"Imagining Arab Womanhood" is not an easy read. However, its worth every minute and every dictionary and internet search it will demand of you.

I recommend it as a must-read for all my students and all belly dancers that believe that educating ourselves and wrestling with the complicated history of this dance, its impact and development, makes us better teachers, better women and men, and better representatives of this dance, particularly in the U.S.

No wonder it won the Gloria Anzaldua prize. Gloria would have been proud. Thank you Amira Jarmakani (author).

Belly Dance class will be cancelled (tomorrow) Monday, May 9th. Bloombars will be holding a special Poetry Workshop w/ Jade Sylvan. 

*This week listen to as much music as you can and practice moving through/with it using smooth weight shifts. Below is the choreography by Jamila Salimpour we are currently learning. Try to memorize and clean the steps we've learned so far in a way that works for you.* SEE YOU NEXT WEEK! 

A Dance Class at BloomBars is Never Just a Dance Class
4th November 2010
by Molly Davis, BloomBlogs Correspondent
http://www.bloombars.com/garden-of-the-arts/a-dance-class-at-bloombars-is-never-just-a-dance-class

A dance class at BloomBars is never just a dance class. At 6:45 pm on Monday, a group of women got together to belly dance — which in this case means learning how to be comfortable with themselves, find a personal path to movement, and learn  about the history of belly dance .

“When I’m leading these classes I’m also reminding women that they have to be present in their bodies,” Marta, the instructor, said.

Marta has trained in various styles of belly dancing, including Oriental (Egyptian and Vintage American Cabaret) and tribal dance, as well as her own fusion style incorporating flamenco She pulls from these influences for her classes, while including historical context that questions how colonization and oppression have affected women. A major part of her program is isolating movements in particular parts of the body, attaining a comfort level with the skill, and then combining it with improvisation.

“A true belly dancer who can interpret as song and move her audience to tears,” she told the class, instructing them to use the guidelines she provided to move their arms  to accompany and to find their own ‘voice’ as they interpret a song.

Marta spent a lot of time breaking the moves down that night, since most in the class were first-timers.

“When I first began doing belly dance, it took me more than a year to begin feeling comfortable with the movement, the music, and culture,” she said, adding later, “more than anything, it’s really just about feeling at ease with your body, balancing, so you can really find that movement.”

She instructed the class to practice shimmying their hips while holding the rest of the body still, and  then while rotating the shoulders. Maintaining the shimmying movement, they brought one foot off the ground, and then the other. Nervous laughter broke out as a few women struggled with the move, and she took time with each of them to hone their rhythm and posture.

“Beautiful, ladies!” she said, beaming out at the group. “Beautiful shimmy!”

The class is a unique space for women. Marta encourages her students to feel comfortable, as well as to challenge themselves physically. But she also takes the time to reflect on the serious messages we all receive in society and art.

This week, she turned the lens on belly dancing, talking about the hyper-sensual treatment of Arab women in 1940s-50s Hollywood movies. But she noted that, for good or bad, those orientalist images that came from colonization have influenced Eastern belly dance in turn.

“We as women have to find the power in that … while we are aware that these are stereotypes,” she said.

** Marta’s Belly Dance classes are every Wednesday at 6:30 pm, at BloomBars (3222 11th St NW, Washington DC.) Learn more about Marta at www.moveyourbelly.com **

Dear students,

The classes at the Dance Institute of Washington began last thursday. Though DIW is still ironing out its administrative processes, the facilities are beautiful and it feels great to support an institution with a national reputation in its work with under-resourced communities and youth in D.C. 

Please note that there will be no classes this thursday 10/21 as I leave very early on friday to lead a couple of trainings on community engagement and social justice in Kentucky.

Though it means I sometimes travel often, my consultant work helps me strengthen my teaching abilities and curriculum development skills for working with adults and youth. And I make sure to bring this knowledge back to the dance classroom in every way possible.

For information on my classes and schedule, please visit my instruction page or email me. I am also on facebook! 

I hope you are enjoying the cooler days of autumn!

Peace and love,

-Marta

It is 2:00AM and I can't seem to fall asleep... 

I taught an impromptu 3-hour workshop today to raise funds for an herbalist friend's upcoming two-month trip to Haiti. She will be volunteering at a naturopathic earthquake victim relief clinic in Port-Au-Prince. I sit in her kitchen looking at her suitcases already filled with necessary dried herbs, supplements, tinctures, and books. I'm reminded that this is exactly what fulfills me, what gives my dance and teaching meaning...helping connect the healing that this dance brings to women and to causes that move beyond ego and capitalism. 

The students tonight were wonderful. At one point these beautiful women of all ages and sizes closed their eyes and allowed their hips to shimmy and their bodies to interpret a taqsim with so much depth and feeling that all I could do was step back and quietly thank the universe for such a gift.

I hope to travel to Haiti soon, I hope to return to South America to teach at the elementary schools I visited last year, I hope to volunteer at a women's birthing center in Ciudad Juarez and its sister city, El Paso. I hope to do so much and wonder how it will all work out. I feel so fearful at times. These trips are so fulfilling but also shake me to the core. I also grew up in a ghetto often wondering if the desperation I saw around me and felt inside was all there was, but always believing there had to be more. Belly Dance helped me find the "more." I hope that all women can experience this at least once in their lives...blissfully closing their eyes and getting lost in a taqsim that speaks their pain, their love, their laughter and their dreams.

-Marta