The origins of Middle Eastern dance movements, such as undulating the belly, are said to have been based on the movements of labor and childbirth, a part of ritual ceremony thousands of years ago. Traditionally, however, belly dance was performed in the home, by women for women, when the men weren’t around. That's when the women could finally let their hair down and have fun. This was also how grandmothers passed their dance secrets on to their granddaughters. In Mid-Eastern culture today, the dance still manifests itself both outside of and inside of the home, where it is a way for older generations to teach younger ones about being a woman.

Belly dance fosters and develops physical awareness, emotional strength, and the age-old wisdom of how to be a powerful woman who is rooted in herself and in the world. Belly dance has a lot to teach, beginning with how to embrace our sensuality (no small thing for the majority of women) and finally bringing us to the awareness that liberation comes only after focused discipline, and that abandon and joy are born from centered composure.

Some women focus on tracing the belly dance back through history to ancient times of goddess temples and to matriarchal cultures, even to the caves of the most basic birthing rituals. The cave is analogous to the belly, or the womb. Women often explore and use characters from ancient cultural mythology and religion as potent theme material for constructing dances. 

In our hectic modern lives, the study of bellydance serves as a wonderful form of fitness and a fun way to connect with ourselves and other women.