TribalDanceArts.com

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Tribal Dance Arts Home Page

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About Ashtar

I don't remember the first time I heard of, or saw, bellydancing. I have vague memories of seeing record covers in stores with cabaret dancers depicted on them, and I remember asking my mother if I could buy the records. I must have been around eleven years old, and I was intrigued because I wanted to know what kind of music someone would dance to if they were dressed like that. I knew what kind of music we used in ballet class, and I knew that ballet costumes were designed to allow maximum freedom of movement, but these clothes were different.

One album cover had a photo of a woman with red hair, in heavy makeup, wearing a bra and harem pants made of silver coins and filmy gauze. She had lots of jewelry, high heels and a transparent veil. I couldn't imagine being able to dance dressed that way. I put no sexual content into my interpretation of what I was looking at, but I did wonder how she got the diamond to stay in her navel. Mom said no.

The first time I remember actually bellydancing was at the dance studio I owned at the time in Pennsylvania. At this point I had been through years of rigorous training in ballet, jazz and Spanish dancing, and had also studied tap, African, Yoga, character dancing and Eastern European folk dancing. I was ready for anything new. A woman came to give belly dance lessons and I took them along with the paying students. I learned from her how to wear a veil Iranian style, and basic moves - not very different from jazz, I thought. That was in 1979.

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