Published: February 03, 2007
Writer: Nadia De Leon

Authentic Belly Dance is not the deceptive immoral dance of seduction that western Hollywood-influenced stereotypes would have us believe. Belly Dance has been misrepresented by cabaret dancers and incorrectly portrayed to the public by the media. In reality, Belly Dance is a natural, earthly, beneficial, enjoyable and completely ethical dance that honors women and femininity. The proper term for this dance, which can both be a highly disciplined art as well as a form of casual exercise and entertainment, is Oriental Dance. The first American teachers disliked the word "belly dance" because of its wrong sexual connotation and focus on the women's torsos and not on their dancing technique. In her article Roots the well-known and respected teacher Morocco (Carolina Vargas Dinicu), who has more than thirty years studying, performing and teaching Belly Dance, states: "To use the disgusting misnomer 'belly dance' is not only incorrect, it is an insult equivalent to calling Flamenco 'cockroach killing'"[1]. Nowadays, the term Belly Dance has been accepted by many teachers and reclaimed by new dancers because the body part where the movements are focused is, indeed, the belly. And this has nothing to do with a seductive goal; in fact, it has to do with fertility.

Many dance scholars support a theory that places Belly Dance as the oldest dance in the history of humanity, stating that it originated as a fertility ritual thousands of years ago. They use as evidence for their theory 17,000 years-old rock engravings found in southern Italy, Greece and Egypt, as well as famous fertility goddesses/ women sculptures such as the Venus of Willendorf. Furthermore, some dance researchers, such as dancer, writer and editor Daniella Gioseffi in her book Earth Dancing, claim that Belly Dancing was originally a ritual form for the Mother Earth Goddess in primal matriarchal or polytheistic societies where the dance honored femininity and was passed down from mothers to daughters.

Another important theory about the origin of Belly Dance is the one based on its childbirth facilitation and training capabilities. Several dancers including the famed dance ethnologist La Meri, who traveled extensively throughout the Middle East for research and training purposes in the '20s and '30s, claim to have witnessed rituals in which a woman in labor is surrounded by other women who perform Belly Dancing in a sort of hypnotizing ritual for moral support.

Belly Dancing arrived to America as an imported cabaret spectacle referred to as Danse du ventre, which originated in the Middle East during the colonization of Africa by European countries. Referring to this degradation process, the Armenian dancer

Armen Ohanian states in her book The Dancer of Shamahka:

Thus in Cairo one evening I saw, with sick incredulous eyes, one of our most sacred dances degraded into a bestiality horrible and revolting. It is our poem of the mystery and pain of motherhood, which all true Asiatic men watch with reverence and humility, in the far corners of Asia where the destructive breath of the Occident has not yet penetrated. In this olden Asia, which has kept the dance in its primitive purity, it represents maternity, the mysterious conception of life, the suffering and the joy with which a new soul is brought in the world. Could any man born of woman contemplate this most holy subject, expressed in an art so pure and so ritualistic as our eastern dance, with less than profound reverence? Such is our Asiatic veneration of motherhood, that there are countries and tribes whose most sacred oath is sworn upon the stomach, because it is from this sacred cup that humanity has issued. But the spirit of the Occident had touched this holy dance, and it became the horrible 'danse du ventre' I heard the lean Europeans chuckling, I saw lascivious smiles upon even the lips of Asiatics, and I fled.

Even today in some Middle Eastern regions that remain unaffected by the influence of Western ways of thinking, women dance in a circle around a mother in labor to induce her to repeat the movements and to give her the psychological support showed in the live-giving gift in every woman's destiny. In the informal and familial settings of some Muslim societies, women still gather by themselves in a separate location to dance to the rhythms of the drums, have fun and interact. This traditional form of Belly Dance is called Raks-sharki. Nevertheless, in most of the Middle East the rise of Political Islam has led to more puritanical attitudes in general. Dancers who appear in public, dancing in front of men who are not family to them contradict orthodox Islamic values. As a result, the widely held notion that professional dancers are prostitutes is being reinforced through the Arab countries, from Afghanistan to Morocco. In Egypt the rise of Political Islam is creating a backlash against Belly Dance. By law, in the country that names itself as the place where Belly Dance was born, these dancers cannot dance in television, and police monitors live performances to ensure that the dancer's skirt ends below the knee and that the navel is covered, even if only with transparent material.[2]

These attitudes might sound opposite to our values of freedom and free will, but they are actually understandable given Arab religious and cultural values. Therefore, what I find strange is that here in the U.S. dancing Belly Dance could be a cause to suffer the weight of many prejudices. Dance should be respected as a universal language that allows us to better understand the cultures of others. The fact is, it is impossible to even try understanding cultures different to ours, or widen our concepts in general, if we do not start with an open mind that does not judge dances by the amount of clothes wore by the dancers instead of the cultural meaning attached to them. Once again, the dancer Morocco states this indignation in wonderful words in her article Roots:

When I first came into Oriental dance (...), I was drawn by the beauty of its music and movements and gave no thought to the possibility that it might be misinterpreted by ignorant or misinformed viewers. Innocent that I was, I assumed that the grace of a skilled dancer was sufficient to prove the beauty and legitimacy of this ancient art form. How wrong I was! I've lost count of the times that an erroneous and degrading value judgment of my morality and worthiness was made, based on (...) previous performances of those who, in every profession, cater to the lowest common denominator.[3]

The truth is that Belly dance does not only have many physiological benefits (including good posture, muscular strength, coordination, cardiovascular fitness, eases menstrual pains, improves circulation and digestion, and releases tension), it also has several psychological benefits. Most importantly, it improves self-image and confidence, which is a very important benefit, especially for young women. Belly Dance lets us get in contact with our body and accept it as it is. Belly Dance makes any thin or overweight woman enjoy feminine dancing. This acceptance of ourselves in front of the mirror image as much as in front of other people is more easily achieved in an "only girls" atmosphere. That's why many Belly Dance teachers, including myself, don't even aloud men in their studios. Second, Belly Dance also develops teamwork and a deep feeling of sisterhood among the members of a "dancing troupe". Tribal Belly Dance is danced in couples or larger groups where dance is improvised by the "cue-er", who is the woman on the front left corner. This title is shared because of the rotation of positions, resulting in a group dynamic in which the higher level of team work is reached with the synchronicity of the dancers.

Belly Dance can be a way of life, or something a woman does "just for kicks every other Friday night", but it is always beneficial to the women who practice it. Belly Dance has a way of seducing us, women, into the quest for the light of our own feminine identity, as well as constructing a place of belonging for that identity, in history, in society, regardless of the time, place and culture we come from. Belly Dance invokes and evokes the universal energy of womanhood from the astral collective consciousness into our striking present, into our sweat and skin, the tips of our fingers, and the rhythm of our hearts beating life.

[1] Vargas Dinicu, Carolina (Morocco), Roots, Habibi Vol.5 No.12

[2] Nieuwkerk, Karin van, A trade like any other: female singers and dancers in Egypt, Austin : University of Texas Press, 1995.

[3] Vargas Dinicu, Carolina (Morocco), Roots, Habibi Vol.5 No.12

Source: Associated Content

Gyrate Expectations

Moms-to-be give belly dancing a whirl for fitness and fun
By Lori Price of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Sep. 9, 2008

In many ways, the belly-dancing class was exactly what you'd expect.

A professional belly dancer guided nine women in coin-fringed hip scarves through snaky, seductive motions: hip lifts, pelvic circles, a few shimmies.

Then Stefanie Masters, the instructor, made a suggestion that hinted at why this class was so different.

"If anyone is feeling (confident), you can lift your shirt up to see your belly," Masters said.

Silence. Only one woman tucked the hem of her shirt into its neckline to expose her pregnant belly.

The free class, held at Destination Maternity in Brookfield, is part of a national wave of women taking up belly dancing as a fun way to stay fit.

Hip-popping singer Shakira and increased access to world music have helped push belly dancing, which has roots in various ancient cultures, into mainstream circles. The home fitness market includes DVDs on belly dancing for pregnancy, and YouTube.com carries instructional videos on prenatal belly dancing.

Safe exercise

Belly-dance experts at area studios say some pregnant women are joining their non-prenatal classes. And they've noticed that women already in class are continuing after they become pregnant - something that once caused women to take a break from belly dancing.

Anywhere from five to 10 pregnant or postpartum women attend Masters' class each week. As a result, she and several other local teachers offer modified belly dance instruction for pregnant women: letting them dance in a chair, keeping activity at low-impact levels and eliminating spins and whirls.

Crystal Ruffin, an obstetrician / gynecologist with Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin, said as long as a woman who is experiencing a normal pregnancy doesn't do any of the jerky movements or sudden motions in belly dance, it's a safe option.

Fitness in general is important for pregnant women, several doctors said.

"Exercise during pregnancy . . . does give a woman a better sense of self and helps them not gain so much weight or body fat," said Michelle Douglas, a doctor of osteopathic medicine with Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group.

"(It) can help with a lot of musculoskeletal pains women experience when they're pregnant, such as low back pain. And it can possibly give you an easier, shorter labor and less depression.

"If your body is more fit, your body will endure more and be able to bounce back."

Pregnant women who are looking for fun fitness options - as well as ways to make pregnancy, labor, delivery and recovery easier - are finding that belly dancing's sultry tools, well, deliver.

"It just sounded like an interesting way to exercise and move your body," said Marie Ponder, who's a little more than seven months pregnant with her first child. She attended Masters' class for the first time last week.

"There is walking and going to the gym and doing elliptical work, but that doesn't sound appealing at all when you're pregnant," said Ponder, 26. "I was curious to know what this would be like."

So, how was it?

"I loved it," she said. "It's funny, because you think of being pregnant as being swollen and big and you gain weight. But it actually makes you feel in touch with your body and makes you feel sexy."

Certainly, belly dancing's sensuous side can improve the moods of pregnant women, who often feel awkward in their growing, changing bodies. But it's the dance's key components - posture, breathing and focus - that make it a natural fit for pregnancy.

Traditional moves such as pelvic circles and figure eights strengthen abdominal muscles that are used in labor and delivery. Shimmies, another well-recognized move, have even been said to induce labor, Masters said.

"It tones all of your core muscles, and you actually use a lot of those muscles and the undulations we do in belly dance during labor and delivery," said Shaia Fahrid of Shaia Fahrid Egyptian Dance Studio and Productions.

Lidia Brown, 36, who attends Masters' class and gave birth to a daughter two months ago, said belly dancing made a difference in her nine-month term, labor and delivery.

Brown, who also has a son, said she experienced extreme back pain during both pregnancies. But after she started belly dancing in the seventh month of her last pregnancy, she noticed that the stretching and posture alignment tips she picked up in the classes helped to relieve the pain.

"My back would still hurt, but when I went to class, I wouldn't have the pain anymore, even if it was just for a couple of days after the class," she said.

And all she thought about during the birth of her daughter was breathing.

"Even the nurses were saying, 'Wow, you're breathing really well,' " recalled Brown, who used no pain medication during the birth. She believes all of it - breathing, stronger core muscles, increased energy level - led to a faster delivery. She pushed for 40 minutes to deliver her daughter, she said; it took three hours of pushing to deliver her son two years ago.

A shared experience

But belly dancing classes are not all about the physical, said Masters. The classes also help women connect with their unborn child, establish relationships with each other and reduce the self-conscious feelings some pregnant women say they experience.

"We're giving them a chance to come to the class and build a community," Masters said. "When we build a community, we're allowing them to be connected, and when they feel connected, they don't feel the negativity because they're joined by others who are experiencing what they are going through."

Source: Journal Sentinel Online

Around the world in 80 sways

Written by: Lina Das
Last updated at 8:00 PM on 27th September 2008

They've performed for crown princes and rock stars in a 'celebration of femininity and sensuality' that attracts dancers from 17 to 70. Meet the Bellydance Superstars who are back to shake up the UK.

A disused missile launch base overlooking Los Angeles is not the first place one would expect to find a troupe of exotically dressed beauties, but the Bellydance Superstars, currently pulling elegant shapes in front of a bemused mix of joggers, dogs and passers-by, have played to stranger audiences than this.


Petite Jamilla, a pretty 25-year-old, has done her time dancing in Turkish restaurants ('at times it was horrible – luckily my parents insisted on chaperoning me to every job'), while Bozenka, the dancer credited with honing the belly-dancing skills of hip-swivelling singer Shakira ('Every girl comes to me saying they want to dance like Shakira!'), performed for Hugh Hefner ('he was surrounded by beautiful women and I felt like I was part of some bizarre scene; I did my half hour and left').

Audiences, like family members, can't often be chosen. But in the case of the Bellydance Superstars, they are certainly expanding. The world's most famous belly-dancing troupe, they have performed to more than a million people since their inception six years ago.

Formed by Miles Copeland (the man who guided Sting's career for a quarter of a century), the group has taken a niche dance form and turned it into a worldwide business.

They have performed for luminaries as diverse as Prince Albert of Monaco and rock star Alice Cooper, and in a move akin to taking ice to the Eskimos, the troupe, consisting almost entirely of Americans, has even performed to rapturous applause in the Middle East.

This October sees them touring Britain – a country proving itself to be a surprising hotbed of belly-dance activity.

Recently, Cambridge graduate Emma Chapman made headlines when she decided to forgo her job as a research scientist to become a full-time belly dancer, and who can forget the look of rapture on Simon Cowell's face when contestant Sophie Mei got to last season's semi-final of Britain's Got Talent with her mesmerising belly-dance routine?


There are now more than 1,000 belly-dance classes dotted around the UK and what was once seen solely as a dance performed by largish ladies in restaurants of dubious repute is now viewed as a legitimate career.

None of this would have been possible without the canny guidance of 64-year-old Copeland, the troupe's manager.

'Initially, I got a lot of flak from the belly-dance community who were worried that it was all going to be about pretty young girls in revealing costumes. The way I see it, it's a celebration of femininity and sensuality; our audiences are roughly 70 per cent women to 30 per cent men.'

The girls themselves are at pains to stress that their performance is sensual rather than sexual.

Yes, the girls are young and pretty; yes, their costumes are cut to emphasise their feminine curves (low-cut bras and waist-revealing, floor-length skirts) and yes, the chaps around us are having trouble pulling themselves together, but it's hard to imagine any of these women allowing anyone to shovel notes into their bra straps (though, apparently, the correct etiquette for showing appreciation of a belly dancer is to sprinkle notes over her head).

RACHEL BRICE, MID-30S (left)
FORMER JOB Worked in a café
SHE SAYS 'I cried when I first saw belly-dancing 20 years ago because it was so moving. I learned the moves by buying all the tapes I could find and copying the movements frame by frame'

KAMI LIDDLE, 27 (right)
FORMER JOB Manager in charge of loading aircraft
SHE SAYS 'We'd just got back from Taiwan and there were queues around the block for our autographs. It was like Beatlemania!'

MORIA CHAPPELL, 29 (centre)
FORMER JOB Make-up artist
SHE SAYS 'For my costume I wear about 34 medallions, seven bangles, five rings and four necklaces. It takes me about two hours to get ready for every show and about 100 hours to create my costume.

Samantha Hasthorpe, 28, from Devon – the only Brit in the troupe – scoffs at the idea that the dance is a sexual one. 'It's not the kind of dance where you see us going up to guys and sitting on their knees, which is the image I'd had previously of belly dancing,' she says. 'We dance as a group, not solo, and we couldn't care less if anyone's watching us. I feel completely empowered when I'm performing and I'm definitely not pandering to anyone but myself.'

The girl power message is one articulated by all of the dancers. Bozenka, a half-Czech, half-Cuban dancer, holds workshops around the world.

'Lots of my students get into belly-dancing as a way of getting back their self-esteem,' she says.

'One had been abused as a young girl. She was painfully shy, and her aunt brought her to my classes to try to bring her out of herself. It took some time, but the process of rehearsing, putting on make-up and feeling comfortable with her body during the classes helped to bring her out of her shell.' Samantha tells a similar story.

'The reason my mum took me to my first belly-dancing class was because I had low self-esteem. I was 16 years old, moody and had no confidence in my looks. Belly-dancing helped change that. I still have moments of self-doubt, but I'm more comfortable with myself and at my happiest when up on stage.'

Another key to belly-dance's appeal is its accessibility. 'I have a 70-year-old grandmother in my class,' says Bozenka.

'She doesn't feel comfortable going to nightclubs any more, but in my class she is welcomed and respected by everybody. That's the great thing about belly-dance – you can be any age or any size. It doesn't matter what you look like.'

BOZENKA, 32 (pictured left)
FORMER JOB Preschool teacher
SHE SAYS 'A friend and I once danced at a party in the Bahamas where Sean Connery was a guest. My friend dragged him and his wife up on stage to dance with us and he was so cute. He kept laughing at the fact that he had two left feet'

SAMANTHA HASTHORPE, 28
FORMER JOB Hod carrier
SHE SAYS 'The guys I used to work with are pretty surprised I've gone from hod carrying to belly dancing, but they're going to come and see me on this tour. The money's not quite as good yet, but I still wouldn't give up dancing for anything'

PETITE JAMILLA, 25 (real name: Jessica Parrish)
FORMER JOB Belly dancing in restaurants
SHE SAYS 'I started belly dancing when I was three and my mum was doing it till she was 67. It's one of the few dances where a woman can celebrate her body at any age'

It is a message echoed by Copeland, who insists: 'If I found a 60-year-old woman who was as big as a house, but could walk on stage and be alluring and captivating, I'd have her on the show in a second.'

Sadly, that has yet to transpire. The troupe members range in age from 21 to 39, but although they are slim, they are far from skinny.

As the girls undulate and ripple to drummer Issam Houshan's hypnotic beats, I glimpse some reassuring folds of belly among the sequins. And therein lies the success not only of the troupe but also of the dance form.

'As a teenager, I needed a dance that appreciated my curves,' says Petite Jamilla. 'With belly-dancing, it doesn't matter what body shape you are – but I think it helps to have curves.'

However, belly-dancing can also help you lose weight (you can work off anything up to 300 calories with a vigorous shimmy). It also relieves stress and even premenstrual tension.

More importantly though, it enables like-minded women to get together for a bit of a laugh.

'I get letters from women all over America who have formed their own troupes,' says Copeland. 'It's exciting, a bit of risqué fun, and like rock'n'roll in the sense that you feel as if you can get up there and try it yourself.'

And that is precisely the charm of the Bellydance Superstars – a group of normal girls getting the chance to live out their dreams and earn good money (a top-notch Bellydance Superstar can make anything up to £65,000 a year through workshops and DVDs).

Copeland thinks of his dancers as a kind of healing balm, showing America that Middle Eastern culture is nothing to fear and showing the Middle East that women can and should be a force to be reckoned with.

With instructional DVDs, a perfume line and even a Middle East reality TV show in the pipeline, he is not a man with limited ambitions.

'The days when a belly dancer would wobble into a restaurant, do a ten-minute set, then sit around till the following weekend have long gone. I want my dancers to become world famous.'


The Bellydance Superstars will tour the UK from 19-30 October. See bellydancesuperstars.com.

Source: MailOnline

Hip Hop Grannies

A quirky look at the wonderful sporting habits of real Beijingers, in this case, some 70-year-old hip-hop dancing grannies.

American television correspondent and producer Adam Yamaguchi tries to pick up some hip hop dance moves from these ladies.

Science graduate gives up lab work for belly-dancing

By Neil Sears
Last updated at 7:14 PM on 18th August 2008

Armed with a degree from Cambridge University, Emma Chapman swiftly won a job as a scientist.

For four years she has been carrying out ground-breaking research into the structure of molecules in a bid to create new medicines.

But now she has decided to swap her lab coat for a sequined skirt and a new career as a belly-dancer.

And although she has taken a pay cut, Miss Chapman says she had no regrets about deserting her test tubes so she can wiggle her middle six nights a week.

Miss Chapman, who earned a 2:1 degree in Natural Sciences at Christ's College, Cambridge, said: 'Belly-dancing gives me the freedom to be who I want.

'It's just so much more enjoyable than being in the lab. I can't imagine going back to a nine-to-five job.'

Miss Chapman, 28, who lives in Cambridge, started belly-dancing in 1998 when she saw a class advertised and decided to give it a go.

The hobby soon became a passion, and after years of perfecting her technique she started teaching classes, which she found much more fun than her day job.

'A friend of mine who lived locally and taught classes was moving away and asked me to take over her teaching,' she said.

'I though I couldn't do both my lab job and the classes, so I ditched my full-time job. It was slightly scary because I had no idea if it would work, but it's been totally exhilarating.'

And although leaving her job in medicinal chemistry at leading pharmaceutical research company Cambridge Biotechnology has led to a fall in income, she says the personal benefits are huge.

Emma now teaches other aspiring dancers six nights a week and says she could not imagine returning to chemistry

Miss Chapman added: 'I love being able to run my own business and make my own decisions. I've got much more independence.

'I'm not the kind of person who likes being told what to do.'

Miss Chapman has been fully supported in her career change by her fiance, Dr Patrick Driscoll, 28, an auditor studying to become an accountant, and her father Malcolm Chapman, 60, a retired purchaser in the petrochemicals industry.

And no-one at her laboratory expressed any surprise about her decision to give it all up either.

'If they thought anything was funny about it they didn't say anything to my face,' said Miss Chapman.

'My dad is really proud that he has a daughter with her own business - he always shows my website to all his friends,' she said.

'And I'm sure some people thought I was mad doing this, but now my friends think it's really cool.'

Miss Chapman, who has more than 100 students, said belly-dancing has become hugely popular, and all her classes for September are already booked up.

She teaches private lessons at weekends in addition to her weeknight classes, and has to practise for at least one hour every day to keep her standards up.

But she does not miss science despite devoting eight years of her life to it.

'I am so much happier now,' she said. 'I did enjoy studying science at university but this is just so much more fun.'

And Miss Chapman said that while belly-dancing is not a difficult hobby to pick-up, perfecting the art can take time.

'All the movements are based on our bodies natural range of motion, so most people take to belly-dancing pretty quickly,' she said.

'But getting really good needs lots of effort and practice - which is why I have to practise every day.

'I really hope I can inspire more people to get involved with belly-dancing - it's such a brilliant skill to have.'

Emma spent four years studying at Christ's College and four years as a research scientist before setting up her own belly-dancing business. Here she is at her degree ceremony:

Miss Chapman spends most of her time as a belly dancer teaching - with ten lesson courses starting at £55 - but is a member of actors' union Equity and performs professionally too.

She is mainly influenced by the modern Egyptian style of belly-dance, but also enjoys creating dramatic dances that draw on Flamenco, Oriental and Gothic styles.

Next month she is due to appear at the Arts Depot in north London in a one-off show entitled Arabian Dance Theatre.

Miss Chapman earned between £20,000 and £30,000 as a scientist - and now earns less as a belly dancer.

'Scientists are not very well paid considering the amount of training they do,' she said. 'Belly dancers are even less well paid - but this career change wasn't about money.'

She added that although when she was working as a scientist she spent her evenings belly-dancing, now that she is a belly-dancer she does not conduct experiments in her spare time.

And she is not the first scientist to leave the laboratory for a profession requiring very different skills.

Four years ago molecular biologist Dr Karl Gensberg abandoned his post at Birmingham University to retrain as a plumber in a bid to double his annual salary of £23,000.

He said: 'I just thought "what am I doing?" My work is a combination of zero career structure, contractual abuse and pathetic pay, which is a pretty poor package.'

Source: Mail Online

Dancers using the tango to fight off depression

A research trial is finding out if concentrating on dance steps keeps negative thoughts away.


Published: June 28, 2008


What flamenco is to Spain, or what jazz was to the United States, tango is to South America.

Its sensuous formality has inspired poets and composers and an art form thought to have begun in Argentinian brothels has fans around the world.

Now there is new research in Australia which suggests that tango may help people fight depression.

A University of New England researcher has been running a trial to see if concentrating on dance steps keeps negative thoughts away.

Long-time tango teacher Jackie Simpson instructs a class of about 20 people in an old church hall in the inner Sydney suburb of Surry Hills.

One of Ms Simpson's female dance pupils says she decided decided to get involved in tango therapy to try to overcome depression.

"So I read about this and although I don't dance, just my whole being went, yeah! You know, yeah, I want to learn to tango, I want to learn to do this," she said.

"It just sounded, just something that I wanted to do.

"After the first night I got home and I just felt so energised and for the next two days I just felt so focused and things that I was just feeling that I was overwhelmed about before, I just had the energy to do."

She says decided to take part in the classes to help deal with her grief.

"I was feeling really at a deep place," she said.

"I lost a son about two-and-a-half years ago and where I had done a lot of grieving I just found I wasn't getting up and getting back into life that much."

Rosa Pinniger is an honours student at the University of New England, where she is studying cognitive and behavioural therapy.

Psychologists use it to try to help people fight negative thoughts and see situations more positively.

Ms Pinniger says many studies have shown that meditation can be helpful in learning to do this.

While studying the benefits of meditation she realised the brain works in a similar way when dancing the tango.

"While you're doing tango you can only be in the present - you really have to focus, concentrate, and it doesn't allow your thoughts to drive into your mind," she said.

"And this is one of the things of meditation, the other thing is that for example in meditation people usually use their breathing, and this is something that people have done all their lives - they know how to breathe but they need to be aware of their breathing and they use it.

"The same with the tango - everyone walks and as long as you can walk you can tango, and this is the truth.

"The only thing is that usually we are not aware of how we walk and in tango you have to."

Positive changes

Ms Pinniger says the participants in her trial have kept coming back to the tango classes because they can see results.

"If people can have a break from their negative thoughts for three minutes - which is the time of the tango - they can realise that it is possible," she said.

"And sometimes we only need to know that something is possible. If we can do it once, we can do it again and again and again.

"I think that this is why people tonight, while they are doing tango, this is what it is, nothing else. So all their problems and their thoughts, they cannot be, they are not invited in the tango."

One of the participants found the tango helped take her mind away from a particularly painful event in her life.

"We've had a death in the family and I forgot about it while we were dancing and I guess the depression was all part of looking after someone that we knew was dying," she said.

"So I was very depressed for a long time but you come here and you forget about it, you know, so, for a moment."

But generally the people at the tango class enjoy getting together and learning something new.

"When you're learning and you're practising and you get, well, you're sort of achieving things, I think that makes you feel good about yourself. So I think that's helpful," one pupil said.

"I noticed a huge improvement in how I was feeling during the classes - particularly after maybe doing three or four.

"I think it has a blend of a social element. There's a closeness to other people so you can learn to trust again and there's a physical exercise in it but it's so subtle that you don't really notice.

"So it's the subtle blend of many things."

Ms Pinniger says learning to tango will not cure depression but can be used with other therapies.

She also says it is not for everyone - meditation may be better for some.

"Let's not forget that meditation although it has many things in common with tango, but it's still an individualistic activity while tango it is more social," she said.

"For some people maybe they are not in the state that they want to go that step further of connecting and then it's okay.

"We are all individuals and we have to choose which one is better for us, that's all."

All of Jackie Simpson's tango students have decided to continue learning to dance the tango - and even Ms Pinniger says she might take up learning the exotic art form herself.

Based on a report by Carly Laird for PM

Source: ABC News, Australia

Greenville High's Jernigan uses dance to teach art

By Kathryn McKenzie, City People Writer
Published: May 7, 2008


It's hard for Hilary Jernigan to hide her love for art.

"I knew as a freshman in high school that I wanted to be an artist," she says. "My passion was in art."

Jernigan teaches art I, II, III and IV at Greenville High School and is a working artist herself. Much of her personal love for what she does is shared with her students by showing them the endless possibilities and variations that art can bring.

"I'm a non-representational artist. A lot of my work is purely compositional. It doesn't have subject matter," Jernigan says. Non-representational art focuses on shape, color and space.

To incorporate her medium and to help the students grasp the concept of non-representational art, Jernigan brought in another art form into the classroom -- dance. Jernigan says that with the help of dance, the students were able to see the pure concepts of composition.

"I have real passion for modern dance," she says. "So overlapping those two concepts was to me, very natural ... and I wanted the students to see composition in modern dance and composition in modern art is very similar."

To teach the concept of compositional art, Jernigan paired up with a teacher from the Fine Arts Center, Jan Woodward, to teach a unit on dance and art.

"The kids drew from watching the dancers," Jernigan says. "We sent artwork over to the Fine Arts Center and the dancers created some original choreography off of the artwork. Then when we got together, they did the dance for us and the students continued to work off of the dancers choreography, so it was a reciprocal process."

There's always an aesthetic beauty to Jernigan's medium and she recognized that about dance, as well. Both art forms deal with shapes. "It's all about shape, a lot of positive and negative space," she says. "Dance is a composition that's always changing and moving. After college, as my work began to mature more, I began to see that relationship.

"The first time I really saw wonderful modern dance was when I watched Alvin Ailey's dance company, " she says. "The composition was so moving and shocking. It's three-dimensional art constantly changing, it's kinetic art."

Source: GreenVilleOnline.com

Danza Voluminosa, a Cuban ballet troupe

Plus-size dancers are crowd pleasers
By MIKE WILLIAMS
Published Tuesday, May 27, 2008

HAVANA — Barbara Paula looks nothing like a classical ballerina, but when she speaks of dancing on the stage, her face glows with confidence.

"I always wanted to be a dancer, but I was heavy and never had the opportunity," said Paula, 30, who weighs 275 pounds. "Becoming a dancer has changed my life 120 percent. It's given me confidence and helped me emotionally."

Paula is a member of Havana's Danza Voluminosa, a group of plus-sized women who have become a well-established and respected troupe on the Cuban arts circuit. Their performances draw large audiences and favorable reviews, challenging stereotypes about beauty and the arts.

Founder and choreographer Juan Miguel Mas, 42, came up with the idea in 1996, drawing on his own experience as a heavy-set dancer entranced by modern dance.

"The first performance was received with a lot of expectation and reservations," he said. "The house was full and some people laughed, but others applauded. At the end, there was a big debate about whether it was appropriate for the stage and whether it was aesthetic or not. But we have continued, and we are breaking down barriers."

The group has become quite popular in Cuba, its members' girth something of an anomaly in a country where food is expensive, rationed and at times scarce. Members of the six-woman troupe weigh between 200 and 300 pounds. Their art is also experimental, somewhat unusual in a country where many artists hold closer to classical and indigenous forms.

Mas scripts dances that follow classical themes, infusing touches from African, modern, jazz and Caribbean dance. He also creates plots around the challenges and discrimination faced by the overweight, who — as in other countries around the world — often endure exclusion, teasing and insults from a young age.

And sometimes the performances are whimsical, including a parody of the classic Swan Lake.

"The idea is to expand dance and culture, creating respect for diversity," he said.

While most modern professional dance troupes are filled with lithe, muscular bodies swirling and twirling around and above the stage, the movements of the heavy dancers are, by necessity, more earth-bound.

"It's slower," Mas said. "There are gestures from pantomime but also some from ballet, depending on the characteristics of the play. The aim is to always make an intense visual presentation."

Mas says he has heard of other troupes of obese dancers in places as far as Moscow and London, but most seem to have put on a limited number of performances and none has continued for long or reached a professional status akin to what Danza Voluminosa has achieved in Cuba.

The group has official sanction, conducting practices and performances in the National Theater, and Mas receives a government salary for his work with the troupe and other activities.

But the dancers typically work regular jobs, squeezing in rehearsals and performances around the demands of their daily lives.

"We practice twice a week most of the year, but before a performance I lose track of how many hours we rehearse," said Paula, a homemaker. "After we perform, I feel such an excitement and happiness."

Expanding from his work with the overweight dancers, Mas also runs workshops and seminars, sometimes for visiting international groups.

Some of his work combines yoga and dance, and some of his seminars use dance as therapy, helping build self-esteem.

But the Danza Voluminosa troupe remains his main focus, an unexpected success that has been accepted with enthusiasm.

"This January we shared the stage with three thin dancers in a production called Alliances," Mas said. "We looked for alliances between these types of bodies, in the end creating one body with the bodies of six dancers. It was a call for respect of our differences, not just between body types."

With more than 30 dancers trained over the past 11 years, Mas keeps his regular company at six performers and enjoys no shortage of interest from women wanting to join the group. He also has no problems scheduling performances.

"Most of our dancers are afraid to appear in public the first time, but their confidence grows when they see the audience's reactions," he said. "And while that first audience laughed at the idea, now it's different. People come now to the theater with expectations to see a serious work. It's serious and professional."

Source: Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Danza Voluminosa, a Cuban ballet troupe, fat dancers win respect
Published: 29 July 2007

Formed a decade ago by Juan Miguel Mas, this company of obese dancers has become a cultural phenomenon in Cuba, breaking stereotypes here of dance, redefining the aesthetics of beauty and, along the way, raising the self-esteem of heavyset people.

The prima ballerina of the Danza Voluminosa troupe weighs 286 pounds, and as she thumps gracefully across the floor, she gives new meaning to the words stage presence. Her body is a riotous celebration of weight - of ample belly and breasts, of thick legs and arms, of the crushing reality of gravity.

"I always liked to dance," said the dancer, Mailin Daza, who weighs the equivalent of about 130 kilograms. "I wanted to dance in the classical ballet, but my mother told me fat girls could not dance. I always dreamed of being a ballerina. With this group I feel I am a ballerina."

While the troupe is not the first to employ larger dancers, its popularity comes as a surprise in a country known for its muscular, lean dancers in every genre from classical ballet to salsa.

Mas, a choreographer and dancer who moves like a pampered cat and weighs 136 kilograms, acknowledges that he often uses the stereotypical humor of his dancers' proportions to bring in audiences. The troupe is well known for its parody of Swan Lake and it engages in hilarious renditions of the Can-Can.

But Mas and his troupe are serious about dance, and once the laughter dies down, they are capable of performing moving pieces that drill into the universal themes of love, death and erotic longing. The audience forgets the joke and begins to feel the dance, he said.

"We use humor to get the public in," he said. "Then we can hit them with something stronger."

Mas, 42, also choreographs pieces on themes like the tragedy of gluttony, love between obese couples, the prejudice that fat people face and the psychic toll of obesity.

One of the troupe's recent successes is called "Sweet Death" and tells the story of a woman, rejected by her family, who tries to commit suicide by eating huge quantities of candy. The work has surreal elements, the dancers using their bodies to create furniture in the performance. Another piece, "The Macabre Dinner," explores gluttony.

Mas says it would be a mistake to think that his work is intended to glorify or sanctify obesity, or even to deliver a moralistic message that one should not discriminate against the overweight. Rather, he says, the troupe's art tries to face the reality of obesity while giving larger people a chance to express themselves through dance, a chance they are denied from youth in most dance classes. "Although we are obese and dance, we are against obesity," Mas said. "We are always trying to lose weight."

But something strange happens when the troupe takes the stage. Classical and modern dance often give the impression of human beings flying, freed of the earth. The female dancers are like nymphs, the men like Greek statues. They soar, spin, leap and reach for the sky.

Because of the size of the dancers in Mas's troupe, however, the work of Danza Voluminosa conveys something more earthy and human. Fat people move differently, he said, and the choreography must change.

"We are more mountainous," he said with a smile.

The dancers' movements are often slower than those of their slender colleagues. These dancers favor limbs swinging in pendulous arcs and wavelike motions that seem to ripple through their bodies. They seem to grip the floor rather than to abandon it, keeping a low center of gravity, often crouching or dancing while kneeling or lying on the ground.

And when their dance becomes frenetic, the sheer weight of the dancers thudding across the stage conveys an excitement akin to a stampede, something out of control and wild, yet made of human flesh and blood. It can be a riveting sight.

Mas says he has borrowed from the work of Martha Graham and José Limón but also incorporates moves from African dance, jazz dance and the folkloric dance of the Caribbean, often with West African roots. "I use whatever I can," he said.

For the dancers, working with Mas has changed their lives. Several said they suffered from constant embarrassment and guilt over their weight before they began dancing. But dancing has taught them to accept, if not love, their bodies. They also say that after a performance they feel self-esteem that is foreign to most them, having suffered from the gibes of their peers since childhood.

Barbara Paula, 29, weighs about 125 kilograms and has been dancing with the troupe for five years.

She says it still feels strange at times to be on stage, as if she is constantly discovering the potential beauty hidden inside her body, which for years was a source of shame for her.

"It's something new," she said. "I don't have this complex anymore that because we are obese, we cannot dance, we cannot walk in the street."

The reaction of audiences here in Cuba has been immensely positive. The government now lets the troupe practice and perform in the National Theater of Cuba.

Mas now receives a state salary to continue his work. The dancers who have been with the troupe for years say that the when the group started in November 1996, they faced ridicule and laughter. But these days people take them seriously.

"We have always had those who laugh at first, but by the end of the show there is a standing ovation," said Xiomara González, a 43-year-old mother of two who gave up her job to dance and weighs about 80 kilograms. "And this is a beautiful thing, a very beautiful thing."

Source: Cuba News Headlines
(Original Source: By James McKinley Jr., International Herald Tribune)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A montage of clips from Danza Voluminosa's performances

Coffee with Raqia Hassan

by Layla Taj

Almost behind every successful Egyptian Style Dancer is the name "Raqia Hassan".

I had the opportunity to meet and take a class with Raqia when I was invited to perform in a Gala show in Stockholm Sweden Belly Dance Festival ..June 2000. She made a great impression on me. I want to share with you a question/answer article I wrote for a Middle Eastern Publication.

Layla: Raqia where were you born?

Raqia: I was born in Cairo and my father was born in Alexandria.

Layla: When you were a young girl in school , what type of student were you?

Raqia: I was a very good student, very quiet and honest.No one needed to push or beg me to do my homework. I wanted to do things right.

Layla: When did you begin dancing?

Raqia: When I was 4 years old, I started to move to the music. I rememember when I was young and sick in bed and suddenly I would hear the music ..and I would move to the music, even in bed while I was sleeping" she laughs.

Layla: Did you know as a little girl that you would become a professional dancer?

Raqia: Yes , many times and I'm sure others feel the same. If you love dance, the dance is always with you. It's in your blood. All Egyptians have dancing in their blood but some know their fate will be a life of dance.

Layla: Who inspired you the most as a young girl?

Raqia: When I was a young girl, I always wanted to go to the movies, the cinema. I always liked to watch the dancers. Samia Gamal , Tahia Carioca, etc. There were many good dancers during this time.

Layla: Who was your favorite?

Raqia: Nemat Moktar. Her movements were fantastic, it was as if she were singing.

Layla: Were there any obstacles which you encountered with your dancing career? For example government, boyfriends , your parents etc..?

Raqia: No, No. Nothing stopped me! I had a free life. I started dancing in a small group when I was 14 years old. Everyone around me knew how much I loved dance and no one tried to stop me.

Layla: What was it like dancing for the famous Reda dance troupe?

Raqia: It was a great experience for me! All this experience really helped me with what am doing now.I learned ballet, folkloric and gained alot of experience being on stage! I learned much from Reda, as he dealt with us as dancers. This is where I also learned my vocabulary! I learned a lot.

Layla: You were also a solo dancer for the Reda Troupe. What was the difference between dancing as a solo artist as opposed to dancing with a troupe?

Raqia: At 17 years old , I started to be a solo dancer with the Reda Troupe. But it is not for everybody. At this time I was very gifted with moving my hips and so he used me. I was the first one.

Layla: In your opinion what are the elements that make up a good choreography?

When a dancer has good form with her arms, good posture in general, a good smile and personality.. it executes the choreography well. But before everything else, a dancer must have a good ear for the music. Too many dancers don't have "the ear' and this is not good. When a dancer has a good ear for the music, the choreography will come automatically.

Layla: What is your opinion concerning choreography verses improvisation?

Raqia: I prefer choreography when it doesn't look like choreography.

Choreography should flow from the dancer and look natural. It should be a secret of the dancer that her music is choreographed. No one should notice. As a master teacher I have an eye for great detail, and my eyes cannot help capture the mistakes that a dances makes during her performance. And sometimes this makes me very tired. But when a performance is good it is as though I am in a dream.

Layla: What should dancers never do in front of an Egyptian audience.?

Raqia: A dancer should never sit, lie down or roll around on the floor. This is Turkish style but not Egyptian. I feel a dancer is a queen and a queen never sits on the floor! She should always stand up with a majestic posture. This is the Egyptian way.

Layla: Some dancers remark, "I dance for myself when I perform". What is your opinion about this remark?

Raqia: Never should a dancer dance only for herself. She can dance for herself at home in front of a mirror. When you are on stage you can dance some from your own feeling but mostly for the people. Some people really go out of their way to see you. How can you dance just for yourself? Can you just forget your audience? Never!

Raqia is a generous teacher giving of herself completely. I remember fondly during a class in Stockholm Sweden, she boldly walked over to me and put her foot on my foot to keep it down during a combination. She said "okay, now move the other foot" I did so. She replied "There, you've got it!" That's Raqia ..hands down simply the best!

Source: Layla Taj

Dancers get style tips from Egypt workshop

Published: December 24, 2007

CAIRO (AFP): Some 80 professional dancers from around the world have gathered this month at a luxury hotel overlooking the pyramids in the Egyptian capital Cairo to take part in an intensive dancing workshop, aimed at improving their technique and offering them style tips.

From Kazakhstan to Brazil, Italy and Indonesia, lovers of oriental dance flock to Egypt to pay homage to the cradle of this ancient art.

"If you haven't danced in Egypt, you are not a real dancer," said Raqia Hassan, Egypt's most famous dance teacher who organizes the winter workshops and who is also responsible for the Cairo Dance Festival held every summer since 2000.

"It is absolutely necessary to be trained here. Egypt is the source after all," said Nadia Sement, a French oriental dance instructor attending the workshop.

With colorful sequined scarves jingling around their hips, the dancers who each spent 1,000 euros (1,437 dollars) for the workshop, train vigorously for eight hours a day and listen to lectures on the dance's history in the evenings in order to truly capture the spirit behind the moves, the organizers said.

And cursed be those who reduce the ancient art to a simple form of seduction or who dare call it "belly dance", says Carolina Vargadinicu, who goes by the stage name Morocco.

"That would be a false, colonial and racist interpretation by the West," says the 70-year-old New Yorker whose family roots lie in Romania and who has been dancing professionally for 47 years.

Legend has it the dance was originally an ancient fertility rite. And while Egyptians like to trace it back to the Pharaonic times, the dance actually comes from India and was brought over to Egypt by gypsies.

In Mexico some still believe that the dance has the power to help fertility, says Grinnelli Sandoval who runs a dance school in Ensenada in Baja California.

"I have some students who have been sent by their gynecologist, because the movements help massage a woman's internal organs, which helps support the uterus better for childbirth," she said.

The workshop has also drawn local creative talent eager to showcase the accessories that must accompany the perfect dancer.

Displays of shiny, sequin-studded or pearl-embroidered costumes hang on display next to stands overflowing with music CDs and dance DVDs, and posters of the dance legends.

Not only has the golden age of the dance, embodied in the legendary Samia Gamal or Tahia Cariocca, long gone but foreign dancers working in Egypt are subject to strict restrictions aimed at keeping the art in Egyptian hands.

For Raqia Hassan, the dream would be to set up an oriental dance academy granting recognition to an art that she feels has not been given its rightful dues.

Healing the Belly

About a year ago my boyfriend said at dinner: "I have two things to tell you. One, I love you. And two, I want you to lose weight! Is it just that you don't know, you don't care? Is it just that you can't stop eating? Do you binge eat? Do you KNOW how you look?"

You'd think at 46 I would have developed enough self-esteem to get up and leave. I had put on, in 5 years, around 15 pounds. Not 60 pounds or 30 pounds, but 15 pounds.

I stayed around for another miserable year of locking horns, of his sly comments about how much butter I was allowed to eat and if I "got outside" that day. Finally, I bailed. The night I broke up with him I was going through a closet and found my zills. I held them and wept, remembering a time when I didn't obsess over every calorie and every mile.

I took off all my clothes, put on my silver belt and tightened the zills on my fingers and thumbs. I stuck my belly out. WAY out.

I danced through the house and felt it all come back, felt all the pain releasing, ebbing from my belly in an invisible wave. I felt the joy in my body, the pure innocent joy of being alive, returning.

Margaret Cho remarked in her latest DVD that belly dancing is a perfect way to heal from food disorders and body dysmorphia.

I agree with her. I believe the physical act of celebrating the belly and hips is incredibly affirming, and to free the belly frees the pain and the joy. We hold pain in the belly, especially when our bellies are disrespected. In the act of a simple hip circle, the belly opens and pain moves out. When the pain moves out, the memory of pure joy returns and the dance animates us with our birthright of self-celebration.

Thank you to everyone who dances, who talks about dance, who teaches dance, who loves dance.

You light the way for my journey back to ME.

Love,
Harpy

Source: The Hip Circle