On Belly Dancing

I came to belly dancing through my satellite service. Seriously. There’s a show on the fitness channel that teaches belly dancing. Coming from cable, I was first intrigued by the show and the moves it taught, then tried following along. Now, I’m hooked.

Let me tell you, this is a little late in life to become a belly dancer. However--it’s great exercise, uses a lot of the muscles that need using at this age, and makes you feel sensuous and flexible—which is great at any age.

What is the greatest thing about belly dancing is its mysterious history. Sure, the very name conjures up exotic lands and mysterious rituals, but the fact is, no one knows exactly where belly dancing came from. It’s connected with the Middle East and Northern Africa and, in truth, there are Egyptian styles and Turkish styles—each with their own signature moves and dress—and in one’s mind you seem to travel to these exotic s with their strange cultures when you are involved in the dance. It’s a great escape as well as a great exercise.

Even the name ‘belly dancing’ is not its true name. It’s really ethnic dancing (in Arabic, raqs sharqi or raqs baladi) from that area of the world, and that came to the western world via the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, where it caused a great sensation. And of course, it features the belly with great emphasis—scandalous at that time in history—hence, the ‘belly’ nomenclature. Since then, this native dance has been adopted by many western nations—America, Canada, Australia—and these countries have added moves with their own cultural interpretation.

The spouse was curiously eager to tell people I’ve been learning to belly dance. I don’t know what this is about, as I don’t go about dancing FOR him, so much as he catches me in the middle of televised class—or I break in a move spontaneously to practice a hip-isolation move or master a tricky step. I would have to say he likes the whole idea.

The down side of learning to belly dance is that you can’t properly do it anywhere outside a classroom. You would certainly get some odd looks—and possibly some interesting propositions—if you were to start belly dancing in the middle of a bar or club. Nonetheless, the urge to belly dance strikes at odd moments. You can hear a suitable beat in the overhead music of a supermarket and find yourself longing to break into a hip pop in the checkout line. You don’t, of course—but the urge is strong and unremitting.

All in all, belly dancing has added many fun dimensions to life—which is probably why it became so popular in the first place.