Building the Community: Promoting the Modern Belly Dancer

Ok, I'm one of those people who gets an idea and pounds it into the ground. The idea I've been irritating all my coworkers with lately is "building the community of belly dance."

It's my own personal crusade, made possible by Dilara, because for some reason she believes I know what I'm doing.

One of the ways HipMix.net is building the community is by reaching out to belly dancers who are doing some amazing things in their hometown.

I get a lot of my leads through local newspapers and online magazines that cater to the broader spectrum of life. As I read through them, I'm hit over and over by the need for a magazine that "gets" belly dance to cover these artists. Then we wouldn't have to spend half of our time saying, "yesss belly dance is not all about baring your midriff and shaking your assets" and "yesss belly dance is an inspiring and confidence-boosting pasttime" and "yesss the women who dance are your mothers, sisters, daughters, neighbors, coworkers."

Don't get me wrong: I love when the media covers belly dance in such a light. But for dancers, you hear it all the time. You'd rather dive in deeper. Instead of hearing about a dancer doing sword dances (yawn yes ok we know that happens) you want to hear about how they keep their dances entertaining, how they avoid letting their prop become a crutch, etc.

That's why we want to promote the modern belly dancer and her struggles. What is she/he worried about? What does she/he carry in her practice bag? Where is she/he dancing?

We're not talking about the stars, the famous dancers, the ones most belly dancers are buying DVDs from and taking workshops with. We are talking about the extraordinary women and men who make up the majority of the belly dance world.

Are you a modern belly dancer? Do you know a modern belly dancer? Let me know and there's a chance we'll cover you in one of our profiles!