World Bellydance Day

On Bellydance Dance, it's time to get up and start shaking that body – that belly, especially! The art of belly dancing, although amusingly named, is one of the most revered styles of dancing in history and is practiced in many different variants across the world. In some countries, it's even part of the cultural makeup!

In this type of dancing, dancers use their torso to make complex moves. Often, they are decked out in dazzling costumes, and depending on the part of the world where you watch the dancers you'll see different styles of both costume and dance moves. This day was created to celebrate everything about this fabulous dance style.

Bellydancing was supposedly born in the Middle East, although it's hard to find any solid evidence of this. However, there's no doubt that its roots are to be found in antiquity, as a number of sources from ancient Greek and Roman literature talk about dancers making the undulating movements and playing castanets which are indicative of the dance style.

In the 18th century, European travelers would talk of the dancers they saw in Eygpt performing this torse-centric dance, and in the Ottoman Empire, it was written that belly dancing was often performed by means of entertainment in the Sultan's palace.

Today, belly dancing is used as both a folksy, entertaining dance and as an artistic performance. No longer found only in the Middle East, the dance has long since migrated over to the Western World and many interpretations of the original style now exist.

Looking for a new hobby, or an activity that might help you lose a bit of weight? Bellydancing could be the answer! Take a look online and see if there are any dance studios near you that offer a belly dancing course, and sign yourself up! Be warned though – for the first few lessons, it could be exhausting! This is a dance that is much more difficult to learn than you might think!