Her stage name, rendered from Arabic, is Dancing Kitten. And she describes herself as dancing through life whenever there’s music playing, even while waiting in line at the grocery store.
Huraiva Alimah is one of the instructors at the Maya Zahira School of Belly Dance. Based in Kansas City, Kan., the school offers year-round classes throughout the area, and Alimah teaches sessions at Central Park and Crestview Community Centers in Topeka.
Why do most people attend belly dance classes?
There are many different reasons. Some people do it just because they’re curious and want to learn how to do it. Some people do it because it’s fun. Some people do it because they think it’s a good workout, which it is. Some people do it for the sense of self-esteem. For a lot of women, it’s very freeing to do something for yourself like this.
Is belly dance a good calorie burner?
It certainly can be. I want to say that if you’re truly dancing at capacity, it’s going to burn like 400 calories a half hour. So it will burn quite a few.
It’s a whole body workout. We do arm movements, obviously your legs (are working) because you’re dancing and moving around, and absolutely, positively the torso.
Is it mostly women who participate?
It’s mostly women, although we have had men enroll in the past. It’s women of all ages and body types. I’ve had very elderly women; I’ve had young girls that are in their teens.
So why are the guys interested in enrolling?
I think sometimes it’s because their girlfriend dared them. And sometimes I think they’re just curious. And we don’t let them watch class, so if they want to be here they’re going to have to be dancing.
Belly dance always seems to be stereotyped as sort of a dirty girl thing. What’s your take on that?
It’s very stereotyped, and there are a lot of misconceptions about belly dancing. I get a lot of strange looks sometimes when I say I belly dance.
A lot of people associate belly dancing with stripping, and it just really isn’t. (That idea) comes from the World Fair in 1894 I think, where the first belly dancers came over to the United States. They were moving in ways that nobody had ever seen before which was very scandalous to the Victorian-era Americans. So because it was so scandalous and it got such a big draw, Vaudeville decided to incorporate it into their act. Vaudeville became burlesque; burlesque became stripping.
So what’s the real historic origin of the dance?
The origin of belly dance was a sacred dance in the temples. It was done for the gods and goddesses in the temples, generally fertility goddesses or goddess of the harvest, all throughout the Mediterranean, Europe and off of Africa, as well as into India. The origins of belly dance are worldwide really.
Do people still adhere to that idea of the sacred feminine when they belly dance?
That kind of relates back to the freeing aspect that I mentioned. Some women take belly dancing as a very spiritual activity that they do for themselves. But it doesn’t have to be. It kind of depends on what your background is. It can be taken from many different levels.
And why do you do it?
I do it because I enjoy it. It’s really a lot of fun. It’s really helped me build my own self-confidence. It’s been freeing from a body image standpoint. It kind of supports the idea that all women are beautiful, no matter what shape or size they are.
