My foundation is Egyptian form and is the one I hold dear to my heart and is the area I am happy to instruct others in.  My own education in dance is varied Turkish, Greek, Brazilian and Lebanese would be a few of the areas I've been lucky enough to embrace and learn., I do know that it is an on going education as well from taking workshops and private lessons and growing with the different areas that show the diversity of the dance itself.  Never think that you are not able to learn from any example but embrace the experience and grow from it.  Within This journey I've found that not only can you be open to explore new area's but you always find something new exciting and solid to grow from and take with you.  My experience is varied and the one thing that I do feel is I Love giving back to others No one should ever be made to feel that size age or gender should stop one from exploring any areas that they wish to explore and learn about.

Middle Eastern Dance has many origins.  It is possible that this dance can be traced back to Mesopotamia where temple engravings depicting dancers have been found., For the most part the dance was traditionally done by women for women; the separation of sexes and the veiling of women predates Islam and can be traced back to Byzantine.  During the Ottoman reign over Egypt there was a surge in tourism and many soldiers.  The Ghawazee dancers of course saw this as a moneymaking opportunity and would follow camps of soldiers to dance for.  This embarrassed and angered the ruler of the time who exiled the Ghawazee to Esna, which is in southern Egypt, to solve his problem.  During this time, many artists whom we refer to as Orientalist painters visited Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia (among other various Middle Eastern countries).  They painted many beautiful pieces depicting dancers and harems.  Since these artists were not usually allowed into the harem, their paintings are fantastical and hardly depict real life situations.  How many women do you know that lounge around all day with no clothes smoking Shisha? 

 Here are some of the health benefits of Middle-Eastern Dance:

Exercising the carrying muscles without impact. A belly-dancer uses her quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes to hold her steady as she performs hip movements or travels smoothly across the floor. However, even though she gets a great lower-body workout, the amount of impact to her knees and ankles is minimal. Impact is measured not only by how hard our feet strike the ground, but by how much stress is placed on our joints. Using this measure, most of Middle-Eastern dance is considered non-impact; some tribal and folk dances are low-impact.

Building the back muscles evenly. Belly-dancers use their torsos a lot coupled with shoulder movements, exercise the back muscles, and they exercise the muscles evenly. Strong back muscles prevent back injuries, and they promote good posture as well.

Exercising the arms. New belly-dance students are always surprised by how much they have to use their arm muscles. Belly-dancers have to hold their arms up for long periods of time, and it actually takes quite a lot of strength to perform arm movements slowly and gracefully.

Aiding digestion. It's true! Exercising the abdominal area, not just by rolling the belly, but also by swaying the torso, helps food move along the digestive system. Any form of exercise will have this effect to some degree, but belly-dance is especially good for this purpose.

**Please note that this is a wonderful belly dance experience, but there is no such thing as an 8-week wonder, and if you are seriously interested in learning how to belly dance you must supplement this with traditional belly dance classes. I will personally throttle anyone who puts on a belly dance costume after taking only bellyrobics, and goes out to peddle herself as a professional belly dancer! (Sorry about that, but it's true!) Statement from Amira Gamal,  Which I agree with.,  and have permission to use here.