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Guest post by Laurel Victoria Gray (republished with permission) The very antiquity and richness of Persian culture renders the term “Persian dance” both vague and inadequate; it can be applied to a variety of regions, ethnicities and historical periods, making a strict definition difficult. “Persian dance” can range from sophisticated reconstructions of refined court dances to energetic folk dances. The movement vocabulary, costuming, music, demeanor, and context of these dances also varies widely. A brief

New projects have opened up new ways of thinking about “bellydance” for me – and I am thoroughly enjoying exploring them. Here’s an example… I am currently (re)reading Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit​ – if you haven’t yet, I highly recommend it! In it, she discusses the importance of having a “spine” for your work – and the perils of sharing it openly. ​​As I understand it, she sees the “spine” as the guiding idea in a dance’s creation, a sort of compass

Welcome to our final week of Spring Cleaning for Belly Dancers – if you’ve been working all through these 4 weeks – congratulations! If you’ve just found this – no worries, you can find weeks one through four here on the blog.  Week 1    Week 2   Week 3   Week 4 This week we’re tidying up the digital part of our dance world – which has grown quite a bit in the past

We are back with Week 4 of our Spring Cleaning for Belly Dancers! If you’ve been working along with us, you are seeing some real progress by now – congratulations! Missed the other weeks? You can catch up on week 1, week 2 and week 3 here. All the fixing and washing! In the first three weeks, we assessed the situation for our costumes, props and accessories. You may have made some repairs and done