Today I was searching for tips and tricks for balancing and I happened across this article, 10 Myths about Belly Dance, in which the author describes 10 popular myths.
Belly dancers deal with myth and reality all the time. Westerners' ideas of what is belly dancing often come from 19th century Orientalism and Hollywood rather than from the source, the dance itself.
A few years back, when I was newly pregnant, the nurse at the clinic asked me a series of questions for my file. One of the questions was "Do you exercise?"
"Yes."
"What kind of exercise?"
"Belly dance."
"Belly dance? You don't look like one of those girls."
"What kind of girls?"
"You know ... stripper."
"I'm not a stripper. I'm a belly dancer."
Cue the long explanation of what I do and what I don't do...
Sadly, this is not a once off encounter. It's quite common place (especially in my backward little city).
There are other misconceptions of course. For example, thinking you have to be large to be a belly dancer. I often hear women say that they can't belly dance because they don't have a belly, or there's the other side where the women say they can't because they have too much belly.
Women often express that they could never dance in front of people with their stomachs showing. You don't have to show stomach and you don't have to perform either.
What myths and misconceptions have you heard?
Image: "The Dance" by Giulio Rosati