Bouncing Breasts as a Turn Off

All mammals have them. In many adult human females they are quite noticeable. So why are they ignored when it comes to physical exercise? Yes, yes, I know about sports bras – but honestly they are of limited use. In the short time I played soccer only binding with crepe bandages was really effective.

Two incidents have had me thinking about breasts again. One was a presentation I attended on introducing exercise to the community. One (male) presenter was extolling the virtues of jogging (as opposed to running or fast walking which causes a lot of leverage on the joints). Jogging was great. The feet stayed under the bulk of the body weight. The heart rate was raised because the body is lifted and moved slightly forward very rapidly.

Mmm, I thought, bouncing up and down for 30 minutes – do they really think this is going to take off with the under-exercised and over-weight in the community. Especially women? Even with a good bra, as an E-cup, I avoid anything that is going to lift and drop my torso for even a few minutes – let alone thirty.

I waited for someone to object. The only query was on the effect of jogging on the joints which let to a complex discussion on how fast walking can be more detrimental. Oddly enough most of the audience was female – but of the light lean variety. I am still unsure if the silence was due to a complete obliviousness to the issue or whether no-one wanted to mention “breasts”. However, as two of the other presentations by women were also the jump round turn around variety I suspect many in the industry have never lived with the reality of female breasts and vigorous exercise.

So maybe belly dance is the answer. If you avoid some folk styles such as sa`iidi and debke there isn’t a lot joggling up and down. Yet breast blindness appeared again recently on an internet forum.

The subject was shoulder shimmies. There are many ways to create a shoulder shimmy but the two main mechanisms is to articulate the shoulders back and forward very quickly or to twist the torso as a unit. (You can do a mix and you can also change how high the torso twists.) Personally I refer to the former as “shoulder shimmies” and the latter as “torso or bust shimmies”. The latter is more common in folk styles. The former is most often seen in Orientale.

The issue was many larger busted women found the bust shimmy uncomfortable, ugly, and made them feel self conscious. However a number of the other dancers and even teachers could not understand this. There was discussion on using well constructed bras and improving isolation – both valid comments – but few would be willing to change the technique to an (articulated) shoulder shimmy.

My point? When leading exercise for a group that includes women who are not (for what ever reason) washboard ribbed, consider the effect of the movement on the women’s body. Making your clients uncomfortable and unhappy is not going to encourage them to come back.

Challenging Yourself

In belly dance there is so much to learn - even within a single style. It is a chance of lifetime learning. The first challenge most people face is actually taming their body. Learning that hip figure eight that does what you want it to do - staying horizontal or vertical or doing a combination of both and keeping it smooth. Getting a shoulder shimmy that moves only the bits you want to shake.

What might surprise many beginners is that "getting you body under control" doesn't really stop. You just add more difficult moves to your repertoire. (Not that belly dance is about having to master more and more difficult moves - but you don't learn it all when you can execute a flawless set of isolations on each part of the body).

For many people the next step is learning movement combinations, layering and transitions. Some then start collecting choreographies. Some then challenge themselves with improvisation. Both are valid. What both are working towards is learning to interpret the music - within the belly dance genre.

This step requires some outside assistance. Although a dedicated and talented person might be able to learn the moves, it is much harder to learn to belly dance. For this you need a teacher - or even better a number of teachers. Some may be people you attend class with. Some may only drop in to take a workshop. Some you might learn from by watching their performances. Over a period of years by watching good examples of the dance and being corrected by knowledgeable teachers you extend your ability to be able to be a good belly dancer yourself.

A student of belly dance (and by that I also include the best teachers) also needs to understand the different styles within the dance. They don't need to be able to do them all well but they should be able to recognize obvious examples of (say) modern Egyptian style, Lebanese style, old style Turkish, AmCab etc. They should also have an idea of a couple of major folkloric styles from the area of interest - Egyptian folk for Egyptian dancer, Turkish or Rom folk for Turkish dancers etc.

Another aspect of the dance is a range of props. A basic set would include veil, zils and cane but there are many others – again depending on the style(s) you are interested in - sword for AmCab and Tribal, shamadan for Egyptian, spoons for Turkish. A belly dancer needs to know not only how to use them but when to use them. What music works. What movements go with them.

Then there are cultural factors. A dancer needs to know about what his or her music means. Not only what the lyrics say (and many instrumentals also have lyrics) but what it actually means and also what it means to the audience. For instance some very upbeat songs can be about loss. And some songs are metaphors – for example there is a song which appears to be about a man’s mother but is actually a political song about Egypt. For Egyptians songs by Oum Kalthoum have a particular significance and need to be treated with sensitivity.

So, some understanding of the language (whether Arabic, Turkish or Farsi) is useful. But an understanding of the people’s culture and history is also important.

One problem with self taught dancers – or those that do not have a good teacher – is that you often cannot know what you do not know. Experienced belly dancers are forever stumbling across people saying they have learnt it all (after a year, two months or whatever) so have had to branch out into fusion or burlesque or whatever. They shudder – but often it isn’t the dancer’s fault. They often truly don’t know they are missing 90% of belly dance.

So, if you are feeling a little too smug. Look around and find a new challenge within the dance. After 19 years I’m still learning new stuff – and I really only have a deep knowledge of Egyptian and generic belly dance.

Belly Dance Hen's Nights

After a particularly busy lot of Hens Nights, a friend commented how hard it must be. I pointed out belly dancing for three hours, while unusual for me is well below a full day at a workshop - and at a much lower technical level. But that wasn’t it. Rather, it was turning up at a stranger’s house and offering to belly dance for them. “You’re so shy. What if they think ‘Belly Dance – how silly. I’m not doing that!’”

Well, first up I’m not “shy”. True, I’m an introvert – which means interacting with groups of people drains rather than invigorates me – and I don’t do small talk. But give me a role or a task and I have no problem fronting up to any number of people – dancing, teaching, lecturing – even giving directions on the street.

But not needing the approval of other people, like my extroverted friend, means I don’t feel personally hurt if people don’t warm 100% to me and my interests. Yes, some times a few individuals at a Hens Night are too cool to belly dance. And there are people who are too shy, too tired, too sore, too pregnant, or too drunk. But even they often get something out of the entertainment.

And at a Hens Night – that’s what I am - an Entertainer. I’m not there to show them how well I can dance. I’m not there to be admired. I’m there to help people celebrate their friend or relative; I’m there to let them have a laugh, take some silly photos – and maybe, just maybe, pick up a few belly dance moves.

Hey, if you think some of your friends might like this – and they live in Christchurch, New Zealand – feel free to contact me! http://www.bellyraqs.co.nz

Belly Dance for Mental Agility

Much is often made of Belly Dance being great for improving physically flexibility – but what about mental flexibility? It can give you a great mental workout as well.

Take last weekend. It seemed like a simple gig supporting the local International community. We’d come along and dance for their get together. First hurdle – did I have any Middle Eastern students? Ideally recent immigrants or children of immigrants? No, but I’m the child of Hungarian parents and some students are Dutch. So our support was declined – until 10 days before the event was to be held when they decided that my site included enough multicultural material for me to pass.

Next hurdle - no real timetable. Okay, I can adjust. I’m not totally anal about my schedule. But that meant some students who had firm commitments elsewhere were unable to take part. So, for a 10 minute performance we were on site almost two hours being part of the community. Probably good for us.

Then there was the choice of material. Nothing to alienate conservative Muslims. I bit my tongue as I knew we could do nothing right if any really conservatives turned up. However, we have a wide repertoire of folkloric items. Cane is always popular. Then I realised the venue was small with a low ceiling and people would be sitting up close. No cane. I suspected my beledi would be incomprehensible to non-Egyptians. No beledi. With those that I had available at short notice it would be ghawazee as a solo. Maybe. Ditto haggala – and as a woman well past the first flush of youth I’d not be a sensible choice.


Okay – khaleegi. Our stage piece is for 10 – but I could only get 4 at short notice. A good thing too. Did I tell you the stage was small? 3 by 10 – over here we think in metres – and that would have been small for the tableau. But the organizer was old school – this was feet. So, restage and reassign parts – this is a group framework with solos and duets not a choreography with everyone doing the same thing. Add two hours of rehearsal leading up to the show.

So, one student thought this would be a good time to refurbish her costume and she unpicks it and starts reassembling it by hand. (For those of you who have never made a khaleegi thobe there is over 6m of fabric – that’s 4m of sleeve hem to restitch with slippery sequinned fabric.) Three hours before we are due at the venue she rings to say she’ll never get it back together in time. Thank goodness for spare khaleegi thobes. Only, I made the class set out of cheap material and now it has to be ironed – by me. (Along with putting on make up and running a last minute rehearsal)



Our second item? I took the easy route and did a stock belly dance piece – covering as much skin as possible with body stockings, sleeves and gauntlets. The audience –Korean, Japanese, Indian, Welsh, Australian and Somali - were not at all offended.

Overall, it went down very well. The students got a kick out of not only pulling off a nice piece of dance performance but also realizing that what they learn in class is not definitive. They are being given tools. They can adapt. Now they don’t just know this in the abstract – they know they can do it.

So, Who’s Writing on the Net?

Recently a student discovered a YouTube clip of Ranya Renee doing a great beledi interpretation. This sparked an interest in beledi which she initially asked me about. I love beledi – it is my favourite style. But I was overwhelmed by catching up after a week at the Winter Warmup and had a huge pile of exams to mark. So my response was a little brief.

No problem. She then started an internet search and came up with a range of information. Some accurate, some suspect, some off. The email correspondence that followed really got me thinking. The first issue was simple – “why do you think your information is better than X or Y’s?” Because I got my information directly from Egyptian dance teachers who lived, worked, and studied in Egypt – such as Raqia Hassan, Yousry Sharif, Denise Enan, Dr Mo Geddawi, Aida Nour. Yasmina and Lubna Emam. Although one or two may have grasped the wrong end of the stick – I cannot believe all would have.

I should have anticipated the next question “then why can’t I find any information by them on the net?”. Maybe because they have better things to do with their time? Maybe because they are professional teachers and are not inclined to give away huge hunks of information for free? Maybe because neither English nor the internet is familiar to them? Maybe because they have difficulty in putting into words what they know through years of living in a culture? Maybe because when they hear a mawal they just know that this is how you move and this – but not that?

The third issue is a little harder. “Beledi” is a big concept. It has many levels of meaning. There are numerous associated music and dance styles which change over time, place and society. A good explanation isn’t a one liner. It isn’t even a whole webpage. It is a book. Yet, so often, it is expected that a couple of paragraphs will cover it. The ‘net encourages a very superficial gloss over of complex topics.

Finally there is the expectation that you can learn anything on the ‘net. You can learn a lot about some aspects of dance through the written word – if you share a common language – but not all. Video clips and DVDs also provide another tool. You can (usually) see what a dancer is doing. You can try and copy their movements. Many people have a gift of being able to do this. Many people struggle. Many people fail and don’t even realize it.

But belly dance is more than a string of movements. You need a context. You often need to ask someone about something which is obvious to them but a total mystery to you. “Why do so many beledi improvisations sound familiar?”, “Why do you wear that crochet thing on your face?”, “Who is this Fifi you keep talking about?” Often the student is unaware they even are missing something, which is where a live teacher comes in.

Experienced dancers and teachers know this. Less experienced dancers may take longer to learn – and in the meantime they are reading websites by those often with more confidence than knowledge. Then horror or horrors, they get their own website and repeat all the crap.

What are the “Basics”?

When designing any course of study a teacher needs to consider what are the basics that their students need to master. The basics will form the foundation of future learning. A poor foundation will mean that a student could be unable to reach their full potential.
So, with belly dance what are those basics?

There are several areas that need to be addressed:

• Physical skills
• Dance skills
• Performance skills
• Cultural and historical context

Physical skills

A basic requirement for a dancer is co-ordination and control. Without this they are unable to use their body to express movement. Tied to this is automatic abdominal control to enable many of the standard moves to be performed safely. This is the automatic response of the body to protect the back and use the deep abdominal muscles.

In belly dance flexibility is a lesser requirement. Most belly dance does not require extreme range of motion. However, balanced flexibility is advantageous. This will allow a student to maintain good posture with minimal effort. Reasonable range of motion in the hips and lower back is also beneficial.

Unlike many other dance forms raw strength is not an issue. Apart from some folk styles there is little jumping required and no lifting. However, physical endurance is useful to enable a dancer to train over long periods and maintain good quality movement.

Only once the body is in a fit state can the teacher focus on “moves”. A belly dancer needs to be able to move parts of their body independently from each other. They need a basic vocabulary which includes moving the hips up and down and in circles and moving the shoulders and torso in typical movement patterns.

The initial – or basic moves – need to be physically safe for the new dancer. Moves such as mayas which are standard in many belly dancer’s vocabulary are not safe for many new dancers with insufficient abdominal control to perform them safely.

Dance skills

Building from moves, a dancer can learn combinations and travelling sequences. These need to be more than just exercises in movement but also be an expression of musicality. With a new dance style many students will need to be taught how to interpret the music by their teacher.
Many teachers include the ability to remember and perform choreography in their basics. Others do not. For some it is the ability to improvise to the music that is important.

Some teachers consider prop use (eg veils, zills, and cane) to be basic. Personally, I’d rather see a dancer secure in their body before adding an extra layer such as playing zills.

Performance skills

Although in the long term, stage presence, emotional communication, costuming and make-up are important in the dance, I would not count them in the initial basics.

Cultural and historical context

I would however include an introduction to belly dance’s cultural and historical context as “basic”. Why? Because without that the students might be learning dance – but they are not learning “belly dance”. A lack of context leads to poorly informed students believing anything with an undulation in it is belly dance. It leads to people who are unable to distinguish belly dance from hula. It helps many of the inaccurate myths bred. Shining a bright light on the background of the dance and distinguishing between belly dance and creative movement is an essential part of a belly dance teacher’s core job specification.

Teaching this while keeping the learning fun and extending the student’s dance ability is really what it is all about.

What is this "Belly Raqs" thing?

My (stage) name is Kashmir and most people would call me a belly dancer. I teach belly dance. I entertain using belly dance. I even belly dance. Most of my free time is sucked up with belly dance and most of my holidays are belly dance related.

So, why do I use "belly raqs"? It is not because I am one of the belly dancers who find the name "belly dance" demeaning and inaccurate, but rather that "belly dance" has too often become a sloppy label attached to any movement that includes undulations and bare bellies. Belly dance, real belly dance, may include undulations and it may be danced with a bare belly - but often is not. Belly dance can include these elements but far more importantly it is based on a social dance from (North Africa and) the Middle East. The movement vocab is torso centered; the belly often powering the moves rather than being the point of them. And it links back to the Middle East - in its music, in its approach, in its feel.

To make that link explicit I use the Arabic term for dance - "raqs" and place it after the Western term for our dance genre - "belly". This acknowledges for me that both cultures have given me my belly dance.

To those who wonder why I don't just use the term "raqs sharqi" - it is because that is actually a small sub-set of belly dance. Raqs sharqi (aka danse orientale) is a style that came out of Egypt in the 1920s and 1930s. Many people still dance in this style and even more dance in a style directly derived from it. But it isn't my preferred belly dance style. I tend to be a bit more beledi; a bit more folkloric.