Bellydance

The truth about Bellydance

Bellydance, oriental dance, arabic dance or Raqs Shark is a dance that originated in Middle Eastern . It is performed by women and men with, among other things, undulating movements of the hips and abdomen. Arabic dance has always been victim of numerous misconceptions, in particularly to be a provocative dance. But Bellydance is not a dance of seduction.

First, Belly dance is a way of expressing yourself .Many women find bellydance a way of finding themselves and expressing their feelings such as happiness, sadness, hurt , jealousy… and leave behind stress and problems of their everyday life. It is also an environnement to explore their body and express their femininity.They can wear stunning costumes ( that include fitted top, long skirt or long pants, and a belt) or any type of outfit that goes with their own personality. Bellydance also promotes to express creativity and to play with the imagination creating their own choreographies and using different type of music like inspiration as tribal, egyptian or fusion.

Also, everyone can practice bellydance.There is not and ¨ideal¨ body or and optimal age to practice this dance. Bellydance is for young, old, skinny or curvy girls. One of the biggest myths of oriental dance is that is only for curvy girls. Certainly it is common to see voluptuous women belly dancing, but a person doesn’t need to be curvy to perform the movements properly if her technique is correct. Bellydance promotes a very inclusive body image and helps many women with negative body image problems to learn to love and feel proud of their bodies.People also usually think Bellydance is just for women.In the past, in traditional cultures usually men performed this type of dance just as often that women.Nowadays in Eastern countries, there are many male belly dancers, like Ozgen ( a turkish bellydancer) who still dance socially and have and excellent technique using the same movements that women do. It is less commun in occidental countries where these movements look feminine and don't fit in the idea of masculinity and gender stereotypes.

Finally, oriental dance is also a sport with many health benefits. First, it tones the muscles and improves the posture. During the dance, the movement of hip circles, figure eights and shimmies put ligaments and joints in the lower back.This movement increases the circulation of the natural lubricant of joints. By this means, muscles tone easier.These worked muscles ameliorate the posture and prevent back pains that are usually caused by an unnatural spine curving.Second, arabic dance helps to lose weight. It can make a person burn up to 300 calories per hour.This weight lost varies depending on the intensity of the mouvements.Also, it helps digestion: exercising the abdominal by rolling the belly and by swinging