Looking around the city streets, you might not think that Russian women have any bellies to shake.
But Moscow women of all ages and body types are in growing numbers putting on jingly clothes and learning to belly dance -- whether to lose weight, stay in shape or just have fun trying out a sensual routine.
"Belly dancing is both sport and art, yoga and aerobics," said Lada Aseyeva, a Moscow belly dance instructor who gives private lessons. "You can lose weight and dance what anyone would consider an erotic dance."
Maria Krizhanovskaya, who teaches beginners to belly dance at the Jasmin dance studio, says more and more women are discovering what belly dancing really is.
"It's not a striptease or an indecent dance, but an art form," she said.
Krizhanovskaya says her students want to lose weight and keep fit but find exercising in a gym dull. She says they are drawn to the beauty of belly dance.
"Many of them say, 'It's easier to sit through a boring day at work when you know that in the evening you're going to dance,'" she said.
Recent belly dance convert Taisya Mitrofanova agreed. "First of all, it's fun," she said. "Second, it's exotic and interesting, and third, it's healthy."
Mitrofanova shimmies as though she has had years of practice, though she has only been belly dancing for four months under the guidance of her Egyptian instructor, Sameh El Desouki. She even brings her 8-year-old daughter to lessons, where the little girl swings an Egyptian cane as well as the adults.
More than 20 women came to El Desouki's studio, Faraonik, for a beginners' belly dancing lesson last week. They ranged from 6 years old to 60, and their bellies from tiny to ample.
The littlest girl wore a sheer blue belly dance costume, complete with silver sequins and a headdress, but most women wore a midriff-baring shirt and a coin belt, or just a simple scarf tied around their hips.
El Desouki began the lesson by rolling his shoulders and shaking his hips, and the class followed his lead. He demonstrated every undulation, hip bump and hand accent himself, so explanation was usually unnecessary.
He often switched between Russian and English to shout, "One! Two! Three and four! Bend your knees! Very nice!"
El Desouki says that he has many foreign students, and the language barrier doesn't hamper their understanding of the dance. If they don't pick up the motion by seeing it, he can explain in English.
Other belly dance instructors, like Aseyeva and Krizhanovskaya, also speak English but stress that words are not important to understanding belly dance.
"The main thing is understanding with the body and not the consciousness," Aseyeva said.
When searching for belly dance lessons in Moscow, keep in mind that it is sometimes called by different names. Some dancers feel that the term belly dance -- tanets zhivota in Russian -- gives a false impression that the dance is done entirely with the stomach muscles, while in reality it is based on hip movements.
Some belly dancers translate the name directly from Arabic, calling it eastern dance, or vostochny tanets. Others think that term is too general and call it Arabic dance, or Arabsky
tanets.
Part of the confusion over the name comes from the fact that belly dancing has roots as a folk dance in many Middle Eastern cultures, each with their own regional variations.
El Desouki learned belly dancing when he danced with an Egyptian folk dancing troupe in Cairo. He teaches the Egyptian style of belly dancing, while instructors from, say, Turkey teach it differently. Western dancers often borrow from other styles of dance, such as ballet, jazz or Latin, adding to the confusion about what belly dancing really is.
Some historians say belly dance originated as an ancient birth ritual, while some say it was a dance that women would perform for each other at celebrations.
When colonialists introduced the West to belly dancing in the 19th century, they often misunderstood or misinterpreted it as a dance of seduction, giving belly dance an unseemly reputation that modern exponents are trying to reverse.
Despite its long history, belly dancing didn't catch on in Moscow until the mid-1990s, when the first belly dance schools opened. Initially, it was hard to find instructors, and then it was hard to find good ones, Aseyeva said.
But now there are plenty of instructors in Moscow who will teach you how to do belly rolls and proper hip shimmies, whether privately or in a
group.
The Bellydance.ru web site lists a dozen belly dance instructors in the capital, as well as places to buy glittering costume pieces and places to watch performances of belly dance, including a belly dance festival in November.
Turkish, Arabic and Uzbek restaurants are common venues for belly dance performances. Several instructors said many of their students first fall in love with the dance when they see it at one of these restaurants.
Krizhanovskaya attributes the growing popularity of belly dancing in Moscow to social change. Women now have more money and leisure time and turn to dancing with a different mentality, she said.
"The Russian woman is becoming more independent," she said. "She wants to understand her own personality and sexuality, and to look at her own beauty in a different way."
Faraonik, 26 Novoryazanskaya Ulitsa. Metro Komsomolskaya. Tel. 536-6397, www.sameh-pharaounic.com. 250 rubles per class or 800 rubles for four classes.
Jasmin, 29 Presnensky Val. Metro Belorusskaya. mariamaria@inbox.ru
Lada Aseyeva. Private lessons by appointment. air@icraft.ru
But Moscow women of all ages and body types are in growing numbers putting on jingly clothes and learning to belly dance -- whether to lose weight, stay in shape or just have fun trying out a sensual routine.
"Belly dancing is both sport and art, yoga and aerobics," said Lada Aseyeva, a Moscow belly dance instructor who gives private lessons. "You can lose weight and dance what anyone would consider an erotic dance."
Maria Krizhanovskaya, who teaches beginners to belly dance at the Jasmin dance studio, says more and more women are discovering what belly dancing really is.
"It's not a striptease or an indecent dance, but an art form," she said.
Krizhanovskaya says her students want to lose weight and keep fit but find exercising in a gym dull. She says they are drawn to the beauty of belly dance.
"Many of them say, 'It's easier to sit through a boring day at work when you know that in the evening you're going to dance,'" she said.
Recent belly dance convert Taisya Mitrofanova agreed. "First of all, it's fun," she said. "Second, it's exotic and interesting, and third, it's healthy."
Mitrofanova shimmies as though she has had years of practice, though she has only been belly dancing for four months under the guidance of her Egyptian instructor, Sameh El Desouki. She even brings her 8-year-old daughter to lessons, where the little girl swings an Egyptian cane as well as the adults.
More than 20 women came to El Desouki's studio, Faraonik, for a beginners' belly dancing lesson last week. They ranged from 6 years old to 60, and their bellies from tiny to ample.
The littlest girl wore a sheer blue belly dance costume, complete with silver sequins and a headdress, but most women wore a midriff-baring shirt and a coin belt, or just a simple scarf tied around their hips.
El Desouki began the lesson by rolling his shoulders and shaking his hips, and the class followed his lead. He demonstrated every undulation, hip bump and hand accent himself, so explanation was usually unnecessary.
He often switched between Russian and English to shout, "One! Two! Three and four! Bend your knees! Very nice!"
El Desouki says that he has many foreign students, and the language barrier doesn't hamper their understanding of the dance. If they don't pick up the motion by seeing it, he can explain in English.
Other belly dance instructors, like Aseyeva and Krizhanovskaya, also speak English but stress that words are not important to understanding belly dance.
"The main thing is understanding with the body and not the consciousness," Aseyeva said.
When searching for belly dance lessons in Moscow, keep in mind that it is sometimes called by different names. Some dancers feel that the term belly dance -- tanets zhivota in Russian -- gives a false impression that the dance is done entirely with the stomach muscles, while in reality it is based on hip movements.
Some belly dancers translate the name directly from Arabic, calling it eastern dance, or vostochny tanets. Others think that term is too general and call it Arabic dance, or Arabsky
tanets.
Part of the confusion over the name comes from the fact that belly dancing has roots as a folk dance in many Middle Eastern cultures, each with their own regional variations.
El Desouki learned belly dancing when he danced with an Egyptian folk dancing troupe in Cairo. He teaches the Egyptian style of belly dancing, while instructors from, say, Turkey teach it differently. Western dancers often borrow from other styles of dance, such as ballet, jazz or Latin, adding to the confusion about what belly dancing really is.
Some historians say belly dance originated as an ancient birth ritual, while some say it was a dance that women would perform for each other at celebrations.
When colonialists introduced the West to belly dancing in the 19th century, they often misunderstood or misinterpreted it as a dance of seduction, giving belly dance an unseemly reputation that modern exponents are trying to reverse.
Despite its long history, belly dancing didn't catch on in Moscow until the mid-1990s, when the first belly dance schools opened. Initially, it was hard to find instructors, and then it was hard to find good ones, Aseyeva said.
But now there are plenty of instructors in Moscow who will teach you how to do belly rolls and proper hip shimmies, whether privately or in a
group.
The Bellydance.ru web site lists a dozen belly dance instructors in the capital, as well as places to buy glittering costume pieces and places to watch performances of belly dance, including a belly dance festival in November.
Turkish, Arabic and Uzbek restaurants are common venues for belly dance performances. Several instructors said many of their students first fall in love with the dance when they see it at one of these restaurants.
Krizhanovskaya attributes the growing popularity of belly dancing in Moscow to social change. Women now have more money and leisure time and turn to dancing with a different mentality, she said.
"The Russian woman is becoming more independent," she said. "She wants to understand her own personality and sexuality, and to look at her own beauty in a different way."
Faraonik, 26 Novoryazanskaya Ulitsa. Metro Komsomolskaya. Tel. 536-6397, www.sameh-pharaounic.com. 250 rubles per class or 800 rubles for four classes.
Jasmin, 29 Presnensky Val. Metro Belorusskaya. mariamaria@inbox.ru
Lada Aseyeva. Private lessons by appointment. air@icraft.ru
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