Channeling your inner goddess: Belly Dancing
I'm standing self-consciously with a group of women all in loose clothing and bare feet, wondering why I thought I could do this. Saja is adorned with a hip veil of shiny coins, a long scarf-like skirt, bejeweled halter top, and plenty of jiggly bracelets. She tells us that belly dancing was never meant to be a performance for men. On the contrary, in the Middle East it was a women's dance, and one that welcomed girls as a rite-of-passage into womanhood. "This dance is for yourself," she tells us and smiles largely.
Soft exotic music begins and Saja gives us a demonstration. I am in awe; she makes it look both natural and mystic simultaneously. And not for the first time in my life do I wish I had something to shimmy, shake or roll. Saja shows us some basics – steamy hip circles, languid arcs, and a little upper leg waggle. I'm whining that I don't have hips and that I can't do these moves when suddenly I feel it – a loosening in my pelvis, a primal knowledge of body parts I continually ignore, tighten, or wrestle into submission feeling released, free, and...perfect.
"It was really Hollywood that brought us the notion of belly dancing as a sexual thing back in the 50s and 60s," Saja tells me. "Then it became a fitness craze in the 70s." The fitness potential of belly dancing is what surprises me the most. The lessons leave me feeling like I've done aerobics, yoga, and Pilates all together; I am both relaxed and energized.
Today there are as many styles of belly dancing as there are, well, bellies. From Middle Eastern Folk Lore Dance to Bedouin, African, Egyptian and Tribal, most dance and yoga studios today offer an American Tribal version that may include anything from traditional moves to fusion and break dancing, but the overall message is the same – get exercise while feeling really great about your body and yourself.
Benefits of Belly Dancing
Belly dancing favors real women's bodies: rounded ones and toned ones, muscled ones or fleshy ones, young ones and elder ones. The moves honor the feminine form in all shapes and sizes which is why it is so perfect for all ages and abilities of dancer. "Belly dancing is great because it involves a lot of isolation of muscles you don't usually use," says Saja. "You can increase your cardio output but you can also do some of the moves in the car, while sitting at your desk, just about anywhere."
Belly dancing was once a birthing dance and a way for women to help encourage a laboring mother during birth. "It's also good for pregnancy," Saja says. "It both strengthens core muscles needed for birthing [so it's good prenatal exercise without the shimmy movements] and helps get the mother's body back in shape after birth."
Proponents of belly dancing point out that the isometric exercises work the pelvic floor, tone arms, upper legs, lower legs, belly, shoulders, abdomen, hips, and gluteals while also improving circulation, joint flexibility and overall suppleness. The dance builds focus, burns fat, and increases oxygenation to the body. Other notable benefits include stress reduction and even lessening of PMS symptoms.
I find that while working on one area of my body in the dances, my legs are actually tiring and I'm not even really moving (I save that for the veil dances). I feel myself warming up, catching my breath, and really concentrating. And because it is media and society that have deemed so much of a women's body as sexual, it's wonderful to claim my body back through attention and self appreciation. Although I came into the class considering the stigma of this style of dancing as being sexual, I begin to feel and see how important such a loving and sensual dance could be for my own growing daughter, for teenage girls, new mothers, and gracefully aging women like myself.
Saja, who's been studying belly dancing for more than ten years, tells me she had never taken a dance class before she took up belly dancing. "I'm a bigger girl and it was always portrayed to me that I needed to be tiny to dance," she says. "But I took a belly dancing class at a fitness gym and it helped me see I could be beautiful at any size. Now I see beauty is what is on the inside. I see now how to portray that with confidence."
Getting Started
Although you could probably purchase an instructional DVD on the topic, taking a class with a local instructor is so much more engaging and many dance and fitness places in the Rochester area now offer belly dancing. Saja got her start with Silent Rhythm Dance Troupe in Canandaigua, both taking lessons and then performing. She now teaches as a private instructor at places like Open Arms Yoga in Naples and at Grounded By Yoga in Bloomfield. "Finding your inner goddess," is Saja's guiding maxim. Her favorite dances to teach are with dance and drumming. "You work with a drummer and your own body movements," she says. "You learn to use your hips and legs for the low frequency drum sounds and match your shoulders to higher sounds." Her other favorites are the Veil Dances that emulate the movements of air around your body. "It's really beautiful and free," Saja says, and having given it a try, I must agree.
Saja encourages all her students to wear a sash or purchase a coin belt (which looks like a hip scarf full of fun jingling coins) for their hips, "in order to feel the pull down to earth," she says. Wearing pretty and jingling bracelets is also fun and helps focus lovely movements made by your hands and wrists. I find that in my first few classes I am desperately trying to follow Saja and memorize movements, steps, and patterns, so when she has us all free dance at the end of each session it takes me a time or two to trust that I can do this – and I do. After all, I am woman: part goddess, part earth, part mystery. I am so inspired by all that belly dancing can be – from fitness, to beauty, to self expression. With such a wonderfully empowering history as being both a birthing dance and a coming of age dance for women, I have to ask Saja: What reason do most women come to you for classes?
"90% of the women come here so they can impress a partner," Saja laughs.
But I figure….that's pretty empowering too!
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