Special Event Recap: The Essence of Belly Dance Workshop with Sara Amira
FEW’s March Special Event, “The Essence of Belly Dance Workshop,” was hosted by belly dancer Sara Amira at the Belly Dance Arts studio close to Omotesando, whose team generously allowed us to use their beautiful space for this workshop
Sara started by telling the participants about her personal journey and how she first got into belly dancing in her home country Italy more than 10 years ago. She took the chance to practice and perform oriental dance arts in the UAE, where she also learned more of the origins and development of belly dance, as well as about Middle Eastern cultures. She then became and belly dance instructor and decided to move to Japan about 2 years ago, where she founded her own oriental dance project “As Far.”
She highlighted that the ultimate purpose of belly dance is to act in harmony with your body and soul, and in a way to become sacred, which helps women to gain greater awareness of their bodies. For Sara, dance is all about giving and receiving love, attaining freedom from pain and oppression, and spending quality time with like-minded people, e.g., your ‘women tribe.’ Therefore, finding and being with your women tribe is something Sara recommended to all participants, especially as women tend to think they have to do things alone by themselves. However being with your women tribe does not only make you stronger, but is also more fun.
Inspired by Sara’s words, everyone was eager to start practicing belly dance, which led to discovering unknown muscles and body movements, reawakening their senses for their own bodies and of course enjoying time with their women tribe during the workshop, which was a mixed group of girls and women of different ages. At the end of the 2-hour workshop, everyone felt more energized and exchanged experiences and their feelings while enjoying Middle Eastern sweet and tea.
Thank you to Sara Amira for hosting such inspiring and memorable workshop, as well as to Ruhani Belly Dance Arts for providing their studio to us.
