My Inspiration

When I was a little girl in the 1970s, my mom worked from home as a seamstress. Ladies would come to our house with bags of fabric, notions and a pattern, and a week or so later, they'd come back and pick up a custom-made outfit. My Barbie dolls were the lucky recipients of many new garments made from scraps of leftover fabric. They were very well-dressed Barbies; quite the envy of the neighbor girl who would often "forget" that she had one of my Barbie’s dresses in her carrying case. It was a game we played. She’d forget she had a dress and I’d steal it back the next time we played. I loved it when Mom would make dresses for a bride or a special occasion because it meant Barbie was getting a wedding gown or sparkly prom dress. Better than the wedding gown or prom dress was the belly dance costume my mother made for one of her clients.

To a nine year old girl, the lure of the fabric and glitter was irresistible. I was not allowed to touch any of the work in progress, but just that one time, I did. The yellow and turquoise chiffon whispered, the gold sequins sparkled and the coins made such a nice tinkling noise. I imagined myself spinning in layers of chiffon, the skirts swirling around me as sequins caught the light. I wanted to wear the costume, but more than that, I really wanted to dance. A few years later, in an episode of Charlie's Angels, I watched Jaclyn Smith go undercover as a belly dancer. Again, I got lost in the music and mystery and decided that someday I'd belly dance.

The 1970s were a time of growth in belly dance. Women were becoming more independent and looking for new ways to demonstrate that independence. In the United States, until the 70s when the dance form became more mainstream, belly dance was seen as another kind of striptease or burlesque dance. Serious dancers just didn’t perform belly dance. As women felt more empowered and looked for ways to express that power and feminine energy, belly dance exploded in popularity not only as entertainment, but as a form of exercise and self expression.

One of the driving forces behind that growth in the Midwestern U.S. was my dance mentor, Habeeba. Habeeba is Lebanese-Italian and grew up dancing at family events. She is classically trained in ballet and contemporary dance, but her passion was the dance of her ancestors: belly dance. After spending almost 20 years touring the world performing 4 shows a night, 6 nights per week, Habeeba settled in Columbus, Ohio and opened Habeeba's Dance of the Arts, a dance studio exclusively for the instruction of belly dance. It was the first studio of its kind in the U.S. and it became my dance home. 

Habeeba, circa 1975