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Why belly dancing as a solution to a broken heart? Did you try other
remedies first?
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I
had tried everything else, and a friend suggested belly-dancing
lessons as a joke. She never thought I'd say yes! By the time
I found dancing, I had tried therapy, rebound dating, chocolate,
journaling. . . all of the usual suspects. I read every self-help
book I could get my hands on with no real effect. I honestly
didn't start to feel like myself again until I found belly dancing.
Now I wonder what I did before dance. |
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What
advice can you give women coping with heartache? |
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Get
a bunch of good girlfriends and stay busy. Whatever you do,
don't give yourself permission to be maudlin and isolated. When
my heart was broken, I stayed out from dusk until dawn. If I
didn't have something to do, I did nothing somewhere and with
someone. I would even tag along grocery shopping with my friends
though half the time I'd end up crying on the frozen foods aisle,
but at least I wasn't alone. If there was ever anything you
wanted to try, learn, or pursue, now's the time to go after
it. I belly danced. My advice, do something. |
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What
is the best part of belly dancing? |
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It
has to be the saucy ladies that I've met through dancing. The
costumes are definitely a bonus, too; I was always a jeans-and-T-shirts
girl until I had a “reason” to drop $400 on a fringed
sequined bra! |
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What is the worst part of belly dancing? |
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Stepping on a glass bead. Barefoot. Say no more. |
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Can you explain a typical day in belly-dancing class? |
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Classes
really vary from teacher to teacher. At Lucy's class, we stretch
for 15 languid minutes while we catch up on the latest gossip
from Cairo, then we go over one combination, step, or technique
in intricate, precise detail. At the end, we cool down with
more stretching and leave feeling refreshed and relaxed. By
contrast, I take a Thursday night class with Zara and Zitana
where even the warm-up wears me out. At that class, we stretch,
do some drills made up of basic traveling steps, arms, finger
cymbals, and hips, but there is also an extended "stamina"
part of the class where we improv through one or two songs as
they move around the class and offer critique. I usually feel
like I've been beaten with a stick by the end of class (in a
good way, though). |
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Do you break a sweat shimmying? |
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It
depends. It depends on how big of a shimmy you've got going
on and how long you hold it. I think I'm exercising aerobically
in some of my classes. In others, the workout is more like what
you'd get in a good yoga class. I am definitely working muscles
that most people don't know they have, and I am more comfortable
in my body than I've ever been before. I hear that from a lot
of dancers -- belly dancing teaches you to appreciate your curves,
your jiggles, and your bounces! |
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Can anyone shimmy? |
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There
is something for absolutely everyone in belly dancing. I have
never seen women of such varied sizes, ages, and experiences
coming together so easily as I have at belly-dancing class.
We have 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds, size eights and size 28s.
I can't tell you how many women have patted their perfectly
lovely bellies at me and said "I could never belly dance
with THIS belly!" Of COURSE you could. Come see. And we'll
even let you in if you have a six-pack, but it is absolutely
not required. Neither is performing. If you just want to take
a class for fun and exercise, no one is going to shove you on
a stage. |
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Tell the truth, how do you practice? |
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Since
I've been dancing, I listen to Middle Easten music even when
I'm not dancing. So, if I've got something upbeat and poppy
like Hakim or Hanan on the CD player while I'm around the house,
I'll dance to that—but I've also been known to break into
a hip drop to Cake or Godsmack. When I'm practicing for a show,
I just drag a boom box down to the living room and go to town.
(I don't advocate shimmying in the shower, sounds like a recipe
for disaster. But Linda Hollett of the Women of Selket says
you should shimmy every morning while you brush your teeth.
See how long you can hold it and you'll have white teeth and
fast hips.) |
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What
are some of the major misconceptions about belly dancing and
belly dancers that you would like to tell the world? |
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People
assume we're going to start shedding veils and not stop until
we're nude (or at least topless). The belly dancer/stripper
thing is most belly dancers' pet peeve. However, I'd say I get
more annoyed with the "sexy housewife" stereotype
left over from the sixties and seventies. I bristle at being
thought of as a housewife with a hobby, and it drives me nuts
mainly because belly dancing is hard work. How dare people think
we sit around our wood-paneled studies eating bon bons with
the occasional shimmy thrown in—the idea. |
