Dance your way to beauty
Just looking like a belly dancer will make you feel beautiful, says Bozenka Arencibia-Torres, a Miami-based belly-dancing instructor. Belly dancing is an ancient art that dates back to 24,000 BC.
She talks about the visual feast when one looks at a belly-dancing performer in full regalia.
“There’s a lot of visual beauty. The flowing silks, shiny sequins, bright fabrics, mysterious veils, intricate beading, glittery rhinestone appliqués, lots of jewels, expressive makeup, elegant deportment…can make a woman feel beautiful,” Bozenka declares to all woman, while in Ocho Rios for the An Elegant Affair mind, Body & Soul Retreat 2005.
“In fact, at my studio Danse Orientale, I have students who at first wore lots of baggy pants and sweats to classes, but as they progress they start wearing clothes that enhance their body features.”
Bozenka, born of a Cuban father and a Czech mother in Cuba, says belly dancing in its pursuit of liberating women, doesn’t focus on being thin, the Westernized ideal. She says that it’s an empowering women’s artform that is joyous and has a creative appeal.
“For one, the main thing is that you’re woman. Belly dancing was made up by women for women. Historically, its origin came about in order to aid with childbirth.
It’s very accepting of any background, whether you’re young, old, thin, fat, black, white. It doesn’t discriminate and it allows all these types of women to express themselves, especially the older women. Yes, younger women may be able to express themselves more physically but mature women, when dancing, communicates emotionally and with wisdom.”
She says her classes consists of all age groups from 13 to 60 years old and that “it’s really beautiful to see the bonding between a 20-year-old and a 60-year-old, Moreover, it keeps you fit and targets specific areas of the body during its exercise.”
But, is belly dancing exotic? Is it wholesome fun?
“Belly dancing is exotic, not erotic. Not sexual but sensual. Words lose their meaning and people become confused. For instance, I don’t want to say, “I’m an exotic dancer.
Automatically stripping comes to mind. I’m not a stripper, so you want to preserve this artform as what it is.
It’s like flamenco or classical ballet because this dance has been around for a long time,” Bozenka explains, while relating her role as an artistic director and one who travels extensively worldwide to teach the art of belly dancing.
She holds the prestigious title, Miss America of the Bellydance 2000 and her latest accomplishment includes choreographing for Shakira (Latin pop star) in La Romana, Santo Domingo. With a background in music and voice, plus ballet, modern dance, jazz and musical theatre, Bozenka is known as one of the top exponents of Middle Eastern Dance in the U.S. She has performed and taught workshops all over the U.S., Canada, Central and South America, Europe and the Caribbean.
“Belly dancing makes women feel powerful.
When a women feels beautiful, strong and sensual, of course, it’s something that should be taken away or it is made out to be less than what it is,” she sarcastically points out.
“It helps your self-esteem and makes you feel in control,” Bozenka says. She should know. Just before her trip to our fair isles, she was in France and before that New York and Mexico.
But, did you know the correct name for belly dancing is actually “Oriental Dance”? The Arabic name for it is raqs sharqi, which means “dance of the East/Orient”, and the Turkish name is Oryantal.
Belly dancing is hard work says Bozenka and it takes some practice.
“When people take my classes they realize that it is challenging. I have students who comes one to three times and then say it’s difficult. I say to them, ” What did you think?
It was going to be easy! The thing is- a skilled dancer, a professional, will make it look easy. When I started out, I stuck with it because it was challenging. I like a challenge,” she states.
