A full-time paramedic in Danvers for 20 years and a Justice of the Peace on the weekends, Watson is also the coordinator of the North Shore chapter of the North East Belly Dance Association. Her chapter will present a belly dance performance entitled, “It’s a Great Belly,” at the Northshore Unitarian Universalist Church in Danvers, 323 Locust St., on Sunday, Oct. 26.
Watson, 52, grew up in the area studying ballet, tap, and jazz, but it wasn’t until the late 1980s when the art of belly dance captivated her.
“I was at a party, and I asked the hired dancer, ‘what are you doing?’”
Soon after, Watson enrolled in classes and has become a “professional student” of belly dance, she insists. For the past five years, she has worked as a belly dance instructor at local studios, as well as North Shore Community College.
“I teach in a non-judgmental environment. Egos have to be checked at the door,” Watson said. Her students have ranged in age from 13 to 72, and she’s even taught one male over the years.
“By the time the elderly women leave, they say, ‘I never knew my body could do that.’ It’s for every age, shape, and size of women and men,” Watson added.
“I was a stay-at-home mom of two after being a professional. I wanted to do something just for me,” she said.
A former environmental scientist, Bernard enrolled in one of Memie Watson’s belly dance classes two and half years ago. There Bernard, or “Ghaleena” (her dancer name), met nine other women with whom she formed the troupe Sisters in Dance, a fusion style group whose members’ ages range from 26 to 53. The group performs “family-style” belly dancing for birthday parties and Girl Scout events.
This past Sunday the Sisters in Dance joined other local belly dance troupes at Jahayra Flores’ Belly Moves studio on Main Street in Peabody to demonstrate the dance for the Danvers Herald before the upcoming event.
Standing in a black robe behind the counter in her studio, Flores explained: “Belly dancing is so captivating and mesmerizing. It makes you feel so beautiful.”
As a self-taught dancer and instructor and a former Certified Nurse Assistant, Flores opened her studio in April 2008 after working out of the basement of her Peabody home for four years.
“When I first started, the idea was to get my younger cousin away from the streets and bad influences,” Flores explained. “And I’ve found that it works.”
“It kind of motivates me, gives me confidence,” said Diana Escoboza, 24, a student of Flores’. Escoboza, who lives in Lynn, performed with her troupe, the Desert Stars, on Sunday, dancing to a Shakira song in an American Cabaret style. The four young women in the troupe wore glittery costumes of blue and white sequins and clutched long colorful scarves.
But, while these dancers all share a passion for belly dancing, they also recognize the taboos surrounding belly dance — taboos they hope to belie.
Flores explained that people often mistakenly associate the dance with more vulgar forms of dancing.
“It kills what I’m doing when people don’t give it a chance,” Flores said.
“In beginners’ classes, we talk about how belly dancing is so stereotyped. It’s not a sexual dance; it’s sensual,” she explained.
Flores did admit, however, that on more than one occasion, she caught an old man peeking through the windows of her studio while she and her students rehearsed.
While Memie Watson and Jahayra Flores are more public figures in the local belly dance scene, other dancers still sneak off to rehearsals or retain certain anonymity.
“I’m a professional. I don’t want my professional world knowing about it because I know [belly dancing] is taboo,” said another member of Sisters in Dance, who revealed only her dancer name during the interview.
The Sisters in Dance gathered together in their ornate hand-made costumes on Sunday and talked about their troupe’s strong sisterhood and the history of belly dancing, which can be traced back 5,000 years to ancient Oriental, Indian, and Middle Eastern cultures. Belly dance was originally performed by women for women, as part of an ancient fertility ritual, they explained.
Even more, belly dancing is linked historically to the birthing process, and the dance has helped many of the “Sisters” become mothers. For belly dancers who learned to isolate muscles in the stomach region, “it was easier to undulate and to give birth,” Watson explained.
Today, there are various styles of belly dance, including American Cabaret, Egyptian, Tribal, Gothic, and fusion.
Phoenix Avathar, a dancer for nearly ten years and an instructor originally from Everett, also performed this past Sunday. Avathar explained that while some dances are choreographed, in tribal style there are leaders and followers who rotate roles during the performance. The followers look for cues from the leaders which signal a change in movement.
“It looks like a choreographed dance, but we’re actually improvising,” she said.
Since Avathar just began a new teaching job as a local high school science teacher, she’s waiting to unveil her hobby to her students. In the past, however, she taught at a boarding school in Vermont where she openly shared her passion for belly dancing.
“My first month of teaching is when 9/11 happened,” Avathar said. She explained that some of the Egyptian students were being harassed.
“So I started this belly dancing group,” she said. “Everyone’s so focused on the terrorism [in Middle Eastern society]. Belly dancing shows there’s beauty.”
Avathar will be teaching a workshop at Sunday’s at the Northshore Unitarian Church event as well as performing.
“The money [from this event] goes back into the Association to put on more belly dance shows,” Watson explained.
Every chapter of the North East Belly Dance Association also commits to hosting at least one fundraising event a year for a good cause. This upcoming year, Watson’s chapter will raise funds for the Northeast Animal Shelter, and some of the proceeds from the Church’s event will go towards this. She invites the public to support this effort and to enjoy the beauty of this dance first hand.
“By the time the show is over, I hope [the community] has more of an understanding of what belly dancing is all about,” said Watson.
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