Every 'Body' Can Belly Dance

“What physicality does one require to belly dance?” 

“Am I too thin?” 

“Am I too heavy?” 

“Am I too old?” 

“Can a man belly dance?”

We have been running a belly dance school since 2017, and during enrollments for every beginner batch, our inbox is flooded with these questions. Our answer is always the same - everybody can dance. Everybody, every 'body', can belly dance - irrespective of shape, size, gender and colour. Belly dance is one of those malleable dance languages that molds itself to your individual body. It goes beyond just offering you a space and vocabulary to dance - it highlights the beauty of your unique body. 

Belly dance shows off the beauty of your individual body. Picture by Srinidhi from our production "Arabian Nights"

“Belly dance is the one dance form that made me fall in love with myself,” says our advance student, Kumuda Prakash. Kumuda started her belly dance journey when she was 38 years old. She turned 49 this year. “I have always been this tall, big girl in most of the dance classes - because of my stature, I was always taking up a male role while dancing. When I entered a belly dance class - I was so relieved that I could just be myself and not be ashamed of my body type. Belly dance sprinkled this pixie dust on me - the idea that I have magic in me. This is what I always carry with me.”

Our company dancer, Sanjana Shankar, 27, agrees: "I honestly think it’s made me love my body more! I love how I feel in my body when I dance, it’s made some insecurities I’ve had become things I’m grateful for. It’s made me appreciate it more, for all that I’m able to do, and the boundaries I get to push."

Belly Dance For The Aging Body

“I am rediscovering myself in my 40s,” says Shanti Hiremath, our advance student. Ever since she was a child, Shanti had always loved to dance and perform. “My mother was a singer and she used to make me dance.  I lost my mother at a very young age and dance became difficult to go back to, for many reasons. However, this passion for dance was always there, hidden inside me. Belly dance has made me return to myself.”

Kumuda Prakash performs Baladi with the Intermediate batch in 2022 staging of our show - Safar-e-Raqs.

Certain challenges do come with age. Shanti confesses to having knee issues, and Kumuda admits there were dull moments when she was facing plantar fasciitis issue. However, Shanti believes that it all depends upon on the interest. “If you want to do it, you will do it. I think Deba (our founder - Debapriya Das) has been really helping with that. The pace is set according to every student and she knows how to give us space. Whatever health issues I faced, she guided me with suggestions about diet and how to manage my pain.”

“Deba will make you work your body from the tip of your hair to your toenail,” agrees Kumuda. She goes on to say, “Even when there were dull moments, I still carry the power belly dance has given me. The power to say, can you move the way my body moves? It makes you completely unapologetic. Dance isn’t just the ability to do thousand things - it is also about persona and grace. If you see Fifi Abdou dance a Baladi piece, you will know exactly what I mean.”

Shanti Hiremath performing as part of Intermediate batch in 2023 production of "Arabian Nights". Picture by Srinidhi

“This dance has made me embrace my weaknesses and my strengths. It makes me think creatively and it made prioritise taking care of myself and my body,” says Shanti.

Belly Dance For the Post-Partum Body

Aakanksha, our Intermediate-Advance student, returned to belly dance six months after her delivery. “It’s my happy place,” she confesses. “I have always enjoyed dancing and belly dance in particular, since I started learning this dance form over three years ago. So for me getting back to it as soon as I could post delivery was a priority.”

The first month of her return was challenging. “I struggled to push through the full two hours of my belly dance class. My stamina and strength had taken a complete beating. But what amazed me was how resilient the body is and how the body retains the memory of movement.”

After two months of dancing post-natal, she believes it is not too difficult to bounce back if there is discipline and consistency. Learning belly dance, she says, is also not just about learning movement - it is also about learning culture, history and music. “What I enjoy the most is the fact that there are so many different dance styles within the broad umbrella of belly dance, each unique and having a very different quality. So, it never gets boring and there is so much to learn!”

Aakanksha performing as a beginner in 2022 staging of our show - Safar-e-Raqs. Picture by Thammy Raman

Belly dance's versatility in its offerings is a draw for Sanjana as well: "I believe different styles sit differently with different body types, and I’m drawn to how Modern Oriental, Indian fusion, and lately Muwashahat look on my body. These styles enhance what already works for me — length and it feels like a fun way to play with my strengths and push them even more."

Learning the dance form also made her more conscious of culture it has evolved in. "It’s made me more conscious of what it means to learn an art form that isn’t mine. I love that I get to indulge myself in a culture outside my own, I’ve learnt so much, I have so much more appreciation for where it has come from and how it has evolved. Also made me less judgemental overall, because the name brings with it enough judgement from ignorance," Sanjana says.

Sanjana performing a Modern Oriental piece as part of "Parikrama".

“There is still long way to go,” Aakanksha adds. “But learning belly dance has made me feel confident, and become more present in my body.”

Belly Dance For The Traumatised Body

“As a survivor of sexual violence, my relationship with belly dance was to gain ownership of the part of my body that felt completely disconnected from me. My hips - my pelvis,” says a student who does not wish to be named. “I suppose any dance form could have done that job - because a lot of the dance is understanding how to use your core. But it ended up being belly dance - the way you use your hips in belly dance, where that is your language you articulate with. It was like making a frozen body part to learn how to speak in fluid and isolated staccato sentences. Slowly, over the years, my body started to feel like it's mine alone. No one else has power over it other than me. ”

The student does confess that sensual Orientalist imagery surrounding belly dance is something they are uncomfortable with. “I still have a tenuous relationship with my own sensuality and the idea of embodying beauty. How do I navigate beauty without feeling like I am beautiful because I don’t want to be beautiful? However, belly dance is versatile and vast - I definitely enjoy the joy and power of folk formats of belly dance. I am navigating styles of belly dance that are about embodying beauty and glamour, and my own discomfort with them, in the safe space of a class.”

Note: To read research about the relationship between body and trauma - we highly recommend reading The Body Keeps Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk.

Belly Dancing As A Man

“I did not even know that men could belly dance or that men were accepted as belly dance students until I saw a video of Eshan Hilal dancing with Meher Malik,” says Dinesh Digal. Dinesh, 30, is a senior dancer and faculty member at Nrityakosh.  When he enquired about belly dance classes, Dinesh emphasized that he is a man entering the space. 

“I have many insecurities - insecurities about my skin colour, my body type and my gender,” he says. “And these insecurities make you hesitate before joining a dance class. However, the love for dance, the urge to belly dance was so overpowering that these insecurities stopped mattering to me. I didn’t want belly dance to be something that I wonder about when I grow old. So I joined belly dance classes.”

When trawling through social media, it did help ease his insecurites he found belly dancers of different shapes and sizes. “They were all loved by their audiences,” he says. The applause and love they got was assuring to him. 

Dinesh performing a Raqs Sharqi piece for the show: "Parikrama".

Dinesh is extensively trained in not only belly dance, but also jazz, Odissi and ballet. For him, dancing as a whole helped him deal with his body image issues as well as skyrocketed his confidence. “I think you can especially see the growth of my confidence in public speaking - especially in English!” he says. “When I was a teenager, I could barely speak a few lines in English. I studied in a local school - an Odia medium school - where every subject was taught in Odia. I was very scared to put across my views when language was a barrier. Dance really helped with that confidence.”

Conclusion

Dance is for everybody. Dance isn't about how you look - it is the most primitive way to communicate, get together and celebrate. Not only does dance help the physical body with improved strength, flexibility, coordination, it greatly improves self-esteem, confidence and of course, it just makes one happy! To box dance in definitions of aesthetics is an incredibly narrow and incorrect approach. We will say it again - everybody can dance, and everybody can belly dance!