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In Celebration of the Belly
I used to do a lot of Jazz dance. But I never felt like I looked right in my leotard in class. My boobs and thighs looked too big, my legs too short. I just didn't have the long lean body that fit into that style of dance. And then I found the dance class of my dreams. I'd been wanting to learn how to bellydance for some reason I can't even remember. And here I was in 1990 in a studio full of women, where even the advanced students in the troupe were friendly and supportive to beginners, where the teacher made a point of meeting every new student and making her feel at ease. I soon donned the regular costume of a fullskirt pulled down to show off the belly, a hip shawl, and a tight fitting cropped top. And I very soon realized how complimentary it was for my body, a woman's body. Granted my thighs were covered, but my belly and hips were totally exposed, my breasts accentuating the curve in my waist - and I felt beautiful! I looked at all the other women in class and their varying shapes: small breasted and large, thick and thin waists, curvy hips and most of us with rounded yet toned stomachs displayed proudly, for indeed this dance form is centered around the hips and belly. When I learned to shimmy my hips, I experienced the usual difficulty most students have at this stage. How do you learn to let go and let vibrate the area of our bodies that we try to control and squeeze into tight jeans all our lives? I'd watch my teacher shimmying and the amazing look it presented, all isolated and extremely sensual! And then I realized I needed to let my butt go, let it jiggle, loosen it up. That natural fat we all have in our butts is the motor behind the shimmy! Suddenly I had a free and effortless shimmy. Over the years I've gained and lost weight in the natural course of life like most people do. In my heavier years, when I couldn't fit into my old jeans, I'd put on my dance costume and loved the way my curvy body looked! I'm now in a time of life where I've lost weight (ironically due to all the activity, primarily bellydancing that I do!), especially in my hips, and I'm not as comfortable with my body in costume. No more hips! I look like a boy! Since 1990, I've never looked back about my stomach. I came to terms with its soft roundness, and in fact, it's accentuated even more now that I've developed my abdominals to do belly rolls. No washboard abs for me - instead we bellydancers amaze people with our controlled and defined belly roll isolations. I love watching the new students transform. Bellydance attracts all types of women - from the hip-looking tattooed type, to women in their 40's +; from tomboys to pregnant women. I see how they get more and more comfortable with exposing their bellies, fixing their posture, and trying to learn these movements so alien to our Western sensibilities. And then after some time, as their muscles strengthen and they reconcile themselves with their bodies and the movements that complement a woman's body, these women suddenly blossom. You can see it by the way they carry themselves, by the attitude in their faces and when they dance, their bodies say, "I am strong and beautiful just the way I am!"
Nadia Khastagir dances with FatChanceBellyDance in San Francisco, CA. You can contact them at (415) 647-6035 or www.fcbd.com for show and class information. |
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Of course, the best way to learn is to go to a bellydance class, but here's a quick rundown on how it's done: Stand with your feet together and knees slightly bent. Put your
weight on your heels and you will feel how your tailbone drops
down and your lower back loosensup. Keep this looseness in mind.
Now, roll your shoulders back and down and pull up your chest
without pulling your shoulders up. This is the standard posture
which all moves come from. Pump your knees up and down, first
bending the right then the left. Notice how your hips drop and
lift with each knee bend. Step on your right foot, straighten
and bend your knee so that your hip is moving up or down on each
count of 1-2-3 (lift-drop-lift), on the "and,"(the half-beat in
between the first and last beats), step on the left foot and repeat
the movement on the left, so the count is 1-2-3-and-1-2-3-and_..
This is the shimmy slowed down to half-time. Get used to this
stepping on 1, and pushing the hip up with your straightened knee,
then dropping the hip (bend the knee), then lifting the hip, shift
your weight and step on the other foot. When it starts to feel
more natural, put some sass into it - smile! What you're working
towards is a fulltime shimmy, which means each "1-2-3-and" of
your hips is speeded up so that it is one beat of a measure -
this is when it gets fast! Let your butt and |
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