It could be the tickle of the tassels dangling from the fuchsia top. Or perhaps the jingle of the gold coins clinking together on the crimson hip belt. Or maybe it’s the rustle of the sheer chiffon swishing around in layers of the bright blue skirt. Whatever it is, it can transform you.
“When you put on your belly dancing costume, your whole person changes. You’re instantly more confident, more self-aware – I know I am, anyway,” says Sydney Pratt, who, together with Brittany Jones, serves as co-president of the College of Charleston Belly Dance Club.
“Oh, yeah,” agrees Jones. “I put on my costume, and I feel like my dancing me – that strong, sassy girl that comes out whenever I dance. All of a sudden, it’s just like, ‘I’m here! Look at me!’”
Even more dramatic, however, is the transformation that doesn’t go away when the costume comes off: students’ evolution as they progress through the club’s four-level program, which conditions them to isolate individual muscles and teaches them different combinations and choreography. It’s a slow process, and it takes a lot of work (in addition to rehearsals for small-group routines, the club meets for three hours twice a week for lessons led by the senior members of the group) – but, ultimately, it’s very rewarding.
“They work hard, and it shows,” says Pratt, who joined the club two years ago as a freshman with no previous dance experience. “I was just like the girls we see starting out now – I was so nervous to show my stomach, and dancing in front of people was probably my biggest fear. But now I love performing more than anything! I’ve developed and matured as a person – and I’ve watched all these girls do the same thing. They start dancing, and their self-esteem just skyrockets.”
And that, of course, is the goal.
“We want these girls to learn not just how to shimmy, but how to be confident,” says Jones, a senior majoring in math and secondary education, who started belly dancing over three years ago. “It’s not just a dancing club, it’s a support network for everyone involved.”
And that means that no one gets criticized and everyone gets an equal voice.
“This is about including everyone and making everyone feel good,” says Pratt, a junior majoring in arts management. “We encourage everyone’s individuality within the group dynamic, but we do have rules that we require the girls to follow. We have really high standards, and we expect them to represent us well.”
Whether performing with the group or separately, for example, the 40 club members are expected to act professionally and appropriately – wearing full cabaret costumes for every event, taking the proper safety precautions if their routines use fire pieces or swords and using stage names to protect their identity (a measure that’s especially important for the 20 students in the Meira Belly Dance Troupe, which operates off campus). And, of course, the dancers must always honor the traditional values of belly dancing.
“We’re exploring the beauty of different parts of the world through this art form,” says Pratt, adding that, in addition to learning about other cultures through belly dancing, she’s gained some practical knowhow about her own: “I’ve learned a lot about how to present ourselves, how to market ourselves and draw up contracts. It’s like we run a little business.”
And, by all accounts, business is booming. In addition to its big showcase every semester, the club has been nabbed for on-campus events like Relay for Life, the World Cultures Fair, Martin Luther King Day of Service, Accepted Students Day and new student orientation. And, off campus, the troupe has a regular spot in the Charleston Christmas Parade and at the Coastal Carolina Fair, not to mention one-time performances for restaurant openings and other private events.
“We’ve made a good effort of getting out there, and people are starting to seek us out,” says Jones, noting that the request for their performance at the Miss South Carolina USA and Teen USA Pageant at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center last November took everyone by surprise. “We have no idea how they found us, but we couldn’t pass it up!”
They performed four times during the two-day competition, using the opportunity to celebrate the beauty of all women.
“In belly dancing, no one’s out there trying to outdo anyone else. It’s about fun, feminism and building women’s confidence,” says Jones. “When it comes down to it, we’re all women and we’re all powerful, and we need to embrace that and use that for the best possible outcome.”
And what better way to do it?
“Belly dancing is fun, relaxing, good for you and it boosts your self-esteem,” says Pratt. “It completely changes how you perceive yourself and everything around you.”
And with that kind of transformation, it doesn’t matter what you wear.
To learn more about the College’s Belly Dance Club, check out lcwa.cofc.edu/arabic/dance/.
