Dance

Consider...and view...

Some quotes from Chapter 4 of Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance by Iris J. Stewart.

"It is easy to see that if the bodily movements associated with the birth ritual were transposed to the king's palace or a nightclub for the entertainment of men, those same movements would be viewed in an entirely different way. The belly dance in the context of the birth ritual, however, was done not to project eroticism or present woman as a lure but to display a conciousness of the wonder of birth..." (page 83)

"Let me be clear that the text in this chapter, however, that the text in this chapter is not meant to add to the societal programming of women to the maternal mode...this dance has power in all aspects of life" (page 96).

"By moving her body in a way that is at once sensual and at the same time very energetic and strong, without coquetry or seductiveness, the dancer and her dance return us to the very depth of the power of the feminine" (page 95).

This book came to me from a nice used bookstore in Illinois. Which I have now left behind, having recently relocated to Northern Virginia (again...)

And, oh well, I see to my disappointment that half the posts to youtube are no longer available (though sometimes they can be found anyway if one just searches for them) but....if these work...
Bellydance Superstars Performance
and
Sa'diyya Ethnic Fusion / Veil Dar Fusion

Sidenote: I once had a boss who told me that when he was young, his hockey coach made all his players take belly dance and ballet lessons in secret...because it made them better at playing hockey!

Soon I will be living in a house of boys. Or youngish men technically. There is a lot of communality in this house. For example, there is a communal TV. Yay, communal TV. Maybe I will have to expose them to the phenomenon of...

Tito, Egypt's male belly dancer!

I wonder if they would like that? Today I got asked if I would share any food I cooked with the housemates. Apparently the last housemate had an alcohol problem and didn't pay rent and was (perhaps the last straw) also a gourmet chef who made these tempting creations and wouldn't share. Well I told them, yes I would share. But no one sounded very excited about green blender smoothies for some reason. I wonder why? Would they harbor the same lack of enthusiasm about Tito? Sigh. I guess we'll see! Well I bet it would be nice if I cooked or did some baking ;-)HAH!!!