Becoming a Belly Dancer at the Age of 46
Three years of taking dance classes has inspired me to finally decide to pursue my once-forgotten dream of becoming a belly dancer.
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been fascinated by belly dancers. The glitz and glam of the colorful costumes, the long hair and exotic makeup, the mesmerizing movements, the percussive music…
In college, I bought all the DVDs that I could find on belly dancing and started to teach myself. I even gathered some girlfriends and we would practice together.
After college, I started to take belly dance classes in various studios and absolutely loved it! I started to perform at the studios’ functions. My teacher at that time even took me with her to perform at a wedding. My first ever paid gig as a belly dancer! Woohoo!
I made plans to become a belly dancer, to perform, and then to teach it on the beach. I was looking forward to my new life as a belly dancer until…
I was told to stop talking such nonsense, to take my life seriously and to build a career with my degree. I have a degree in Management of Information Systems - nothing close to dancing.
Instead of listening to myself and what I wanted for my life, I hesitated and let this remark dim the light for dancing that I had in me.
From that moment on, I stopped going to the studio and practicing. All the beautiful belly dancing costumes that I’ve collected over the few years have become my outfits for Halloween.
I started to make excuses for myself of why I no longer practiced dance. “All dancers are graceful, and I’m just not it,” was one of them.
All I needed was a little encouragement at that time. Go for it! You can do it!
As I got older, I realized that I was the only one who should have told myself to go for it and that I can do it! I made a mistake of not believing in myself and for letting others to dictate my life.
As a 46 year old woman, I’m traveling back in time (in my mind) and giving my twenty-something self encouragement and blessing that I so needed at that time.
Okay twenty-something year old girlie! After this, there will be no more “I shoulda woulda poor me” talk. Leave the past in the past and let’s look into the present and the future.
So what do I need to do to become a belly dancer?
First, I need to re-learn all the belly dance moves.
Then I need to practice every single day like an athlete training for the Olympics.
I already signed up for a Summer Performance Workshop, where we will be performing on stage in August. Super excited!
And then we’ll see where we go from there.
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