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Goddess Dancing: Self Discovery through Tradition and
Experimentation
By
Anita-Cristina Calcaterra
The word Goddess has
been used in connection with belly dance a lot recently. Being a co-founder of
the group The Goddess Dancing, I will state with certainty that we brought this
idea to the broader Boston belly dance community. We were the first to dance,
perform, and teach in connection with Her name. Certainly, we are proud
and pleased to have inspired so many others and we are honored when we are
acknowledged as your pioneers.
Every woman takes a journey of self-discovery. When we find strength and love
within ourselves, there is a name we can put to it, if we choose - our inner
Goddess. As belly dancers, we have a unique, ancient art form through which we
express our self-discovery. When I see a confident, aware, connected woman
belly dancing, I know she is dancing her inner Goddess. She is a Goddess.
We are lucky to have many, many Goddesses dancing here in New England.
So, who or what is The Goddess Dancing? We are a group committed to helping you
find your way to your inner Goddess through belly dance. For over a decade we
have had the same commitment. We have continuously evaluated and refined our
teaching along the way. Our overall class content and pedagogy has been
carefully developed and is based on the needs of the women we meet. We like to
think of our dance curriculum as a journey.
The concept of The Sacred Shapes was developed by Barbara Brandt as the common
ground within the movements of all traditions of belly dance. Through this new
vocabulary of movement, women are encouraged to explore their own energy and
spirits using the framework of chakras. With their new inner knowledge, women
learn to express it first through already existing forms such as the five-part
routine, a folk tradition, or the five rhythms of life, developed by Gabrielle
Roth; and then through a form they have created on their own. This is their
Goddess Dance. We've been doing this a long time. Our success is measured by the
women who have positive experiences in our classes. We continue to be committed
because we truly believe that this dance form is one of the beginning places,
especially for women, for that wonderful journey of self-discovery which we all
travel at one time or another in our lives.
And what about performances? A Goddess Dance has its place in our community and
deserves our respect, too. Both traditional and new dance forms have always
co-existed. Without tradition, we would have no foundation upon which to
experiment.
Now, anyone
who has seen one of my Goddess Dances - for example, at our Anniversary Show -
knows how far from traditional I go at times. Yet, because I respect and
acknowledge the role of traditional forms of belly dance, I would never perform
my Siren dance for an Egyptian audience at a wedding. Some venues are better
suited for the experimental while others are better suited for the traditional.
The Goddess Dancing is in the vanguard of the new and experimental in the realm
of dance. We have worked hard and have branched out of tradition. It is an
exciting and sometimes uncertain place to be. And our continuing motivation and
inspiration is, of course, the women we influence - women who have begun to
explore their own Goddess Dance.
Anita-Cristina Calcaterra is one of the founding members of The Goddess Dancing.
She has grown up with this dance, learning from her mother and her
mother's friends. Anita-Cristina has a master's degree in education and is an
elementary school teacher.
Reprinted with permission:
This article originally appeared in Middle Eastern Dance in New England,
March/April 2002.
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