A celebration of the vital feminine
Published 8:00 am Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Dancers of all ages find confidence in an art form created by and for women.
The dance is in the stance.
That’s the belly dance stance, a posture and healthy attitude about the body that dancer instructor Claudine McCormick says can be applied to any musical idiom.
“You can learn the moves and put on your favorite music and have fun,” she said. “That’s what’s amazing about (belly dance). You don’t have to be thin and on toe. You don’t have to have tap shoes. It’s in your body, you carry it with you every day.”
Forty-five dancers ages 12 to “80 something” from McCormick’s studio, The Dance Within, and her park district classes bring their unique spin on the versatile dance form to Bainbridge Performing Arts April 30.
The performance is the third annual show for McCormick’s students, but the first big enough for BPA’s mainstage.
“It’s exciting for us,” McCormick said. “I started with 10 girls in the troupe and then I went to 15. Now this year I’m at 24, so I split them into two troupes, 11-14 and 15 and above.”
The Dance Within doesn’t hold auditions; all a prospective member needs is the commitment to practice twice weekly and to perform at belly dancing venues that have included shows in Gig Harbor, Poulsbo’s Viking Fest and the Kitsap County Fair.
This July the group will perform at Seattle’s Mediterranean Fantasy Festival, the largest area gathering for belly dance, where McCormick’s dancers will meet other troupes from around Puget Sound.
“There really is a belly dancing community,” McCormick said. “There are more dancers in this country than in the Middle East, now.”
Belly dancing isn’t just for the firm and young, McCormick insists, but attracts women of different sizes and ages who may have never danced before.
Her youngest soloist is 12-year-old Jilli O’Mara; the oldest is 80-year-old June Combs, who’s been dancing for over 27 years.
“The belly dance is meant for the woman’s body,” Combs said. “We have hips and we’re able to control our hips and our pelvis, and we can still do that at any age.”
Although most Americans think of the Hollywood version of belly dancing – the enticing “dance of the seven veils” variety – the dance, practiced widely throughout the Middle East and North Africa, has evolved into many forms, McCormick says.
Her students learn Gypsy, Folkloric, and American Tribal Style. Contemporary fusion produces variants like the new blend of belly dancing and flamenco.
“My fusion would probably be more hip-hop belly dance,” McCormick said. “I have a funky, sassy fusion of it and it’s a lot of fun.”
The new forms and dancers aren’t always greeted with enthusiasm in Middle Eastern countries, McCormick admits; Americans and other foreigners are no longer licensed to dance in Egypt.
And even some indigenous dancers in fundamentalist Muslim countries are viewed askance, like well-known Iranian folk and ballet dancer Farzaneh Kaboli, arrested last fall with her students on charges of dancing in public.
McCormick, who was trained in sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, believes that the ban speaks to fear of women’s power – and the belly dance bottom line is empowerment, bolstering girls’ and women’s self-esteem.
“I always had something inside of me that wanted to uplift women and teens and to make them feel more powerful and happier,” she said. “I feel passionate about changing one girl at a time. Girls who feel good about themselves make better choices.”
As the number of dancers expands, choreography is just one of many challenges for McCormick, who serves as “mother hen, teacher and role model, costume designer and recital coordinator” for her students.
Those behind-the-scenes jobs expand as McCormick adds such innovative programs as a “Bellyfit” workout and a blend with tap-dancing she calls “belly tap.”
Future plans include a class for younger children, mother-daughter classes and an adult troupe.
But for the upcoming BPA performance, McCormick is set on winning the hearts and minds of her audience.
“My goal is to bring in people from the community who have no conception of what belly dance really is, and have them go ‘Wow, I had no idea.’”
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Claudine McCormick’s A Dance Within and other belly dancers perform A Night of Belly Dance, 7:30 p.m. April 30 at the Playhouse. Tickets are $10, available at the door or by calling 842-8569.
