Baubo Belly Dancing News Stories

Introducing Depth Gently

Nafoura Magazine--01st of October 2009

See Nafoura magazine for informed articles and the latest news from the International belly dance community plus Guinevere's article on introducing spiritulaity into her classes....www.nafoura.com (Oct 2009 issue)

'I teach two teenage dance students, Ruth and Amy, who now call themselves, ‘The Sun Dancers of Ra’. They started belly dancing at age 12 and 13, around 5 years ago and showed great talent from their previous studies in ballet and contemporary dance. They learnt quickly and have flourished into wonderful performers. When I initially asked them, ‘why do you want to belly dance’, they said ‘we want to dance like Shakira.’

This was interesting to me. I was faced with the challenge of bringing in the obvious techniques of isolations and creative hip work but also introducing the roots and depth of belly dance to the girls. As a teacher this was important to me. Shakira’s dance, mesmerizing and fantastic as it was, did not give the girls the insight into the dance’s deeper traditions.

For many years I did not include religious or overtly spiritual content in my classes, reasoning that we all have an opinion, a life style and choices; which are separate to belly dance practice. I respected that when I first started teaching 7 years ago. Many women were coming as an alternative to going to the gym, out of curiosity, or as a total exploration into themselves. To many the classes were an escape route into a world of freedom, emotional expression and fun. At one time I had a Christian vicar, a pagan witch and a practicing Jehovah’s Witness in my classes, and that was just the tip of the iceberg! But whatever background we had, we were all united by one simple act – dance. What we thought, practiced or did as people beyond our time together was not important.

The community that formed seemed to have its own spirit. I felt that the spiritual side was often experienced spontaneously in a private or subtle way as a sensation of joy, community, euphoria or friendship. Belly dance came with its own keys into spirituality and I was happy for the time to let it happen naturally with no commentary or nudging.

Things changed slowly for me. The longer I danced and the more I trained and travelled with the art form, the more difficult it became to distinguish many moves from their spiritual symbolism. The quality of female energy created in groups and classes seemed to be a part of the divine feminine and the impact the art form had on many was an essentially spiritual, transformative experience. I started to see that belly dance was a synergy of mind, body, soul and spirit, all woven in with cultural style and personal expression.

Workshops with Dr Hassan Khalil, Keti Sharif, Paola Blanton and Hannah Corr each introduced concepts of the metaphysical in dance to me. From Dr Khalil I learnt about the gestures of belly dance: the total commitment to the heavens when we raise our arms pulling down that force and embodying it. I began to allow myself to really feel the spiritual energy and to be proud and celebratory with it. Keti Sharif offered a wide, holistic selection of concise and structured routines, some drawing on mythic Egyptian Goddess’s such as Isis and Hathor. Keti’s A-Z introduced notions of sacred geometry, the idea of temple dance, and many of the slower A-Z sequences made me feel simply divine!

Time spent with Paola Blanton, really emphasized breath work, Chakra energy and the idea of total transformation of the belly dance performer into an animated and receptive ‘vessel’. Hannah Corr offered me and my groups a series of belly dance workshops based on Goddess’s. From Bast to Baubo and Oshun to Bridgit, we explored Goddess energy, symbolism and stories. Wonderful dances came out at these Goddess workshops as we let our hair down and looked deeper into ourselves and dance.

From these teachers I leant much about spirituality in dance. Spirit both inside and outside but inherently everywhere was what was celebrated by these many different takes on Middle Eastern dance. They demonstrated diversity and variety and that although spiritual and or religious practice is essentially a personal choice and experience, it is not necessarily something that can be divorced from belly dance practice. Time spent with groups of Middle Eastern women also gave me a tangible sense of women’s space itself being sacred, the dance done to raise spirits and bless and empathize with each other.

So, as I absorbed more about the expression of spirituality through dance, I felt more confident to introduce more of what I was learning to my students, including my youngest students: The Sun Dancers of Ra. Initially I taught them a short, basic choreography, purely to get them dancing and to give them a feel for the moves. They learnt the choreography in one class! So much for taking it gently! At the time of their entrance into the classes, I was practicing and working creatively with Keti Sharif’s AstroBelly, so that’s how they really began. AstroBelly includes 12 Middle Eastern dance combinations, relating to the twelve zodiac signs with a focus on character, element and physically representing the sign. My younger students got on well with the Astrobelly routines, with their imaginative approach clear storylines and personalized applications. My teenagers’ class formed a dance out of their own sun signs, needless to say it was to a Shakira song!

The A-Z of belly dance also allowed me clear avenues with which to introduce the holistic aspects of belly dance in a gentle way. So when I offered them the ‘Nefertiti’ routine it prompted a discussion on the Queen of Egypt: Who was she? Why was she so special and revered and how can we deploy that in our dance? A-Z encourages technique but does so by means of a visual and anecdotal key which is really useful, especially when you have teenagers to teach, as they can get bored easily!

The Sun Dancers of Ra danced an ethereal wing choreography I devised for my adult group, dedicated to the Goddess Isis. I included a little pre-practice mantra to ask for Isis’ blessing and inspiration.. They now work a lot with wings and when I watch then I am proud to think that they started their wing practice with a deeper insight into the bigger symbolism behind their Isis wings. They dance with wings to a really funky Tarkan song now, but I still see their sensitivity to the wing work. Above all they seem very empowered and blissful in their Isis wings.

Belly dance has offered The Sun Dancers of Ra a unique array of spiritual experiences in their teenage years. Would they have had these experiences without belly dance? They say: ‘not as many!’ They have wonderful hip work in keeping with their idol Shakira! But I see in them so much more than just great technique. When they reach to the sky they reach with pure intent; when they use their hands they are animated and full of energy. They are able to share their dance with others and truly transmit the joy of their creativity. That is a spiritual experience. The simple giving of bliss is transformative, healing and more special than any religious doctrine or sermon. At their last performance, The Sun Dancers of Ra handed out flowers to all the audience members. They said that, ‘belly dance gives us and others a gift, and the flowers were a symbol of that gift.’ I cried with delight when I saw this!

The longer I dance, the deeper my spiritual path is opened up - by my own and others inspirations. Belly dance challenges us to go beyond ourselves, to transcend earthly concerns but also to stay grounded and be a vessel of beauty and creative flow. All of this comes with time and practice. I’m still on my dance journey, or is it a quest? Either way, I’m so glad I am on it. In sharing the art of belly dance with other women, I too see them evolve, becoming deeper thinkers, more in tune with their own divine processes of creativity and joy. Belly dance gives us a platform for personal expression and in true community spirit we are all obliged to honour and respect everyone’s expression in this wonderful evolving mosaic of feminine strength.'