A year ago, Maria and I attended a Belly Dancing benefit for Meals On Wheels in Bennington, Vt., we were quite amazed. I fell in love with Belly Dancing right away, it was, to me, one of the most powerful affirmations of the Feminine Devine I had ever seen.
And it changed Maria’s life.
She joined the group, the Sisters Of The Shawl and has been exposing her belly once a week for more than a year. Belly Dancing is not just a group you can join, it is an attitude, a state of mind, a statement about a woman’s spirit, body and pride.
“This is what we look like,” said one of the dancers to a wary audience member once.
Last Saturday the Sisters Of The Shawl performed in the Bennington Masonic Lodge again, along with dancing groups from all over New England.
Watching these women perform seems like much more than a dance to me., it is dance of the spirit, it awakens the dreamer and spark within. We both fell in love with this idea, me as an observer, Maria as a member of the group.
Dance is the poetry of the human body, I think.
It is the narration of a magical story, what they see and feel, what you see and feel, that recites on lips, on hips, with all of one’s body.
It takes years to learn how to do it, Maria is not yet ready to perform, she is working hard to get there, and loving it. She will get there.
Every week, she comes home and shows me her new ability to “bump,” or shake her shoulders, or twitch, I wouldn’t even begin to describe it. It is very hard to do.
Belly Dancing, wrote Shah Asad Rizvi, “illuminates imaginations and embraces the most sacred depths of souls.”
This is so. The Sisters of The Shawl came to our Open House last October, and they have been invited to return this October, the Open House is set for Columbus Day weekend, both days. Mary Kellogg will read from her fourth book, soon to be published, Ed Gulley will be here to show some art, and we expect a new puppy to be on hand to liven things up.
A few years ago, neither Maria nor I could have imagined loving belly dancing, life is curious and wonderful if you can keep your eyes and ears open and learn to watch and listen.
Perhaps the Shah had us mind when he wrote Belly Dancers, “show me a person who found love in his life and did not celebrate it with a dance.”