Move your body

This weekend I spent with some friends enjoying the sites of the city and saying goodbye to one of us moving to a location too far away to casually visit. For this special occasion we went to a Moroccan restaurant with a belly dancer. I absolutely love watching belly dancers but not for the reason you think. Belly dancing is gorgeous just like yoga or swimming in the sense that you're utilizing your body to shape and move the way you want it to through control and practice. It's a celebration of just what our bodies are capable of. It's fascinating what the human body can do when it's trained and the best part is that almost anyone can learn how to do it.

While I was with my friends there were a few comments made about the sexuality of the dance not to mention jealous glances given by woman as they passed. This distracted me for a bit with a few questions. Is the dance really that sensual? Is it the fact that the girl is young and pretty? Is it our western view of the core of the body being a sexual part of a woman?

I'd first like to point out that belly dancing has a lot in common with exercises used for child birth. This being stated, scholars believe that this dance may have stemmed from these exercises making it on a whole a dance for fertility and healthy child birth. It also was a dance women usually only did in the company of other women (men had other men dancing for them) which means it is a dance only made for women. This gives it a very different perspective I think and makes it seem (to me) more like a celebration of the female body than a celebration of the sexuality of the female body.

For those reasons I don't believe it is as much the movements that make it such a very sensual dance but the confidence a belly dancer shows with her body. The dancer at the restaurant was not perfect in the American sense. Her belly had a small pudge to it, her hair a little strainy, and her breasts were most likely an A cup. However, this did not distract her one bit. She was completely confident with her body and she used every part of it to make her movements soft and fluid. I don't mean to say she was ugly, just that she didn't really care what part of her wasn't perfect, just that she could move it. I'm sure it didn't hurt that she was pretty but I think that all in all it was her confidence that made her shine.

I'd lastly like to point out that ballerinas and other forms of dance also have confident woman in them, however, these dances are very rigid and structured unlike the belly dance. I've never seen a ballerina look like this:

But I've seen alot that look like this:Needless to say, I feel belly dancing is much more of a celebration of the female body than ballet ever will be (since ballerinas look more like men). Therefore making it look more sexual and enticing to the viewer for the confident air the performers have about being woman and moving you body in ways only women can.