Occupation: Business administration, transitioning into life coaching career
Country: Greece / Germany
Started Learning Belly Dance: 8 years ago
Joined the Iana Dance Club: December 2019
Belly Dance Transformations
Before:
Resisted to attend a class because of the fear of embarrassment in a group of unknown people.
Didn’t know how to practice on her own. Had unrealistic expectations regarding how her dance should look like.
‘When we were learning new movement and I couldn’t do it right away, it was blocking me. I was not able to move at all.’
Now: 'With time I realized that it’s ok if I don’t get something right away. I must do those mistakes, and that’s how I will learn.’
Before: Used video recording of her practice to beat and put herself down.
Now:
Discovered a selfie mode on her camera that helped her to smile more during dancing.
'After the 'Mejance’ intensive at the Iana Dance Club it was for the first time when I enjoyed watching videos of my practice, and comparing them for the improvements. Seeing the progress in my dance was the moment of feeling almost unstoppable.'
"Belly dance makes me feel free and connected to the feminine flow. It became a big and integral part of my routine. I see it as a self-love ritual."_Dimitra
Dancing has been a part of my life since childhood. When I was 9 years-old I started a dance group together with my friends. After school we would get together and create choreos to our favorite pop songs. We also had small performances at school which we really enjoyed. When I was 12 I saw a belly dancer performing at a restaurant and was totally fascinated. I told my best friend then that I will be a belly dancer when I grow up. But I didn’t start taking classes at that point.
I actually started dancing in about four years from that moment. Belly dance was still in my mind but my friends were not really into it. Going to a class all by myself scared me back then. I took some ballroom dancing classes at school instead. In 2014 I was attending a zumba course. One day the teacher got sick and a substitute teacher came. He mentioned that he was also teaching belly dance. I saw that as a sign. Half a year later I finally had my very first belly dance lesson. Since then belly dance has become an integral part of my life.
The more I work on my dance skills, the deeper I get to know myself. Belly dance has truly helped me to strenghten my self-love and to get over perfectionism. I haven’t become a professional dancer as I said when I was a teenager, but I am dancing almost every day, and would love to perform at small parties from time to time in the future.
Reasons she chose to join the Iana Dance Club:
- enjoyed the intensive structure and guidance,
- found connection with other members through the ‘current’ intensives.