Riding the Backs of the Gods
In the heart of Amish country where the plain people wear head coverings and believe buttons to be proud, the Liberty Fire Company is holding a belly dance “hafla.” Country farmers finishing up their pancake breakfast stare in utter amazement as the belly dancers begin to arrive.
I am here at the invitation of one of the performers, a student in my yoga class who credits me with helping to make her better at her craft. The room is full of vendors selling bedlah (costumes), zills ( finger cymbals), books, DVDs and CDs. Excitement builds as the first dancer takes her place on the floor.
The drummer beats out the rhythm on his darboukas. The dancer taps out delicate punctuations on her zills. A conversation between the drums and the cymbals begins, telling the tale of a far-distant land. I hear a fervent prayer for rain, a nomad’s wandering song, and the beating heart of the Sahara. Her back to the audience, the dancer’s pale arms lift above her head, sinuous and twining like two snakes. Hips, weighted by rows of metal coins, begin to respond, to answer the seductive call of the drum. She shimmies around us in a wide circle, the bells on her ankle bracelets accentuating each step. A blue scarf covers her eyes as she turns to face the audience. The drum beats faster as her torso comes alive, undulating in time with the music, reminiscent of a forgotten goddess in an ancient fertility dance. She throws the scarf out, it floats free for a moment, then she recaptures it, twirling it in the air. Her hips roll like a desert, like a sand dune bathed in moonlight.
I can’t be still. The drum beat takes hold of my hips and my body sways with the music. Other women trill in appreciation as the dancer entertains us with her expert execution. Originating in the harem tents of the Ottoman Empire, belly dancing is a feminine art form meant to be performed by women for women. The older women danced to imitate both the sexual act and birthing movements, initiating younger girls into female society. Behold the grace, the unashamed beauty of a womanly body. Here is a body that has held life inside it. Here is the body of a queen.
Sympathetic Magic
As with the Hawaiian hula, the belly dancer attempts to stimulate and attract the procreative powers of God. Belly dancing is a form of sympathetic magic believed to ensure fertile soil, both in marriage and in crops. At traditional Egyptian weddings, it is still the custom to hire a belly dancer. The newlywed couple is photographed with their hands covering the dancer’s bare midriff in hopes of receiving a special blessing from the most sacred of all places, the womb.
The bridal dance is a traditional dance with elaborate veil work. It was customary for a bride to dance for her future husband at their wedding. The bride appears before the groom in veils, which she manipulates with delicacy and discretion before totally revealing herself to him. Veil dancing comes directly from myth. The Babylonian goddess Ishtar travels to the underworld to rescue her lover. To get there, she must pass through seven gates. At each gate, Ishtar leaves one of her veils, symbolizing the seven aspects of love, fertility, beauty, power, intelligence, wealth, and temples. Ishtar must discard all of herself and pass naked into death to rescue her lover, Tammuz. In the biblical story, Salome danced the dance of the seven veils, a reference to the seven veils of Ishtar. Belly dancing is also referenced in the Song of Soloman.
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Dance is the Hidden Language of the Soul
Dance icon Martha Graham once said that dance is blood memory — not the blood your mother and father gave you, but that which stretches back thousands of years. The survival of the “danse du ventre” in its traditional form is a tribute to its mysterious, ethereal appeal to the human spirit. Over centuries, it has been a way for women to express joy, strength, and sensuality. Belly dancing is easy to learn but difficult to master. The emphasis is on isolated movements of the hips, but the rest of the body is also important. Some of the movements to learn include shimmies, hip circles, hip lifts/drops, figure eights, undulations, and snake arms to name a few.
The Sufi Dance
The Sufi dance, also known as the dance of whirling dervishes, was one of my favorite performances of the day. Sufism is a branch of Islamic spirituality. The belief is that the “dance of being,” https://danse-soufie.com/en/the-sufi-dance-or-the-dance-of-being/, is performed to make a connection to God. By controlling the breath and repeating sacred phrases while getting carried away by rotational movement, the dancer leaves the ego behind and becomes one with God.
Life is like a Ghawzee
I decided to look around at the many displays set up by the vendors. The hafla is a one-stop shop for all things belly dance. I picked up some finger cymbals and tried them out. I looked at the costumes and veils before finally deciding on a delicate ankle bracelet with little bells attached. I am exhilarated by this experience, particularly the divine feminine aspect of the day. My student came up to me to thank me for coming. She invites me to attend a class with her and I say that I’ll think about it — I really don’t think my body moves in that way. After she goes back to join the other dancers in her company, I pick up a book from the table and open it to a random page. It says, “Life is like a Ghawzee, she dances just briefly for each.” Yes, life is short. I changed my mind. Where do I sign up?
