Twelve Reasons to Dance!

Contributed by Cindy Ayton...

"We carry inside us a source from which everything is born..."

1. Belly Dancing can be considered the oldest dance ever danced by women - purely and simply, the oldest dance in the whole of civilization.

2. The first temples were built to honor the Divine, and were dedicated to the Goddesses, and served by priestesses. The priestesses danced for the Goddess and united with her through dancing.

3. Dancing expresses the longing to stretch beyond one's limitations and come closer to the Divine.

4. Women have gathered for Ritual and Dance for centuries.

5. Through dance, one can express all the moods and feelings, all the longings and sufferings and joys of being a woman.

6. Dance can help a woman is search of her own identity. It can pave the way for a process of self awareness.

7. The story of one's life as it is written into the body can be retold and understood in the intense movement of dancing.

8. Belly Dancing becomes a source of inspiration; a means of collecting and strengthening oneself; a way of understanding oneself.

9.This dance creates new worlds of awareness, and helps release stored memories in the body.

10. Belly Dancing is a dance of isolation, in which various parts and centers of the body are moved individually - independently from each other, yet end up forming a unity.

11. On the emotional level, Belly Dancing brings Joy. We are Dancing from the womb, our Sacral Chakra, our Creative center, our center of Joy. It is a great way to release tension and transmute negative energy.

12. Dance was used to strengthen sexual energy, to awaken joy and to praise the mysteries of life. You come into Harmony with the universe, abandoning yourself to Life and the Divine.

 What Dance could express this more passionately than Belly Dance?

~ Excerpts taken from  "Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dance", by Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi

For more information about our upcoming belly dance class, click here...