DOON ta tek TAH tek TAH, doon doon TEK!

I have always been facinated by bellydancing. Really! It is my first career goal, actually. I don’t remember much from childhood but I do remember being about 4 or 5 and seeing bellydancers at the Puyallup Fair and dedciding that that was the job for me. I think I only remember this because I was asked soon after by some lame adult what I wanted to be when I grew up, and my answer caused much laughing and carrying on. I was astute enough to realize that this meant I had said something ridiculous.

While we were in England and I was lonely and miserable, I read this book and my passion for the dancing of the belly was renewed. The main character has lost her job, her boyfriend, has moved in with her parents, and feels like a loser. Of course, she starts taking bellydancing and turns her life around. I wasn’t expecting such drastic results, but at the time, I definietly needed something to get me going.

So, when we got home, I googled Seattle and Bellydancing and the first thing to pop up was Delilah’s website. Little did I know that just by virtue of geography, I was about to start studying with a bellydancing legend! God. I could go on and on about Delilah. She is hottness incarnate. She is in her 50′s and she is the sexiest woman I have ever seen. Her eyes are so alive. I almost feel like she is some sort of magical person. During class she will often go off on tangents about dance being like music for your soul. Dance shouldn’t be like punctuation, you should be telling a story with your body. She is totally against choreography, and she has even said that we don’t consider paint by numbers art, and neither is choreographed dance. It should come from within!

Here she is last year at the Fremont Solstice Parade.

Needless to say, this philosophy of dance is a little intimidating when you don’t feel like there is much ‘within’ to draw from. I think I took three beginning bellydance classes before I could even shimmy, but I loved every minute of it. Partly because of my ginormous crush on Delilah, but also because somewhere, somehow, I was starting to incorporate a whole different standard of beauty and power. It is so amazing to shift your body idols from starving hollywood starlets to a proud, kickass woman in her 50′s.

I am still terrified of performing. I am not sure that will ever change. I did once, but it was only in class and the stress almost killed me. I just like taking classes and dancing with a bunch of other women and getting a good workout. We have live drummers in our classes, too, which totally rules.

Well, add my love of dancing with others with my dislike of indivdual performance to my love of Parades and the Fremont Solstice Parade is a dream come true!

I am about 6 back from the front, but you won’t be able to find me. But check out the naked woman in the lower left.

Yes, naked woman. Fremont used to be the hippie/biker part of Seattle back in the day when the parade began. It starts with a couple hundred naked cyclists and continues with all kinds of crazy human powered floats, clever banner-less political statements, bellydancers, and all kinds of other things that make the right nervous. It’s a hoot.

The reason I bring all this up now is that last night was my first rehearsal for this year’s parade on June 17th. I have been on a bit of a bellydance hiatus since we got the house and I could focus on nothing else, but it was SO good to be back. Delilah was in rare form, all done up with a dramatic turban thing and many hip scrarves. I felt so cool being a veteran!

Here is a picture of me in the costume my mom and I made for last year’s parade. This year the colors are red and gold, so I will just have to replace the purple bits. I am so glad I get to wear it agian!

Everyone makes their own costumes, you just have to stick to the color theme. It is amazing how cool it turns out.

I didn’t have hardly any hair last year and it just didn’t seem right, so we made that cool turban. I loved it, but this year I am going to try something different with one of those round, stretchy, accordian clips and a gold head scarf and dramatic cat eyes. Fun!

This is when we stopped in the center of the parade and did our special circle dance. I got picked to be in the middle and I nearly died under the weight of Delilah’s approval.

Stay tuned for parade class updates in the coming weeks and if you are local, please come to the parade! It is SO fun and colorful and crazy and the bellydancers are just a tiny part of it!

Don’t I look like a real bellydancer here? I still feel like such a faker.