Belly Up (or out, or sideways...)

I'm learning the joys of false
eyelashes, stage makeup,
and a whole lotta jewelry

It's official, I'm a belly dancer. After a lifetime of watching my mother dance professionally, I finally decided to carry the torch. I've been going to classes for the last five months and just did my first ever performance with my good friend Lauren, who has also been taking classes. We performed last night at a Haffa and today at a recital, and we're already signed up for another class that starts in January.

There's been something incredibly liberating about learning how to belly dance, and this little journey I've been on has had another purpose. It's a chapter in my book that will go near the end of the manuscript called, "Shake What Your Mama Gave Ya...Literally".






I can also tell you that I have a blue million ideas for future dance performances, and I'd love for them to all be movie-related, choreographed to movie music and showcasing costumes inspired by Marion Ravenwood, Princess Leia, and all my favorite action heroines. I'd love to perform at conventions of all kinds, and as I'm learning, the art of belly dancing and the geek world seem to go together hand in hand. (It's why I was able to attend a belly dance workshop at Starbase Indy this year! Check out this belly dance inspired by the Borg Queen from "First Contact", and I know that it's also fast becoming popular to dance as Slave Leia.)

So here's to a lifetime of dancing that I hope will intersect with my love of geek culture in pleasant and unexpected ways, something that will give Lauren and I a reason to meet up and travel together for the rest of our lives, and a way to carry on my mother's dancing legacy. So here we go...

 

Mom in her dancing days, as "Asmara".