Belly Forté

taught a pelvic-centered dance during the puberty rites that followed their first menstruation. Women practiced these dances with girls to tone their bodies and prepare for pregnancy, birth, and the healing that follows. Belly dancing was an enjoyable bonding experience for women and girls. Today, it can help bridge the gap between the primal brain (which knows how to give birth) and the modern woman (who may need to be reminded of her instinctual capacity) assisting her to claim back her most basic and inherent right as the Deliverer of Life. Emotionally, the birth dance opens up a well of feelings that cannot be easily locked away in pregnancy. A woman's birthing heart centre resides within the pelvis and hip area. This region is often fraught with locked up painful, sexual memory. Many women find that they are very tight and rigid here, and when they begin to belly dance they may find it difficult to loosen up the area or even to make connection with this part of their body. It is as though the dance beckons a woman to stand in the light of her truth and feel her conscious presence within her birthing body. Gina has been belly dancing for eight years, and teaching for 6 years. She was taught by an Egyptian dancer, so the techniques she will be teaching comes from an ancient tradition. As her background includes other dance forms, posture is emphasised and there is room for dance fusion.