It's all about the hips!

This past Sunday, I was invited to see my friend Shannon's second spring bellydance recital which is a joint production between the Edmonton Bellydance Academy and Aldiya Middle Eastern Dance schools.

The fun of watching bellydance, I think, includes how colourful and elaborate the costumes are and how confident each dancer seems as she is dancing. Shannon tells me bellydance was intended as a dance both for entertaining men and for communicating and celebrating women, though the latter definition is oft forgotten in North American society. Dances on the bill included everything from slow, sexy dances meant to entice a lover to quick traditional tribal dance to modern-theatre-bellydance fusion conveying suffering. Every single woman - and there were many beautiful women of all shapes and all sizes - seemed poised, graceful, and joyful in their movements. The recital was indeed a celebration of sisterhood and womanly wonder!

I am always amazed at the amount of control required to complete bellydance moves. While I like to think that modern has conditioned my body to be fit and strong, especially around the abdomen, I can't say that I could easily do undulations or belly rolls or hip slides or anything my friend Shannon can do seemingly effortlessly. Every woman seemed to know how to manipulate their lower abdomen versus their upper abdomen versus their obliques at any given moment and all of this was separate from the use of their gluteals and their legs, which is what I would have to use to move the same way!! It is all about practice, I have been assured, and a love of movement, so anybody can pick up bellydance if they just spent the time to learn and practice!

The other aspect of bellydance I found interesting was the facial expressions of the performers. If the movements were to be enticing, the face was quite alluring and mysterious, with a hint of a smile and sparkling eyes. In fact, some types of dances required a veil to cover everything but the eyes and charm still oozed through the veil, which I consider a skill. Sorrowful dances were conveyed through downturned eyes and pained expressions, while happy, fun traditional steps were matched with exuberant, smiling faces! What a difference, I think, from modern where facial expressions are often kept neutral so that nothing distracts from the movement of the body. I'm not sure that I even possess the coordination to keep my face from two extremes while dancing: a neutral, expressionless face (for modern) or a wide, cheek pain-inducing smile (a remnant of childhood dance competitions). Not every dancer had the same expression though moving in unison, which puts a really personalized touch on the moves of each performer. Certainly, bellydance represents a unique approach to expression and quite enjoyed watching all of the dances that night, especially the poor sword-wielding dancers whose performance was plagued by technical difficulties. (Way to persevere, ladies!)

The recital was a significant departure from the performances I had attended of late and change, as always, is good. I applaud the confident and expressive dancing of each one of the dancers that evening and the hard-working choreographers who laid the plans for an enjoyable evening. Who knows? Maybe one of these days, I'll dabble in bellydance myself.

Maybe after my abs recover from my last modern class, though.