Belly Dancing

[Sonia Rangel]

 

On Friday night my friends and I decided to go to a party that's held on the first Friday of every month. They have different bands and DJs playing. They sell arts and crafts from the community including jewelry, T-shirts, posters, etc. They have local publications available for free and there was even a booth that sold treats like chocolate and candy from different parts of the world like India and Japan. 

 

It is usually a lot of fun to go to these parties. It's a good chance to meet new people. Usually the people that I met there are artistically inclined, I have met an English teacher, a film director and a newspaper reporter. I also ran into my high school Geometry teacher there too, he was selling burritos at the party. His family owns the venue where the party takes place and I know one of the girls that hosts the party. It really is a small world!! 

 

Well besides the DJs and bands, they also have belly dancing performances and fire spinning. I love to see the performances since I love belly dancing. People laugh when I say this but I want to be a belly dancer when I grow up. During college, I started listening to Shakira a lot. I really like her music especially her older music like her first and second CD. One of the songs that I really liked was "Ojos Asi" which has an Arabic sound mixed with rock. During her performance she belly dances. I was absolutely fascinated with this kind of dance so I started looking into it and teaching myself (with the help of tutorials) how to belly dance. The more I researched it the more intrigued I was not only learning how to dance but also the history and different types of belly dance. Then I found out that one of my new friends and some co-workers were belly dancers! I always told myself that I would join a belly dancing group or have formal lessons but I was so busy with so many other things that I put it off.

 

Seeing the belly dancing performances again reminds me of my friends (one of them also taught belly dancing and was learning how to fire spin) and how I would want to pursue belly dancing. Once again, my agenda is full with so many things to do, but maybe I will find some room to fit it into my schedule sometime this year. 

[Ytzel Monae McDaniel]

There is a really great belly dancing teacher at the dance studio I used to take ballet at i cant remember her name, but here's the link with all the info and schedule http://www.tpdaelpaso.com/ :) She has her own dance company and has auditions I believe every Spring and Fall. Have fun!

[Marisol Guzman]

Do it Sonia! I believe there are several belly dancing groups in El Paso, so do your research and get those hips moving asap! :D