Here in my town there is one place which regularly offered bellydance classes on different levels. Places like the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) and The University Georgia's Continuing Education Center occasionally offers classes.
I own bellydance exercise video cassettes and a DVD by bellydancing twins Veena and Neena Bidasha and Suhaila Salimpour . I think bellydance should be learned by all women in America. Too many of us have been come so liberated that we lack that grace and femininity and Romantic aspect that I feel a woman needs in the way she moves. I have noticed graceful aspects in women while living in Turkey and Botswana. You rarely see it here.
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is a Balkan nation bordered by Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. The country's population consists of Macedonians who are Slavic people, Albanians, Turks, Romani people (Gypsies), Serbs, Valachs (similar to the Romanians) and others. I never expected that Macedonia has a tradition of bellydance. Usually when one thinks of bellydance the Middle East, Turkey, and on slim occasions India are thought of. Bellydance is rooted in these countries, but it also has roots in Macedonia and Greece.
Bellydance probably was brought to the Balkans by the Romani people. The art of bellydance is thousands of years old originating from tribal, temple, ritual, and social dances and even in exercises to prepare women for childbirth. Two years ago when looking for CDs to add to my collection of Arabic music I ran across this unexpected find.
Below I have included two videos of bellydancers in possibly Macedonia. Notice that Balkan bellydance music has slight similarities in rhythm to Middle Eastern bellydance music, but the instrumentation is different. Brass instruments like trumpets, saxophones, trombones, and clarinets are played in this form of bellydance music. Macedonian bellydance was a refreshing surprise for me. If you notice in the two clips at the end, there is a kind of vivaciousness in Macedonian bellydance that you do not see in its' Middle Eastern or Indian counterparts.I learned in Turkey that though there are plenty of places to see bellydance especially in cities like Istanbul, Turks are not interested. Why? Their answer is, "That is for the tourists."
I have not gone to a bellydance performance yet in Turkey, but in 2006 I went to a bellydance charity performance here in my town to benefit African children. The dancers performed mainly Indian forms of bellydance.
