If there is one interest, one hobby that I have had since I was 18, is belly dancing. Belly dancing soothes & speaks to my soul, it is my life. Belly Dance is my true love.
I discovered belly dancing properly when I went to Egypt for the first time when I was 18 years old and wow, it’s just clicked that this was 20 years ago – time flies huh 😆
Anyway, I used to travel to Egypt quite a bit as my father was Egyptian. I immediately fell in love with the culture, the country, the people, my family. A special love was formed with the music in particular and I’ll never forget returning back to Swansea (little Welsh city 🏴 ) with so many cassette tapes of Arabic Pop music. I spent my days locked away in my room, dancing to this music not actually realising I was belly dancing. I mean, back then, to be honest, we didn’t have YouTube where I could watch belly dance tutorials, it wasn’t a thing back then but that is how I started belly dancing. Ever since my first trip to Egypt, the genre of music that I listen to the most is Arabic up to this day.
Anyway, fast forward to 2019, I decided to go WAAAAYout of my comfort zone and started attending classes in Covent Garden, London. I fell in love from the first lesson; all the Arabic music that I’ve been listening to for all these years was playing in a room dedicated to learning how to belly dance, it was my dream. Despite knowing a lot of moves already, they were very rough around the edges and so I decided to start at level 1. One & a half years later, I’m still belly dancing and I now put myself in levels 4-5. The progress has been amazing – the journey of belly dance has been the best thing that my soul could ever ask for!
The moves are deeply & forever engraved in me. Even when I stretch after sitting down for too long, I’m doing some sort of belly dance move in slow-mo, or automatically shimmying whilst brushing my teeth or washing the dishes. It’s literally a part of my being. 😂 💃
Within 3 months of my first class, we performed at the end of term showcase as a group which was organised by the school. This is something I would not normally ever do BUT, it was something that I had to do, and I am so glad I did it. I’m quite a shy person so this was huge for me. The experience was out of this world, so exhilarating and it’s such a great way to boost your confidence. I’ll never forget walking onto the stage and getting into position, I had this sudden urge to walk off stage and back-out at the last minute, I’m glad I didn’t though. It was one of the most nerve-racking but best experiences of my life.
Anyway, during Covid19 lockdown, I was so grateful and happy that the belly dance school I’m with continued with classes online. I just couldn’t stop and ended up signing up to Drum Solo Level 4-5 and the CPP course that they have (Create, Perfect, Perform). I was taking on so much though and I had to sacrifice the CPP course because I ended up getting quite burned out and I didn’t want to end up disliking belly dancing because I took too much on.
Have you had any “out of there”, “out of comfort zone” experiences? I would love to hear from you ❤️
PS, enjoy the song below, I discovered this late 2020, and I’m just in love with it 🔥 🥰
“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion“
Martha graham
annamariecoach.co.uk 