“Search the best for you’n’your body, because your body are your temple and the dance is the most rich ways, dignified and beautiful of demonstration and expression of life. Use it on your benefit.”

Giselle Kenj

Egyptian Dance

Before Egypt has been a big Empire, still in Pre-Dynastic period, while Nile River, winds blew and moved the hot sands came from the desert, making figures that made part of the set  that would shelter the history of a big civilization, which participates and was set of a large number of histories and one of them: Raks El Shark.

Belly Dance

The origin of this dance so played nowadays cannot be defined and we don’t have this intention. But, we can say it was developed in Egypt under the priestess’ ability, they used to thank to the fertility, to the Gods, animals, love, power and human being feelings. Beginning in a holy way, religious and festive. (in holy modes, e.g. dancing to thank the big crop, dancing to thank a Pharaoh’s child birth) It was executed originally in Egypt at private ceremonies.
It was been developed, it was growing only noticing it rhythms and harmonies. All the dances were about issues about life: gifts, sacrifices, magic rituals, marriage parties, births, funerals, hunting, war, and plantation and so on.

All the sinuous and intense movements of those holy dancers were watched by the most sage man in sanctuaries and palaces, making the biggest search of all, “looking for the life essence”,  because it mix knowledge, emotion, equilibrium and healthy, reverencing life and attracting thoughts fertility beyond a dance rich in movements, strength and expression.

After Egyptian invasion by the Hicsos (period Hicso) and the other people like the Romans and Arabs, the dance has been influenced by a lot of culture, making each region got it own characteristics inside the belly dance.
With the decadency of Egyptian dynasties and lots of invasions, this beautiful dance that enchanted who passed through the Egyptian lands, was taken to all East and West, by the Arabs, enchanted all the hole world, still nowadays. It became, this way, belly dance, known for everybody and being part of Arab culture, so it’s been started seen not as holly neither in a religious way.

The old “Raks el Shark” the “Eastern Dance”, which women danced exposing their belly to the sun, looking for the beginners energies is called in Brazil as belly dance or dança do ventre.

The Dance Nowadays

Now, Lebanon and Egypt are the biggest dance places, where present dancers were of big importance, to this art history with their discoveries and innovation; dancing with high shoes, mixing clothes style, rhythms and melodies from the other cultures, mixing the traditional and old movements with other dancing movements from the other cultures, dancing in a transparent pool with snakes are examples of innovations.

But we shouldn’t direction our attention only to Arabian countries, because in Europe, the USA as in so many places this art has been enchanting men, women and children in an unexplained way.

As a matter of fact, we are trying a long time to find an explanation, being esthetical, sensuality or the energies of this art. Where’s the strength of this art? Is it in its history? Is it in its beauty? Is it in women’s beauty that practices? Is it in the legends from Old Egypt and Eastern? How could this art survive to many contretemps inside time and history? Why is this art so practiced nowadays? Why did Brazilian women accept this dance so well?

So many questions only can be answered with study, dedication and curiosity; also through the intuition that takes us to the right ways, through we see in front of life history and civilization. As much as we search we discover that only through history and with humility we can get near something essence.

In Brazil we find professionals really able to, studying, searching and recycling the knowledge and broadcasting this art through all national and international lands.

EGYPTIAN STYLE: the belly dancer performs and dance like a Queen, a priestess.

Benefits

Muscles stiffen, development of flexibility, a better at cardiovascular, breathe and postural reeducation; better amplitude in movements and the work of body conscience are some physical benefices.

Furthermore, belly dance movements associated to correct exercises make the dissolution of women physical rigidity, also called “muscles cuirass” and these “cuirass” are caused by sexual and social reprehension. With the elimination of these cuirass we liberate our inside and external body; a more balanced women, mental and physical health, making life softly and happily.

Through a body work directed we also can get the “chakras” alignment. “Chakras” are power centers responsible directly by the equilibrium of energies of double etheric (energetic body), being 7 main chakras: basic/ spine, splenic / spleen, umbilical/ solar plexus, caridiac/ heart, laryngeal / throat, frontal/between eyebrows and coronary /head top.

Moreover, we have small ones spread inside all body. The vital flow of these fluxes regulates health of parts of the body where it passes through.  But, for, these energies can flow in a normal way, we should have consciousness-raising of body and postural, in order to these chakras can be aligned correctly and be ready to the correct energies circulation.

One of the body benefices of great  importance it’s the harmonization in production of women hormones, as also the domain of pelvis muscles, what help us in natural functions in women body as at childbed or in body health.
What many people don’t know is that we have another hormone, actually more broadcast, DHEA, not understood so much in its function, but in certain quantities retard aging. It’s a substance produced by cortex supra renal and participates in production of adrenaline and cortisol, the hormone of stress. It means every time our body produce these hormones and it has to use a little bit of DHEA reserve, which we are provided in born and get low drastically as we get old.

What we deduce is with body and mental work of belly dance we avoid stress, keeping the DHEA levels in organism that indicates our biological age can be reversed.

All of this is about body, biochemistry, which is a conscience product. We join body and mind by this way, and dance work is made with feelings and emotion. So, it can be noticed body and psychological changes, where women start with rigid movements, with no flexibility, no softness and finish softly, sexy and more feminine.