Thoughts on Bellydance

Being world Bellydance Day soon, many of the Goddesses and Bellydance aficionados I spend time with have been thinking up wonderful ways to spread the word. We want to let people know about the fantastic benefits, both physical and psychological, of this ancient and beautiful form of dance. We want an audience to come and watch, dancers to dance and perform, and adventurers to try it for themselves.
Unfortunately, we constantly come up against what I call the "automatic gasp reflex". This is where you say,

"Jane, why don't you come and check out the bellydance open day? Its much more fun than the gym" and Jane's jaw drops onto her collar bones before she answers,

"You do that!? I could never do that!"

Or you say,

"Uncle Jim, Im bellydancing in the park for World Bellydance Day on the weekend, it would be lovely if you came to watch" and Uncle Jim turns bright red and starts muttering about

"not appropriate."

Aside from being hurtful, as all bellydancers know, these are completely unnecessary reactions. Sadly, we have all experienced them. Why do people react like this? And what can we do about it?

For those of you who haven't read any of my other blog entries, bellydancing is my burning-off-steam, sanity-preserving escape from my "real world" health professional job. In this capacity I have the opportunity to chat to a variety of people, and over the last few weeks have been sounding various victims out about perceptions of bellydance and where they might arise from. The first surprise I got was just who that detractors and supporters were. Some of my 70-somethings were positive to the point of keenness (and wanted to come along!) and some of my much younger 40-somethings were quite shocked. On the whole, women seemed significantly less scandalised than men, which also surprised me (although my father being the way he is it oughtn't have).

Querying this closer, I came to a few conclusions.

Firstly, very few people have much more than a vague notion of what bellydance entails. Which form of vague notion seems to influence their view. Sadly, the poorer end of the scale, where girls are scantily clad with heaving spilling bosoms and splits to the groin, and offer "extra services", is certainly one that is not rare. Thankfully, there are plenty of people who envision it more as a beautiul, veiled woman embodying feminine mystique.

I guess most of these perceptions would be fueled by old fashioned movies and the 70's bellydance revival, which saw some fairly immodest costumes. And of course, there are plenty of dancers today who regularly send us cringing with their fashion choices.

I could place blame all evening, and wear my fingers to the bone exploring exact reasons for particular impressions, but that changes nothing. As dancers, and (I hope) lovers of Bellydance, we should be trying to change these perceptions. I would like to put forward a few suggestions as to how we can go about this.

The first, and biggest, is to just get out there. As both schools and individuals, the greatest service we can do ourselves is to be out there visibly demonstrating what bellydance is all about.

I am privileged to be part of a school that regularly performs a wide range of styles at a wide range of events. We dance for charity events, birthdays, multicultural and musical festivals, aged care facilities, restaurants, church events and school fetes. We tailor what we do to the audience.

Bollywood choreography is a fantastic introduction in a situation where you are unsure of the reception. Both the moves and costuming are appealing and non-confrontational, and some are very easy for the audience to join in with. I have also found that we seem to be very approachable in bollywood guise; at the conclusion of a performance there is always a crowd with questions who are actually not too scared to come and ask them!

Charity and community events are a great way of gaining a positive reputation. Dancing for no or a minimal fee takes you very quickly out of the "seedy sleazy" category and places you in the "community supporter" one. These events are often also very high profile and inevitably there will be mention or even photographs of the fabulous dancing girls in the local newspaper. This is not only good publicity for the school or group in particular but also bellydancing in general.

Belly Dance "Open Days" or "come and try" days are a great idea. Ten minute tuition and short performances can be very encouraging to those who haven't quite got the nerve up to come to a class.

Of course, all these suggestions are a waste of time if we don't present ourselves and bellydance in the most positive light. I have recently really started to "come out" about my dancing. As a health professional, I tended to shy away from any possibly controversial personal revelations but recently I have started telling most people about my hobby. Most people are happy to have their misconceptions corrected. Whenever I put on a costume to perform, I always remind myself that the tradition of wearing coins and shells on costumes comes from the days when it really was the poorer girls dancing. By displaying this wealth on their clothing, they were proving to prospective husbands that even if they did not have a rich family, they were independently wealthy and could provide their own dowry. I get a little kick out of that. If they can wear their life savings on their bottom, surely I can find the courage tell people that bellydance is beautiful, fantastic exercise, great for self esteem and just plain fun?

Written by Cara Kwiecien