Belly Dancing Diva

Suspira, Orlando’s Belly Dance Talent

1) Tell us about yourself. How did you get into belly dancing? What does belly dancing mean to you and what does it do for you? My name is Suspira, and I've been in the Orlando area since about 1995. I've always loved dance, and started studying aet age 5, and ...

Death and Belly Dancing

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter, love and desire and hate: I think they have no portion in us after we pass the gate. They are not long, the days of wine and roses; out of a misty dream our path emerges for a while, then closes within a dream. Edward Dowson It was a dark ...

Bands, Bellies, and Fellini

In the 60’s the movies of Federico Fellini (1/20/20-10/31/93), the Italian Oscar-winning filmmaker, made a big impression on me. Inspired by circus people, caricatures, art films, dreams, Jungian unconscious, and Yaqui Indian knowledge, his images were extravagant, fanciful, baroque. Actors in his films were Italian street people--garish faces, ...

Market at the Casbah 2010

What makes a belly dancer want to produce a dance festival? In talking with Wanda Lee Sundberg and Deborah Peterson, it becomes obvious that they created Market at the Casbah Middle Eastern Dance Festival because they love the dance. Well, maybe also because they thought it a good thing to ...

Flowing Yogini Belly

“Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.” ~Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois A yogini is a female yogi. But what is yoga? Hatha yoga is a 5,000+ year-old science of self-improvement--a work-in, not a work-out—that boosts immune system, increases flexibility, oxygenates bloodstream, enhances respiration, and calms the mind. Yoga can be ...

If Not Now, When

A Sun (Capricorn)/Moon (Cancer) Super Moon Lunar Eclipse on New Year’s Eve hip-drop-kick-starts us into the next decade. Lunar Eclipses help us release and reform at a higher level. Super Moons intensify tidal movements, on earth and in our bodies. We can act or react, move on ...

Advice from the Belly Dancers of CSUDH

The show around 8 p.m. The theater was full. Dress rehearsal had gone smoothly, but there was no one in the seats then. We just danced in front of an empty theater. That's sounds easy enough, right? But now we were all nervous wrecks. Suddenly all of those seats are ...

Congratulations Contest Winner Heather!!

A warm congratulations to Heather, the winner of our online dance competition. Heather took the lead with over 27 responses to her YouTube clip, with over 350 post views. She's an extraordinary dancer and instructor from Texas. Check out Heather's performance: [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAoblaAspec] If you are interested in taking classes with Heather, check out ...

Junk in the Trunk? The Butt

“Like a kick in the butt, the force of events wakes slumberous talents.” (Edward Hoagland) The butt—back end, backside, behind, bottom, bum, derrière, fanny, gluteus maximus, haunches, hindquarters, posterior, rear, rump, seat, tush, ass, backside, can, posterior, rear, rump, tail—is a portion of the body that we all observe--on everyone ...

Solar Plexus Speaking – Radiant Belly: Enheduanna

“Very few people can pronounce it, so people call me Tina, Enheduanna, or introduce me as "Ehhoooda.” When researching dance history, seeking ancient ritual clues, I came across a woman author revered and studied like Shakespeare in ancient Sumer-- Enheduanna, a positive woman model, unlike so many women’s names ...