Neena and Veena !
Dancing, Trancing; The Bellytwins
Once in a while, mainstream culture gets a little more than it expects. There are a few people out there who fervently believe in belly dancing as an art form; a profound enhancement of feminine power. But the casual observer sees it as a form of entertainment, with perhaps a tiny glimmer of something a little beyond American Idol.
So, two brilliant and beautiful identical twins of Indian descent have this intimate knowledge of Eastern dance, and an insight forms: This is about as aerobic as anything can get. This is a hardcore workout. Veena and Neena, AKA The Bellytwins have taken this idea into millions of homes in the US via their exercise videos, making them the most famous belly dancers in history. They rub elbows with everyone from Robert Redford to Ozzy Osborne. They have acting careers and books under their (silk) belts. They jet off to India to perform in Bollywood films.
That they have achieved all this came as a surprise. They simply wanted to make a living while embracing their art. In fact they've brought health, wellness, art, even a little magic to the silent masses, shimmying before the flickering light of their TV screens.
T. Virgil Parker: You clearly get people doing this for the workout who begin to have insights about the art form?
Veena: All the time, actually. When I'm teaching a workshop I go in to the technique and the history of it. Little tidbits information about either the song, instrumentation, the dance; that's of interest to the students. In my classes where I'm teaching the actual workout, I don't have too much time to go into it, but I do throw in tidbits of information and it becomes a little more fascinating rather than just sitting there and exercising. For some women, they feel much more connected because it makes them feel like, "oh my gosh! I'm part of something that's so ancient!"
TVP: Do you think people are gaining certain kinds of enlightenment about it as well instead of just getting those fat pounds off?
V: Yes. And with some women it makes them want to exercise even more.
TVP: You've probably thought a lot about the origins of belly dancing.
V: Yes I have, but I'm obviously much more into the actual movements. There's not really direct information about where the dance came from, so it's not like we can say, "okay, it definitely came from here and this is the actual history of it." The history is basically just theories. They're strong theories, but they are theories. It hasn't been officially said "yes, this is what it is."
TVP: We have seen frescoes in ancient Egypt of belly dancers. We've also seen a wall painting in Minoan Crete circa 1,500 BC of snake dancers.
V: Yes, I had heard about that as well. A couple people were like, "well, they don't really dance with snakes in Egypt ." In the ancient times, historically there have been snake dancers, so that's been my argument with them as well. So I guess that's one of the reasons why Neena and I have taken snakes and added them to our show.
TVP: What do you feed your snakes?
V: They get fed rats, most of them do. At one point they were getting gerbils. But I was so glad when they went back on rats because gerbils are hard to find. But yeah, they are fed rats.
TVP: I'll keep this interview away from PETA for now.
V: You know, I have vegetarian friends. At the moment I'm actually a vegetarian, at the moment. Sometimes I'll go six months being a vegetarian or a year being a vegetarian and I'll go back on meat. It depends on when my body feels the need is. I understand not eating meat and why and all that. However, the snakes will starve to death. TVP: You've probably thought about the religious origins of belly dancing in India .
V: There is a theory of belly dancing starting in India, or that some of the aspects have started in India, but I don't think too much of it historically as much as the movement, but it is fascinating that possibly some of the origins may have been there, at least the origins of the movements and/or the religious aspect. I'm sure it could be either, because India is a very spiritual country, so in anything that comes from there, there's a spirituality connected to it. Actually, in ancient times there were always gods involved. I hope that we can still continue that connection with movement in God or God in anything else, even food. I always like saying anything and everything is connected with God. But the aspects of some of the dance for sure came from India . Some of it at least, because a lot of the gypsies originated in Rajasthan , India .
TVP: Yeah, in Punjab , I've heard.
V: Not in Punjab , it has been pinned down to actually Rajasthan. People conjectured it was Punjab but it wasn't really Punjab . The actual Banjara gypsies- the original gypsies- resided in Rajasthan. It's even said that it's possible that they originally came from Afghanistan . But some people say that and some people say no, they really are Rajasthanis. But in either case, those original gypsies are still nomadic people and they had been nomadic and they would travel everywhere. The famous gypsy trail is the one that started in Rajasthan , India , and they went into the Middle East , including North Africa , Eastern Europe , and into Spain . So that's the famous one that a lot of people see the traces of in India .
TVP: And they leave a trail of art behind them as they go.
V: Yeah, of course, because wherever you're going to reside and you're going to be involved in interacting with people, you're going to have influences in either direction, although the Banjaras or the gypsies stayed pretty true to what they were about. And they came from all types of backgrounds. So to do a whole history on gypsies is fascinating alone. And boy I wish I could do a whole dissertation on that because there's so much and it's so fascinating. But the Spanish gypsies, if you can trace back the origin, definitely came from India .
TVP: They were said to be the last goddess worshipers in Western Europe .
V: That's probably true. The women I know seem very, very strong.. It's just the way they are. The men have their thing and the women have their thing and it doesn't feel submissive at all with them. If anything they feel a little bit stronger than men. So there probably was a lot of Goddess worshiping.
TVP: I've actually heard Roma dancing called goddess dancing. I thought that was interesting etymologically. There's also a Sufi influence in belly dancing.
V: Probably, because it's all from north India and the Islamic influences.
TVP: Do you ever feel like you're trancing really hard when you dance?
V: I think biologically what happens when someone is dancing is that they do feel a connection. Endorphins are released. These are feel-good things that come out and are released from your brain, so I think a lot of people do feel a sense of going into a trance. I've had that feeling too, especially when you get connected with the music. In fact in our book The Way of the Belly, that came out a little bit ago, we talk about connecting your body with the music. First you feel the beats, and then you get into the instrumentation and allow your body to move and sway and allow your body to be connected with that. You don't really have to know the movements so much as you have to feel the music. To actually belly dance you get to know the basic vocabulary. But once you do, and say you've already got that, even just a couple of the movements you can really connect your body in with the music. Let is sway, let it connect, and let your body go into this journey. If you have a camcorder that records all the stuff that you're doing, you can come up with all this cool choreography just because you're so connected. And once you disconnect yourself from the music, then you start thinking about it, like, "okay, let me put this move in instead." It just becomes a little bit different. But there's nothing like that feeling of being connected. I think Sufism, for sure they had some kind of connection that allowed that journey just to happen. I do know that even in Punjab , because we teach north Indian dance as well as including Bhangra from Punjab , and from Bombay , and I do know that in some of the dances, especially in Rajasthan and Gypsy- which we have taught in the past, and the Punjab Bhangra, there is shaking of the head. In a lot of the movements the guys will shake their heads, or sometimes the girls will. My educated guess is that it could have come from Sufism. That's an educated guess, because I observe it, and I see that and go, "wow, these Sufi dancers are shaking their heads like the Bhangra dancers are." And it's all from the north, so it's possible that it really could be.
TVP: So assuming you could go back far enough and it would be the same dances and the same trances but 'Insert god or goddess here.'
V: I would say that's a good guess.
TVP: This is why it was so mind-blowing to me when I saw your first exercise videos. It looks like you're bringing the sacred into the domestic in a really unique way.
V: Oh, wow, thank you! I'm glad we had the effect because I always thought it was such a great idea to do something like that. Here my sister and I grew up in basically white America . It's not really "White America" but it isn't India and it isn't the Middle East . It's a land of other cultures but a pretty Caucasian influence, and that's the culture. But I grew up even in my own household with what I know. So to me I always thought, "wow, it would be so cool and wonderful if people could really experience what I like and what I'm feeling with this music and this dance. I wonder if they'll like it." And we were told so many times that it would never work because it's too exotic and that America wasn't ready for it.
TVP: Oh, don't believe that for a second! Really, Western Culture is dying to get out of itself. It's like it's boxed itself in and is looking for ways to expand.
V: I think especially now it's definitely like that. Western culture is always going, "we need something different, we're dying for something different!" They just want variety. And they're fascinated with everybody else, because they don't want to miss out. Nobody does. Even other countries too. In India they're fascinated with American culture, and in Egypt too.
TVP: You may have grown up here but you're not entirely as Western as you think you are: You were voted the sexiest twins in America and weren't in a beer commercial.
V: That's funny! To be in a beer commercial, I think that's pretty American.
TVP: The funny thing is, a lot of people wish they'd done something meaningful and productive in their lives and in some way everyone has, perhaps. But what you're really doing is making people think more deeply, feel more deeply, and get in shape at the same time. It's got to be very gratifying.
V: I think it is. All my and Neena's lives, growing up, we used to say things like, "don't drink that, it's got too much sugar!" And I would be like six years old. I was reading ingredients on different labels around the age of five. I would tell my mom, "this product is the same as this product because the ingredients are the same, but buy this because it's ten cents cheaper!" Read up on the ingredients that's involved in food because that's as important to feed your belly as it is to exercise.
That's part of being healthy, energetically and physically as well. Even in regards to people's emotions, because we grew up with a mom that was pretty sick. She was physically challenged because she had Rheumatoid Arthritis, and she had it pretty bad. So she got struck with it probably in her late twenties and was in constantly in surgery. If we had grown up with a mom who was healthy, we probably wouldn't have as much passion about health and exercise as we do. In our culture, we're not allowed to be dancers. It's not the best choice of profession for women. So we had to disguise our dance with exercise. And we used to tell our mom, "this is good exercise!" And she actually knew in her heart that it really was because she would do some of the movements and enviously think, "gosh, I really want to move! I can't move but I want to move," so she would move and go, "this is the best thing!" So deep in her heart she was like, "do it because you can. I can't." It was a very strange thing to grow up with a mom who was in and out of the hospital in a wheelchair.
TVP: That must have been hard.
V: It was very difficult because while most kids are going to dance classes and gymnastics and things like that, Neena and I were taking care of our mom. We would help her go to the bathroom and things like that.
TVP: That's the hardest thing you can do. It's not the work; it's the emotional drain.
V: Yeah, it's very emotional. But my mom really tried to make it a positive situation even though it really wasn't. But we had to make it a positive thing and I didn't really appreciate the hard work until later. Someone had even said, "what a great story about you and, that's how you came up with the idea of belly dancing for fitness." And I said, "well that's not a story, it's true." I don't think I'd have been able to come up with a story.
TVP: An angle.
V: Yeah, I guess that's the proper way to say it. An angle.
TVP: You know, people are falling all over themselves to sell your videos online.
V: Yeah. But we come from a real background. So when somebody says, "you don't understand what it's like growing up poor!" I said, "yes we do." We were very poor growing up. When my mom got sick she didn't have health insurance. So all of our money went to surgeries and stuff, so that would make you go broke really quickly. Or when somebody says, "you don't understand about not being healthy." I sure do. I grew up with my mom, so I do understand.
TVP: Our glorious healthcare system.
V: The American way has its place, but we're all very much into quick fixes. And it really is like that. If there are certain problems, a lot of stuff can be reversed. A lot of stuff, by diet and exercise alone, but a lot of it is also from attitude and letting go. Physically and emotionally.
TVP: That's awesome. And again that's got to be a benefit from the dance, because what you're doing is so nonverbal and that kicks in all these different psychological systems in the body. You and Neena are probably the healthiest people in America .
V: I don't know about that! We try to be as healthy as we can, but we grew up on a farm that had a lot of chemicals and stuff, so we had health problems of our own that we had to take care of. And also, living in Los Angeles is pretty tough. The healthiest person would be somebody living in beautiful clean water, clean air, really quiet with organic fruits and vegetables that you're growing in your back yard.
TVP: Nah, I think that makes you weak. I think you need something to fight against.
V: I think because we live in this kind of society it's pretty tough to have that kind of a background. Maybe you're right about that. You wouldn't have the immunities that are built up in your bodies. So you're probably right.
TVP: I A lot of people talk about modern vacuity, meaninglessness, emptiness. You found this endless source of meaning from looking into your own past and your own culture.
V: It has meaning now. It didn't before because I would be kind of, "why me?" I know it sounds a little bit spoiled, kind of a spoiled way of thinking because you do have your health, but why did I have to grow up in a family that was so poor and with a mom that was so sick? I just thought it wasn't fair and life isn't this way. I talk to my mom a lot, even know, and a couple times she's even said "why me?" Like her, herself, and she really went through a lot. But again, I don't think we would have come up with things to say or a message to people if we didn't have what we had to go through.
TVP: It's almost like fate sat down and cooked up a plan to make Veena and Neena bring Eastern dance into American fitness.
V: Yeah, exactly. And now we're bringing in not just belly dancing but also Bollywood and Bhangra; which is like our background as well.
TVP: That is too cool.
V: It's a whole different thing but it's still the same message. This one actually includes men. The belly dancing is much more female, it's very empowering, and very soft and feminine, but yet strong at the same time. But this Bollywood and Bhangra are definitely male and female. It is definitely ancient, but it's ancient with upbeat modern feel to it. Our classes are doing very well. I started teaching this back in '97. The first day of class I had two people who said, "what's Bollywood and what's Bhangra?" and that was it. The next week they came back again and brought a couple people, and it built up. It became the secret of really staying fit. We had one girl who did nothing different except attend the class. At that time I was teaching only once a week on a Sunday and she would only come to that one class and she lost thirty pounds. Doing nothing different except that class. They come out and they're sweating bullets. With belly dancing, they sweat differently. Even the cardio class was more of a, "oh boy, that was a bit of a workout! I feel the burn!" But this one was pretty hardcore. The guys would be a little bit, "okay, this is kicking my butt!"
TVP: It seems that a lot of fairly famous people have discovered what you're doing and swear by it.
V: And I don't even know all the celebrities who have taken the classes. I keep hearing, "so and so has your videos! Did you hear them mention them on MTV?" I don't know who has them. I know Jessica Simpson has one of them and there was another really famous hip-hop singer, and then there were others who actually came to our classes and we taught them as well. But as far as I know, I'm not sure who's had our videos. There's a good amount of them, it's nice to hear.
