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Most of us, as new students, want to learn the right way to dance. We often want to know what the correct name for a move is, and how it is done. New dancers can get confused or frustrated when hearing different names of the same move, or will label one way of doing something wrong if it doesn't match up with they way our teacher does it.* We may even long for a standardized curriculum, especially if we grew up with more codified Euro-American dance styles, like ballet or square dancing. I know it's frustrating to not have a single answer, but for this dance, it is very important to resist the urge to standardize it!
Not long after I started learning to bellydance, I developed intrusive thought OCD. Under the direction of a psychologist, I had to undergo Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy, or ERPT for short. The gist of this therapy, which is also used to help people overcome debilitating fears, is to expose yourself to an anxiety inducing stimulus and, instead of allowing yourself to respond with your anxiety reducing compulsion, riding out the anxiety so that you retrain your brain, though experience, to recognize that the anxiety response is not necessary. Over time, you gradually increase how long you resist performing the compulsion, or increase the magnitude of the stimulus (meaning, if you're doing ERPT to overcome a fear of snakes, you might start out with worms, then move onto small garden snakes, then just look at a big snake, then touch one, and eventually work up to holding a medium sized milk snake, for example).
I promise this is a post about bellydance!  In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a ritual where monks spend weeks creating mandalas out of sand. Then the artwork is swept away and poured into running water. The point is to remember the impermanence of all things. Dance is like this, no matter how detailed your choreography or how canned your music, each performance will be different.
This week, the Maleya. This is a modesty garment common in Egypt many years ago, and was used as a character prop for a long time.
"...the core of bellydance resides in the lived, felt, courageous truths it can tell." ~ Andrea Dragon
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AuthorLisa Lumina is the primary author of student readings. Guest authors are indicated on their posts. Archives
August 2025
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