Spiral Skies Bellydance

I remember sitting on the Billings Community Center floor with my two friends who had signed up for a bellydance class with me. We were full of giggles as we squeezed our butt cheeks to the tempo of the instructor saying, “Right, Release, Left, Release.” It was an odd environment of strange moves that felt foreign and I didn’t quite know what to make of it, but I knew I liked it. And when my two friends quit going to class because they said their bodies didn’t move that way, I was scared to go by myself, but I kept going to class because I was drawn to how these new ways of moving made me feel inside and out. The night I mastered the ¾ shimmy, I knew I was hooked and I’ve been shimmying ever since.

Over the years, I’ve taken a variety of belly dance classes and workshops, watched numerable DVD’s, and have YouTube’d belly dance performances from all over the world and I’m amazed at the diversity of this dance. It truly is a way for me to create and express all aspects of my eclectic personality. I can be a feminine, flirty cabaret dancer, a wise tribal woman of the earth, a fierce and powerful creature or just a goofy redhead that wants to have some fun. I am eager to explore this dance even more and see where it takes me. The moves, sounds, costumes, beats, props, and attitudes of belly dance make the creativity inside me tingle with the possibilities!

The joy I have found in this dance isn’t just from the dance itself, but from the women who perform it. The women who I have danced beside, I call my sisters. I have learned valuable life lessons about compassion, integrity, responsibility and sisterhood from them and I love them dearly for it.

While I continue to learn and grow as a belly dancer, I also have a desire to share the knowledge I have acquired with others. This past summer, I approached MSU Billings about starting a belly dance class and was overjoyed that they agreed it would be a great addition to their curriculum. Starting this fall, I will have the honor of teaching belly dance to college students to give them the opportunity and tools to let out their own creative beings. I take this responsibility seriously and hope to contribute to the belly dance community.