Shake it right

Leena Viie

The term belly dance is a misnomer. City-based belly dancer Leena Viie reiterates this fact when she says, "We use our entire body to communicate." The dance form's name also emerged from the Western view of traditional West Asian dance forms such as raqs sharqi; it was derived from the French expression "danse du ventre" which was used in the Victorian era. With its origins dating back to the time of Alexander the Great, belly dancing is often referred to as the oldest dance in the world. Tomorrow on World Belly Dance Day, Viie is launching an online belly dancing festival to spread awareness about the form and also raise funds for migrant workers impacted by the pandemic via the NGO Goonj.

The festival will feature workshops and masterclasses by over 30 international dancers who've made a mark in the circuit including Colleena Shakti from the US, Silvia Brazzoli from Italy, Zara Abdelrehman from Egypt and Julia Farid from Ukraine. While the live talks will begin this week, the workshops will be conducted between June 1 and 21 for which registrations are open.

Viee had organised a belly dancing festival called Bwitches in Goa in 2015

Viie started off in the corporate world with a job in branding and marketing. In 2007, she gravitated full-time towards belly dancing, having fallen in love with the form at a live performance in Egypt. Part of the online initiative was conceptualised in January before news of the lockdown hit. "I started thinking about an online competition as a tester but after restrictions were imposed, began thinking about how technology can offer solutions [for a larger event]," Viie says.

Unlike ballroom dancing that requires a social setting and dependence on a partner, belly dancing offers complete freedom. Viie views it as a means of empowerment, too. "It made me more agile, flexible and strong. I also felt younger which wouldn't be the case if I was still working at an MNC. I would have a lot of health issues as well," she shares. The challenge for the online festival was coordinating the logistics with dancers across continents and getting a schedule in order via WhatsApp groups. The primary target audience is belly dancers and students, who can feed off the workshops on lovely arms technique and dynamic veil work. But there's a lot in store for artistes and people with no background, too. "We have a talk on music rights which will benefit musicians. And there's another one where we talk about the importance of technology for dancers," Viie informs.

At the very core of the event though is the dancer's central belief of merging art with activism. Viie's journey in belly dancing has helped her find her own voice and recognise that every dancer has a different story to tell. But the dance form is riddled with misconceptions and she hopes to shatter them. "Here, you'll see strong and beautiful women. People think that dancers who take up the form have nothing better to do and just shake a''. They think it's about showing skin and gaining easy money. This festival is a way of legitimising the dance form and a way of also saying that we are a conscientious set of artistes who don't live in a bubble."

Log on to https://www.leenaviie.com (to register)

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