What are you doing this Weekend?

Come support the SF Bay Area Middle Eastern and Dance Association and participate in their raffle, Artemis Imports Will be raffling off a hip scarf!

The venue has limited seating so you should make a reservation!

“Return to the Casbah at the Village Kebab” ~ Sunday, September 15 in Los Altos, CA. 

 

Why Do You Dance?

“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” -Rumi

 I was talking to my mom earlier and she said it might be interesting to share what it was like to grow up the daughter of a Middle Eastern Belly Dancer…But before I could really get into that I thought about the reasons why we dance, and how that has changed over the years.

For me I fell into dance. The music is as natural to my ears as Michael Jackson’s song, “ Thriller” is to people of my generation.  I don’t remember how it started I was so young at the time. I continue because I enjoy dance, I liked to perform, dress up and spend time with my mom.

In high school I danced and shared dance with my class mates, it was a love hate relationship back then. You see I loved seeing the expression on people’s faces when they saw what “belly dance” actually looked like. But I avoided telling certain people that I did that type of dance.  I would cringe when they shared with me their narrow picture of what belly dance was in their mind; as just a dance of the stomach or that they couldn’t do it because their bellies weren’t big enough.

In college I was forming my university persona and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Dance and performance was on the back burner. I had other distractions and new experiences to be had.

But alas four years after graduating my inner dancer is coming back to life. Dance has helped me cope with life’s challenges. I now dance for health, to spend time with myself and to share its beauty with others.