Going oriental – belly dancing

As a result of being a bum for almost 3 months, I decided to realize the first social need of all human beings – self actualization. Yes, my goal is to self-actualize, to be the best of what I can be. So aside from realizing my dream of being the next Van Gogh, I decided to enroll in something I am very interested in.

I love dancing – evident in the a) many Friday nights spent dancing and partying in Xaymaca (a local reggae bar), and b) the many excruciating hours I spent during my childhood dance lessons (ballet, jazz, and hawaiian). In fact, I also enrolled in a jazz dance class a few years back. The thing is, my dance teacher had this habit of always shouting at his students with 2 left feet, i.e. ME! So I said goodbye to him, and his sour temper.

I’ve tried a lot of dance classes – ballet, jazz, Hawaiian, ballroom dance – and somehow, I felt that it was not what I am really good at. In ballet, the ballerina needs to have small boobs and small head. I have a pretty ok-sized head, but I am what you will considered as “well-endowed”. So I decided to say goodbye to my ballerina dreams. Jazz dancing requires the dancer to be flexible and pliable (hehehe, wait, that word is only used for metals, right?). I am not flexible at all! Ballroom dancing requires you to have a dancing partner. Well, too toxic to find an excellent male dancer. Soooo…I decided to enroll in a different kind of dance class – Belly Dancing! Yahoo!

Why not! I think I am pretty much qualified to become a belly dancer – I love dancing, and I have a belly, kinda big actually! Hahaha! Seriously, my dance teacher told us that belly dancing would look good on women with curves in their mid-section. She didn’t say that belly dancers need to have love-handles, but that’s my interpretation. And she allowed me to enroll in her class, didn’t she – me, with all my lovehandles.

According to the internet, belly dancing is also known as Oriental Dance. And is very popular in the middle eastern countries. Well, what do you know, I dream of going to Egypt one day. This may be the first step towards the realization of another dream – embracing the Egyptian culture and traditions! And who knows, I might be able to use my belly dancing skills should I travel to Egypt one day. I can moonlight as a belly dancer outside train stations, giving passers-by the best belly dance performance, in exchange for a few dollars. Hehehe. So oriental! So Gypsy-ish! I am so excited!

I’ve finished the whole belly dancing course – all 6 grueling sessions of swaying, undulating*, and swishing my hips to the beat of oriental music. I loved it! It felt so sexy, so feminine, so empowering!

So the next time you have a lot of free time, extra cash, and a sudden urge to do something different, try belly dancing, and undulate your blues away.


Note:
* Undulate is the rolling, rippling and heaving movement used in belly dancing. The movement is usually concentrated in the mid-section, and causes the belly to rise and fall, resulting in a snakelike movement.


11 March 2006
Sunday
3:45
Penang