This article was originally published in Boro Magazine in May 2020.
I didn’t know what to expect — or what to wear — walking into my first belly dancing class at Sol Dance Center. In my mind, belly dancing involved sparkly midriff-baring halters, jingling, beaded sashes and shiny, dangling earrings. I hoped my leggings, tank top and high pony would cut it.
It turned out that the outfits didn’t really matter that night — although some women in the class wore the right accessories. The real focus of the class was to learn how to make the small, concentrated movements with our body to build a foundation to perform a dance.
The instructor, Debbie Cartsos, and one of her students wore corset-back tops and fringed hip scarves from D.Webb, her own dance and streetwear collection. The class included a mix of people — from their dress to age, background and experience, who were all open and welcoming to newcomers.
Studio owner Karla Choka said students from teens to adults have always been interested in the class, as it involves more “openness” and can be empowering.
“It builds confidence,” she said. “It’s good for your brain and body.”
Although many people know the dance studio for its Latin classes, like salsa and bachata, belly dancing fits into the diverse borough, as the style has been formed by the many parts of the world it has touched, and still has room for dancers’ touch and flair.
Both Cartsos and Choko said the belly dance community is an inclusive one, for all ages, body types and genders. Choko was born in Mexico, taking all sorts of dance. She started offering belly dancing from studio's start 10 years ago. Cartsos, who is Greek, took lead of the program five years ago. She said she got hooked on belly dancing watching performers at Greek night clubs growing up.
She said the dance style originated in Africa and the Middle East, eventually making its way west. The Greek style of belly dance, which is called “Tsifteteli", was mainly brought to Greece by the Asia Minor Greeks during the population exchange with Turkey in the early 1900s, she said. Tsifteteli emphasizes movement of the hips and hands, but has less rules, allowing dancers to move freely to the music.
Cartsos trained in American Tribal Style, a modern take on belly dancing, and performed with their Manhattan Tribal group for 10 years. She also has a background in the Salimpour style of dance, which codified belly dancing in the 70s, based on the Salimpour family’s Egyptian roots.
“People are usually fascinated by the fact that there are so many different styles of belly dance; for instance some of the more traditional styles include Egyptian Raqs Sharqi and Shaabi, Turkish Romani, while the newer styles include Tribal, Fusion or American Tribal Style,” she said. “The one common theme among all the styles is the sense of feeling connected to the earth and allowing the hips to move freely.”
Cartsos says she teaches fusion-style classes. As class started, she played an Israeli remix of a Radiohead song and our warmups included stretching our legs and hips, with some squats, which eased me in. “I can squat, I know the band," I thought, feeling like this was something I might be able to do, ready to roll my belly and whirl around the room.
Yet, we had to work our way up to that point. Belly dancing is more difficult than it seems and takes careful technique. We sat cross-legged, practicing moving one glute at a time, which is used in dance sequences.
“Belly dancing involves isolation of different situations,” Choka explained.
We also didn’t go straight into actual belly dancing. We learned that the movement of rolling your belly is called an undulation, and dancers do them a few ways: down to up, up to down or side to side. This involves contracting and releasing your abs in a concentrated, intentional way. We practiced these first sitting down, then standing up, moving back and forth across the room.
In belly dancing, every small movement, be it a small flick of the wrist or turn of one side of the hip, makes a big impact. Accessories emphasize each movement. The subtleness of the dance allows room for fun, creativity and making it your own within the core movements. While I often go to exercise classes that encourage everything to be tight and exact, it was refreshing when Debby encouraged us to be “ooey gooey” with our belly movements.
There is also attention to the way the hands move, the right way to shimmy and arm posture. We were supposed to keep our arms out to our sides like “eyes,” Cartsos said as she demonstrated with a stage-ready smile — not too stiff but not too bent. The class and style is about performance, and Cartsos reminds us of the audience as she moves around the room.
By the end, after practicing each small movement, and putting our undulations in action, Cartsos demonstrated a dazzling sequence that involved undulations, shimmying, graceful arm sequences and turns set to a sensual beat that finished with an unexpected flick of the head and a flirtatious glance back at the audience. We practiced a few moves at a time, then put them together to a dynamic dance. I recorded it so students could review it later, and found myself taking some of the moves home with me.
While for me, this was for fun, Cartsos also works with a group of students who have formed a belly dancing team. They will perform in the school’s year-end show Dancesanity Stars Creative on June 22 at the Frank Sinatra House. This year’s theme is chakras.
“We will be dancing to a folkloric fusion choreography with fingers cymbals and a fusion number with props,” Cartsos said. And in the spirit of this style of dance she added, “It’s a surprise.”
Sol Dance Center offers belly dancing class Monday nights at 7 p.m. The studio also offers a variety of classes from hip hop to salsa to ballet. The first class at the studio is free. For more information, visit soldancecenter.com.