One thing I always enjoy doing on the Hill is attending belly dance performances. McDaniel has had a belly dance club since before I came to campus, and over the past few years, they’ve held “haflas” — or “get-togethers” — once a semester so the McDaniel community can watch them perform. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of watching my friends perform in yet another hafla.
While past belly dance performances I’ve seen took place on the main stage in the theater, this semester’s hafla took place in McDaniel Lounge, which is smaller and does not have a stage. This ended up creating a unique opportunity for the belly dancers to invite the audience to perform with them during certain numbers throughout the show.
Eventually, I found the guts to go up and join in on the fun — thanks to the encouragement of one of my friends, Cari, who is a belly dancer. Cari taught us some choreography so that at a certain part of the song, we could all dance in unison. With so many people involved, it was a bit like learning a new line dance. When we weren’t doing the choreographed moves, we were free to move our hips and bellies and dance however we wanted.
Watching the rest of the show was fun too. It was a treat to get to see many of my friends perform after all the work they’d put into learning their routines. (All of the desserts they had on hand were also a treat!) One of my friends who is an alumna now also came back to perform.
Belly Dance Club meets twice a week. They have “Fun-Day Mondays,” for anyone to come and dance with them, and they also have separate weekly meetings for those who wish to perform in front of an audience. Joining Belly Dance informally is something I’ve always said that I’d like to do but haven’t actually gotten around to doing. Maybe next semester, I’ll follow through : )
Leave a Reply