Rape & Sexual Abuse
Lucy Lipschitz, whose web site addresses how belly dancing
has helped her emotional recovery from rape and threatened murder,
reports, "Over the years, as I have danced, I am slowly
getting over basic issues about having a woman’s body."
She had been stalked by a man who found her "irresistible",
and afterward she was shocked to find she wasn't believed because
she was a female. The horror of that experience led her to self-destructive
behavior such as drugs and illicit sex.
She initially took up belly dancing when still a teen-ager,
and at the same time fell into a wild lifestyle. The dance became
her passion, her only reason to live. In fact, she made it through
some suicidal episodes by clinging to her classes and the occasional
performance opportunity. Life then took her in other directions
for a time, but 20 years after wandering away from belly dancing,
she came back to it. By then, she had managed to overcome her
self-destructive lifestyle through the help of a 12-step program,
and was successfully embracing a new life of sobriety. The dance
taught her to love her body, and helped her understand that every
size is a good size. She now reports, "The more I dance,
the more centered I am."
Cheryl (not her real name) was sexually abused as a child.
She started belly dancing around age 20. Although she started
dancing because she loved dancing, she found it helped her recover
from the need to hide her body from attack, from the terrible
vulnerability she felt whenever she was at all attractive.
Bulimia
Mary (not her real name) struggled with bulimia for 4 years
as a teen-ager. Although she began doing Oriental dance after
her recovery, she has found that the dance has helped her maintain
her healthy attitude through a number of ways. She found it eye-opening
to see many beautiful, full-figured, over-40 women at home in
their curvaceous bodies, and realized the media's standard of
beauty isn't the only legitimate one. Dance has put her in touch
with what her body wants. It also serves as a meditation for
her, exorcising the demons and stress of everyday living. The
dance has also helped her discover a social network of women
who accept different cultures and possess an inner strength.
She summarizes what the dance has done for her as follows: "In
short, Middle Eastern dance makes me happy. And when I am happy,
engaging in self-destructive behavior is the furthest thing from
my mind.I am more content with my body image now than I've ever
been in my life. Discovering this dance form has been a true
blessing."
A video from Filmakers Library titled Belly: Overcoming
Bulimia tells the story of Katherine Bruce Laing's struggle
with bulimia. Eventually, she joined a belly dancing class and
through watching her classmates discovered that even a full-figured
body can be beautiful through the sensuous moves of this dance
form. While performing for friends and family in her first belly
dance recital, she experienced an epiphany and discovered that
she could love her own body.
Coping With Breast Cancer
Carol originally started to belly dance just for recreation.
Some years later, she suffered botched reconstructive surgery
following a mastectomy for breast cancer. She observed, "Dancing
for myself only and listening to and really feeling the music
made me feel so much a woman again. The rhythm and the movements
are so feminine that they couldn't help but help me heal. I was
even able to make my now-ex think of me as sexy once again."
Then severe injuries from a bad car accident forced three years
of surgeries and inactivity on her. She started belly dancing
again for exercise and weight loss. Again, it helped her heal.
She said, "It is almost inexplicable - unless to others
like you who share the joy and love of the dance and music -
how it makes you feel a oneness, a wholeness, almost a completeness
that is so therapeutic and so self-healing to both the mind and
soul, and therefore also the body."
In the Belly Dancer Breast Cancer Survey on her
web site, Diana DeMille reports that 85% of the respondents said
yes to the question, "Do you feel belly dancing is healing?"
One of the people who responded said, "Belly dancing restores
physical, emotional and spiritual health to the cancer survivor.
It has great exercise value, gets those 'feel good' endomorphines
stirring, enhances the results of the range of motion exercises.
It helps you feel better about yourself. In most cases it brings
you a special bond with other dancers whether they are cancer
survivors or not. And it expresses your joy, gratefulness and
celebration that you are alive!"
Inner Strength For Physical Recovery
Natasya suffered a horrible back injury at work. She used
yoga to regain her range of motion, but it was her love of dance
that gave her a reason to work toward a full recovery.
Sometimes she would even lie flat on her back on the floor and
practice finger cymbals! Despite her doctor's predictions, she
recovered to the point where once again she can perform professionally.
Before Dunya's whiplash injury, she was very athletic. In
addition to dancing, she worked out at the gym 4-5 times per
week. The injury robbed her of these activities that were an
important part of her life. She was still able to play Middle
Eastern music with her band, but her activity level was curtailed.
A few weeks later, her band played for a troupe performance,
then moved on to music for everyone to get up and dance. Dunya
reports, "I slipped onto the floor to move a bit, and found
myself surrounded by beautiful, undulating women with soft smiles
and shining eyes. They were obviously sending me their love and
support for my healing. I was very touched by the experience,
and I will always remember the fantastic feeling of being in
the center of that circle of dancers."
Depression
Gamila in Brazil says, "Last year I was very depressed,
went to the hospital, had to take medicines, but dancing was
the main thing that made me become healthy again."
Scylla from Oregon emerged from childhood with such low self-esteem
that she avoided most social interactions. Eventually depression
led her to the brink of suicide. One evening, while doing ceramics
at a local art center, she heard wonderful music coming from
elsewhere in the building and followed the sound. Upon finding
the belly dancing class in progress, she was enthralled by the
music, the costumes, and the personalities of the three teachers,
all named Judy.
Scylla recalled, "The dance class helped me to explore
physically the places in myself my psychologist (another wonderful
woman) led me to explore emotionally. In therapy I was learning
that I had to love myself, and to listen to my own needs and
feelings and value them. In trying to dance I discovered I did
not love myself, and much of my pain came from my own anger towards,
and dislike for, myself. Slowly, painfully I began to enjoy moving
to the music. I allowed myself to move and discovered I could
like my body in movement; that it was strong and limber and could
"fly" when I did not freeze up with rejection of self.
The dance was a place where I had no history to haunt me. It
was entirely new, and gave me a chance at beginning all over
again to grow up and explore and learn who I was; just like a
child just starting out. Dance is a gift that I received from
from three women which literally saved my life." For Scylla,
the "three Judys" brought to mind the triple goddess
of ancient tradition who presided over her initiation into a
new and joyous life.
Maintaining Well Being
Mishaal, a dancer in Japan, reports, "I certainly feel
that dancing contributes to my physical, psychological, and spiritual
health. At times it's been for healing, but mostly I think of
it more as ongoing preventive health care. I can say for certain,
when I don't take some time away for myself to dance, I do start
to feel sick. I don't mean performing, or even 'practicing'.
I mean taking a little time each day to dance for 'me'. It's
not that I do it 'for my health', but because it does feel so
good! When I'm in need of answers, psychological or spiritual,
I dance, and I feel the healthy answers come to me from, I can
say, a higher source."
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