Many people are unaware, but Belly Dance is suitable for all ages. People of any age can learn and perform this dance form, including children. This dance form is not only fun to learn, but one can gain tremendous health benefits by performing this beautiful dance style
No formal higher education is required to become a belly dancer. Many professional belly dancers train in small dance studios or under the guidance of a mentor. While some start dancing at a young age, many others pick the style up as adults and practice, train, and perform for years before becoming successful.
From “Mayya” in Guru to “Dilbar” in Satyamev Jayate- sexualization of the dance form is what we have seen on TV. And this has resulted into some filthy comments she and many other belly dancers occasionally receive on social media. But Hema does feel that things are changing fast. As more and more belly dancers continue to emerge on the scene and show their craft, there has been greater love and acceptance to the dance form. Plus, there are some belly dance festivals that has recently started in India including the Mumbai Belly Dancing Festival.

History:

Belly dancing may have originated as a fertility ritual. 17,000 year-old rock engravings found in the caves of Addaura, near Palermo in Sicily, depict what appears to be a ritual fertility dance, as do ancient Egyptian tomb paintings and Greek sculptures. In Sparta, women danced for Artemis, who was a goddess of the moon and of fertility. Referred to as the Kordax, their dance emphasized the rotation of the hips and stomach. Hebrews, on the other hand, danced the Shalome — a dance based on a legend whose heroine embodied both motherhood and fruitfulness: the myth of the Seven Veils of Ishtar (more on that later). Many early civilizations believed that women were almost solely responsible for procreation. In some cases, women were feared because they seemed to command the mysteries of nature. Tribes in the South Seas, New Guinea, East Polynesia, Africa, and Greece not only thought that conception would be impossible, but that the human race would die — unless the women performed the fertility dance.

Consider the myth of the Seven Veils of Ishtar. This legend began in 4,500 BC, out of fear that winter might never end. It’s a tale found, with variations, in a number of different cultures. The essential idea of a ” belly dancing” woman, however, remains intact in all. A Babylonian goddess of love and sensuality, Ishtar represented all women. She was chaste, yet fertile. She was a life-giver and a great nurturer, yet she was known as the mother of darkness and destruction. According to the story, Ishtar’s husband dies and descends into the land of darkness, (in some cases referred to as the ” womb of the Earth” ). Ishtar covers her body with seven veiled costumes, and sets off to retrieve her husband. Appropriately dressed, she deceives her way into the underworld, through forty-nine gates. To gain admission at each seventh gate, she dances in a way that emphasizes her abdomen, rolling it in circles. Each time she does so, she gives up a jewel and a veil.