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Belly Up To Health
The studio seems a world away from the snowy streets of Minneapolis — as Arabic music plays, women swirl colorful fabrics overhead, tap finger cymbals and shake their hips, causing the coins and beads affixed to their shimmering skirts to jingle in unison.
The 20 or so women at belly dance practice look like they couldn’t feel more at home — both in this setting and in their bodies.
Yes, even in Minnesota, the land of modest Scandinavians, there’s quite a belly dance community. Although people come to this feminine, exotic and sensual dance for a variety of reasons, many are impressed by its health benefits on all levels — physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
Take Malika Benachour, 35, who started belly dance about a year ago to connect with her Arabic culture. Benachour was physically and emotionally abused while growing up and wasn’t allowed to do things such as dance or wear makeup.
“For me, belly dance is very spiritual; it makes me discover my inner beauty,” she said. “I call it a healing process — doing this makes me feel like I’m born again.”
Benachour’s teacher, Cassandra Shore, who founded the Cassandra School in 1978 and is artistic director of Jawaahir Dance Company, is considered by many to be the point person for all things belly dance in this area. Shore said she’s seen scores of students transformed by belly dance.
“Their body image improves. I think a lot of people come in and don’t feel terribly graceful or terribly feminine, they feel too fat or too skinny,” she said. “But in this type of dance there is no ideal body type. The dancer takes the movement and completes it to make it beautiful. People see themselves able to do that and have an increased confidence.”
That’s exactly what happened to instructor and student Raina Amir, 35, who started dancing in 2001. She had “serious self-esteem issues” before she started. Amir felt uncomfortable with her body and the scars she’d carried from major surgeries that began in childhood.
“Then I started dancing and I realized, ‘You know what, I’ve got a strong body and it doesn’t matter what it looks like because it’s mine and I can move it and do all this cool stuff with it,'” she said. “It just makes you feel better about yourself.”
Her physical health improved right along with her outlook. Instead of having “atrocious posture,” she stands upright, breathes easier and her back pain has diminished.
The beautiful thing about belly dance is that it’s for people of all ages and body types, including men, she said. “I don’t care if you’re 400 pounds or 110 pounds, it’s just phenomenal,” she said. Amir has had mothers and daughters in classes together and knows one woman planning to bring her granddaughter. (The dancers stress that a bare belly is certainly not required. In the class of more than 20, only a few are showing some midriff.)
Belly dance got a boost in recent years as big-time performers like Shakira, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera incorporated some belly-dance-inspired moves. And it continues to be propelled as a fitness regimen through videos by Neena and Veena, Rania’s “Bellydance Superstars” workout video and “Kathy Smith: Flex Appeal – A Belly Dance Workout.”
One of the biggest beneficiaries of belly dance is the back, students and instructors said.
“Belly dancing gives you a really, really, really strong core,” said performer, instructor and student Sarah Jones-Larson, 47. “The undulatory movements of the spine increase both the strength and suppleness of the back.”
Jones-Larson started belly dancing because her chiropractor told her she was going to start taking classes and invited her patients to give it a try. After a back injury that plagued her for many years, Jones-Larson found major relief from her back pain through belly dance.
It’s also great for hip flexibility, coordination and balance, said Samantha Morgan, 27, a belly dance performer, instructor and student. “There’s a lot of isolation of one body part from another and layering,” she said.
No kidding. As the women shake their hips and booties, they vibrate across the floor looking like overloaded washing machines on the spin cycle (though far more graceful!). In another move, their legs, hips, rib cages, arms and necks are all moving independently in different ways. Yet somehow, the various movements form a cohesive concert.
Shari Jeziorski, 34, an instructor, performer and student, is starting Belly Dance for Wellness, a class that emphasizes the health aspects of the movements and the breathing. She said belly dance can be aerobic but is also low-impact, so it’s easy on joints. It also tones and strengthens muscles, helps people maintain a healthy weight, helps women prepare for childbirth by strengthening pelvic floor muscles, increases stamina, reduces stress and may maintain or help regulate the respiratory, cardiovascular and digestive systems.
One of the best health benefits, the women said, is simply how it makes them feel.
“It just makes me happy and calm,” said student Dawn Meyer, 47. “It’s a happy, freeing and beautiful dance.”
Sarah Moran
Minneapolis Star Tribune