Dancer

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danc·er /ˈdansər/ - a person who dances or whose profession is dancing.

I didn't really get into dancing until I was an adult. In college I took a Ballet class, and thought it was interesting and fun. In fact it was the only good part of my day, as I was very depressed. Depression got the better of me and I failed every class except for Ballet. I decided to take some time off college, and ended up getting married to an air force guy who turned out to be a narcissistic abuser. I didn't dance again until I finally divorced him and moved to another state.

I somehow ended up seeing a video of tribal fusion belly dancing, and thought it was so beautiful. So I looked up more and more videos of it. I began looking up youtube videos on how to belly dance and started practicing with those. And then I somehow stumbled upon a teacher who lived in the next town over. I was nervous, but I decided I needed to do it, and so I contacted her and set up classes for myself.

She did tribal fusion belly dancing, which is a fusion of tribal belly dancing with Arabic belly dancing. And that's what I wanted to learn. So she began to teach me. And she was so friendly and encouraging, I really learned a lot from her. Sadly she ended up moving states, but got me in touch with a Tribal Belly Dance instructor who lived in my town. So I went from dancing on my own as one student, to a group of women all dancing together in follow the leader style. It was a bit of a culture shock to say the least.

But Tribal belly dancing was different, and it was a lot of fun too. I got so hooked I even began helping my instructor sew skirts and cholis and harem pants. Then I got to go with them to Chicago to help sell all the wares we had just sewn at a belly dancing convention. It was the first time I had ever seen anything like it, and I had absolute stars in my eyes when I got to see Rachel Bryce dance. Eventually I saved up enough money to go to the belly dancing convention down near New Orleans, and this time I didn't pass up on taking some of the courses they offered.

I've been hooked on belly dancing ever since. Even when I moved into an RV and traveled around the US, I would practice my belly dancing. I no longer have an instructor, which is a bummer... but I practice what I know, and I practice what I see in videos I watch. So I guess you could say I am a Tribal Fusion belly dancer. I fuse different dance styles and movements into my base knowledge of tribal belly dancing.