What I Do

Today's challenge is: "If you couldn't answer with your job, how would you answer the question 'what do you do?'"

An easy question for me to answer because though I spend 40 hours per week doing my job, it is not how I define myself by any means. Our society loves to judge people based on how they make money, but is that really what defines us? Is what we do for money who we are? My answer is no.

Dancing at student night

So, what do I do? I bellydance. I have been bellydancing for 5 1/2 (or 6, if you count the free lessons I took in a bar in France) years, and it has been my constant through many changes. It all started when I went to a Moroccan restaurant in my home town during Christmas vacation while I was in college. The restaurant was nearly empty, but there was a bellydancer there that night. She was a marvelous woman all decked out in middle eastern garb, and she was bigger, like I was at the time. When she came and danced in front of my family's table, she pulled me up to dance with her. I mimicked her movements and she was rather impressed with my knack for doing circles with my chest. She leaned in and urged me to consider taking bellydancing lessons.

My first experience dancing to live music.

It wasn't until a year later that I had the opportunity. When I was teaching in Besancon, France, one of my roommates mentioned that she had heard about free bellydance lessons being taught at 6pm every Wednesday night in a bar across the river. I had been itching to dance (I took various dance classes- Irish, ballroom, tap, Lindy Hop, Zydeco, modern, and jazz- in college), and this was the perfect opportunity. My two roommates and I headed out for our first lesson, unsure what to expect. Our teacher's family owned the bar where the lessons were held, and everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Sabrina, the teacher, might have been Egyptian (she gave me a bunch of Egyptian music, but I never asked her where her family was from), and she always wore winged eyeliner. She, too, was not a stick figure, and she had great moves. From her I learned "pas sharki" (the sharki step, or in America known as the Egyptian basic) and step shimmies. She taught us how to do undulations with our stomachs, and I thought I would never be able to pull that move off until she showed us how to fake it. Every week I would go home from the lesson and practice until I mastered each new difficult move. Sabrina and another French girl in the group told me that I "bouge bien, ehn," which means that I move well, and encouraged me to keep it up when I returned home to the states, and that is precisely what I did.

Back in the States, my sister and I saw that we could take bellydance classes through school-sponsored community classes. We took our first class together and that is where I began my official bellydance training. From there, I learned about another teacher, Ruby, who taught more challenging classes at the community center. I learned that Ruby had taught many professional dancers, and I knew I had a lot to learn from her. I stayed with her for five years, building my bellydance vocabulary and getting out to perform in her student shows. If it was not for her, I might not have had the push I needed to get out and perform. It is terrifying to put on a midriff-baring costume and shake my body in front of strangers. It was also exhilarating. The dance is so full of life and joy, and every dance was a celebration for me. I loved getting dressed up in a sparkly costume and putting on a ridiculous amount of make-up. 

Here I am dancing with two veils.

I am now taking classes from a professional dancer in Portland, Claudia. She is an absolute joy to watch, and I am learning so much from her. I've made some new friends in this class, and we recently performed together at a big showcase. It feels great to be part of a team that enjoys dancing as much as I do, and we have an awesome (and sometimes brutal) teacher to guide us along.

So, there you have it. What do I do? I bellydance (among other things, but I'll talk about those later).

How about you? How would you answer this question? Leave me a comment below- I'd love to hear from you.

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