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A Teen and Her Mom Check Out a Belly-Dancing Class

Posted on: Friday, 22 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

As I walked into the Allen Street Dance Studio for my first lesson in belly dancing I suddenly remembered how much my curiosity surpasses my dancing ability.

A year of ballet as an eager but uncoordinated 7-year-old hardly qualified me as an experienced dance student. Still, when I found out that beginning belly dancing lessons were being offered at the Allen Street Dance Studio for only $11 a class, I could hardly resist.

The Allen Street Dance Studio, home of Folkloric Productions Dance Co. Inc., is small, but brightly decorated with spangled scarves, Middle-Eastern costumes, and various kinds of dance garb, all of which are for sale.

Cathy Skora, founder and executive director of Folkloric Productions Dance Co. Inc. and a dancer who specializes in Middle Eastern and North African dance, floated around the room draped in scarves and flowing pants, welcoming her students for the evening's instruction.

My mother, whom I had brought along for moral support, and I were apprehensive at first, but quickly fell into the lilting rhythm of the movements. It did not take long for us to release our inhibitions in the inviting atmosphere. At one point, Skora mentioned "getting serious now," to which a regular attendee responded: "Come on, when are things around here ever serious?" The group of about 15 women and girls laughed, joked, and offered positive reinforcement to each other as we sweated through the movements together.

Although the class represented every skill level from expert to beginner, the group did not seem at all competitive, and was welcoming even to non-dancers like me.

Skora occasionally pointed out errors in individual dancers' form, but encouraged personal expression, and rejoiced in interpretation. At the end of a particularly expressive sequence she pointed out that, "It's so beautiful here at the end, because we're all doing the same thing, but in a slightly different way."

The class opened like any other fitness exercise, with a brief warm-up and stretching routine. At that point, the similarities to a "normal" dance class faded. Middle Eastern melodies blasted from a boom box in the corner, and Skora broke into a whirling, sashaying frenzy of movement, inviting those students who knew the dance to join in. Several women wearing beaded scarves around their waists, obviously veterans, did so. The music was contagious, and soon everyone in the room was dancing, the beginners trying to mimic the actions of the more experienced dancers, Skora shouting instructions every once in awhile.

When the song ended, we lined up to learn the dance step by step, breaking it down into hip movements, arm positions, and more instinctual elements, such as expression. Basic movements integral to any dance were introduced quickly, and were not difficult to pick up, even for first-timers.

"Think of your arms as a hose," Skora advised at one point. "Water cannot flow through a kinked hose, and your energy cannot flow through bent elbows either. Let your energy flow from your feet through your fingertips, and do not bend your elbows so much that it stops the flow," she explained, demonstrating through a series of graceful arm positions we all did our best to copy.

The class was an hour and a half long, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., but it seemed to fly by as we twirled, sashayed, shimmied, and glided through the seductive, graceful sequences. Within the class, we had learned an entire dance which Skora dubbed the "party dance" complete with position changes and improvisational sections.

After repeating this sequence four or five times, we participated in a "cool-down" which included the same basic stretches and movements we had done in the beginning. At the end of the evening, all the dancers gathered in a circle, and one by one, danced into the middle and offered an improvisational bowing "salutation." It was an almost spiritual time, and not even I, the least-coordinated person on the face of the planet, felt uncomfortable with the intimate display.

The Allen Street Dance Studio offers belly-dancing classes every Monday and Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 4 to 5:30 p.m., with some slight scheduling adjustments during July and August. The Wednesday class is geared particularly toward beginners, but a newcomer can join in on any day. Classes are $11 each, and can be bought a la carte or in month-long blocks.

On Sept. 10, the Allen Street Dance Studio will hold a concert at the Allendale Theatre entitled "Allentown Moves ... An International Dance Concert" as part of the Allen Street Samba Festival. For teens interested in participating, there will be auditions on the first Tuesday of August for a teen samba sequence.

Folkloric Productions Dance Co. Inc. is a not-for-profit organization which, along with 42 other cultural organizations, lost all funding from the county. In addition to rent and personnel expenses, they need to raise $3,000 in order to put on the Sept. 10 concert.

"We do not want to stop any of our activities due to a lack of funding by the county," Skora said. In order to raise enough money, the studio is offering a competitive fundraising opportunity in which any community groups or individuals are welcome to participate. Anyone who sells ads for the concert program will receive a 50 percent profit of all ads sold which they can in turn use for their own organization's fund-raising purposes.

For more information on classes, or general information related to Folkloric or the Allen Street Dance Studio, call 876-6291 or email Skora at folkloric@aol.com.

Lizz Schumer is a graduate of Immaculata Academy.

Source: Buffalo News

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