Let Your Belly Dance

On one of my trips to Germany I made an interesting discovery.  My old and very good friend told me that she had joined a belly dancing group.  Wow!  I was impressed, and frankly this was the last thing that I would have expected from her.  I had known her more as an athlete.  She liked to bike and swim, or she was chasing around town on her rollerblades.  What had happened to her, or had I simply failed to perceive who she really was?  Anyway, I was very excited to join her at her next belly dancing class to see what I obviously had not seen before in my friend.

Before I talk about what I experienced with that group, I must first share with you my prejudices.  Belly dancing is for slightly overweight, but very female looking women.  It is an erotic dance for women that enjoy showing off their curves.  The oriental music gets on your nerves if you are not used to it, like listening to heavy metal in your 80s.  That’s enough confession about my prejudices right now.  Let’s move on to what I actually experienced after I decided to encounter this event with an open mind and a lot of compassion.

My friend introduced me to the group of women participating in the class.  What I saw was not what I had expected: living proof that any prejudices were worthless and unfair.  I met a group of maybe ten women.  They were practicing for an upcoming show and there was a lot of excitement and chatting in the room.  The participants’ ages ranged from the mid-twenties to the mid-sixties.  They were the nicest women you can imagine and by far neither overweight nor showing off and exposing various body parts.  There were retired women, an actress, a housewife, a manager … you name it.  Their bodies varied too.  Some were rather skinny, others more slender or a little bit chubby in certain areas.  Some women moved smoothly, others moved a little bit more stiffly, but what they all had in common was a certain feeling for rhythm and music.  They obviously had a lot of fun, and I witnessed female power and spirit at its best.  What an experience!

The group practiced their show dance on and on, and I could not get enough watching them.  They moved their hips and bellies in a way that I could not.  They obviously managed to build a lot of stomach muscles and their bodies radiated the message:  Look at me.  I am beautiful, I am self-confident and I am in connection with my body.  What a delight to watch them.  All of the women expressed beauty and elegance in their dancing that had nothing to do with perfection.  There was no perfect body, but they all looked fantastic and in synch with their inner self when dancing.

I learned a lot that afternoon, and one big lesson definitely was that belly dancing is not “just an oriental dance”, but a wonderful form of being a woman.  It does not matter if you are skinny or chubby, young or old, tall or short or whatever.  What counts is that you are in synch with yourself.  It is important that you are able to accept who you are – the total package.

Women are often unhappy about their looks and do not accept what they see in the mirror.  The media feeds us with pictures of beauty that we feel we cannot compete with.  Forget all that!  Instead embrace who you are and also love the little imperfections we all have.  Beauty has nothing to do with perfection but with attitude and acceptance.  If you still do not believe what I am saying, join a belly dancing group and experience it for yourself.  For me the whole event was an eye opener.  Suddenly even my athlete friend appeared in a new light.  I saw her femininity and beauty in a way I have not seen before.  When she danced to the oriental music, I saw a beautiful and self-confident woman from through and through, and that confirmed to me that we are what we feel and not what we pretend to be. Therefore let your belly dance and have a good summer.

Be a woman and act like one.

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