Why I Teach Bellydance

I have been a lifelong student of dance, and my dance classes were often safe spaces, opportunities to just be who I am, to experience really living in my body and truly feeling my feelings. I dance for the exercise and for the creative expression that movement and music generate. I will always be a student of dance, and I keep learning so that I keep growing, expanding my knowledge and my repertoire in order to enhance my performances and the classes I teach.

When I first started learning bellydance, I found that it requires a level of body awareness that is unlike other dance forms I’ve studied. The back and abdominals (the core) are even more important, relative to our limbs. Furthermore, the movements are not only beautiful to watch, but also fun and natural to do. I also love the extensive variety of styles within bellydance, including classical Egyptian or Turkish (among others), folkloric, American “cabaret” style, American Tribal Style, and tribal fusion. Some dancers incorporate influences from Persian movement, Bollywood, or African dance, and some of us are influenced by our training in jazz, ballet, and other forms. Bellydancers debate the authenticity of this sort of fusion, but it’s nonetheless true that the label “bellydance” is often used for dance that incorporates a basic set of movements that originate in the torso.

Bellydance is an emotional dance form, conveying joy or sorrow or yearning or hope. For me, the most prevalent feeling is joy, and I teach so I can share this joy with other women. I want to empower others, and to help them experience a new sort of body awareness, hopefully celebrating a healthy body image. And by healthy, I do not mean fitting a particular body type, but being and feeling healthy and strong and feminine, all at once.

Sometimes when I’m out running errands, I see a woman with hunched shoulders and a closed posture; it seems that she’s trying to be invisible. I find myself wanting to walk up to her and ask her to come to my bellydance classes. I believe dance, particularly bellydance, is an avenue to healing and power for women. Even if we don’t all cower in the corner, hiding from others, I believe most of us can relate to that feeling, that insecurity. I teach bellydance because I love the art form and want to share it, and I also teach to support every student’s process of shedding those insecurities. I wish for my students to recognize their fabulous beauty and strength, and to radiate that to the world.

~~~ Sahira Zedaré