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Tummy trouble
Women stay fit and embrace their curves with belly dancing
by MARITES CARINO
 It’s a chilly
night and I’m wandering unfamiliar territory in St-Michel, which
seems like a strange neighbourhood for a dance studio. When I find the
address I’m looking for and descend the right staircase, I’m
greeted by Middle-Eastern music and about 20 women waiting anxiously
for dance class to begin. Some have scarves decorated with metallic,
jingly ornaments wrapped around their waists and others brazenly expose
their abdomens —I choose to hide mine under a baggy T-shirt for
my first belly dancing class.
Originally from Tunisia, our teacher Aziza Costantini-Roy moved to Montreal
in 1976 and has been teaching dance for over 20 years. Her studio specializes
in oriental and Tunisian folkloric dance. Belly dancing, or Baladi,
which she says means “dance of my country,” is her passion.
One of its major benefits, Costantini-Roy explains, is that it “joins
exercise with the pleasure of dance.”
After a warm-up, we learn how to shake our upper bodies while jiggling
our hips, which is not an easy feat. She says it’s easier if you
pretend that you’re made out of Jell-O. She’s right. The frenzied,
ornamental clink-clink of the women’s hip movements fills the room
as the rhythm accelerates.
After class, a woman named Mélanie Bouchard tells me, “When
I first started, it was for the exercise. But now, I like it for more
than that.” Seven years later, Bouchard is teaching beginners’
classes.
 “It’s
a way to learn to appreciate a woman’s body and not the ones you
see in magazines,” says student Pascale Legros, who just celebrated
her one-year belly dancing anniversary. Costantini-Roy says it’s
common now to see Baladi being offered alongside aerobics classes. “When
I started teaching,” she explains, “it was not taken seriously.
Now the dance has become very popular.”
At the Parc YMCA, dancer Thérèse Lamarche has been teaching
belly dancing for two and a half years. Lamarche, a Québécoise
who is often mistaken for Egyptian, discovered the dance after seeing
a woman perform the dance in a hotel. After an hour of the intermediate-advanced
class with Lamarche, I feel like my abdomen has been through a horizontal
spin cycle. One thing I’ve noticed in both classes, teachers and
students were smiling and having a grand ole time, which is a definite
ambiance contrast with run-of-the-mill workout classes.
So, if you’ve got a belly, can you belly-dance it away? “It
tightens up your body, but I’m not going to lie to you…”
Costantini-Roy trails off as she gives her midriff a mock-horrified
glance and her students chuckle. And anyway, she says this dance is
made for women with curves. Hell, if you’ve got it, flaunt it.
Curious, but have commitment issues? Aziza offers a free trial class
to get you in the groove (Studio Aziza 3706 Jean-Talon E. 593-4477).
Or, drop in to the YMCA du Parc (5550 Parc, 271 9622). •
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