Somewhere between the sway of the hips and the pulse of the music, belly dance becomes more than movement — it turns into a quiet act of self-expression and release. On World Belly Dance Day on May 9, Hyderabad’s growing community around the art form is embracing it as a source of confidence, joy, healing, and belonging.
Finding light through movement
For Damini Sahay, international belly dance artist, entrepreneur, trauma-informed psychologist, and dance movement therapist, belly dance arrived when life felt emotionally overwhelming. Pursuing her Master’s in clinical psychology in Delhi nearly 15 years ago, she slipped into a depressive phase after stepping away from dance for the first time since childhood. “I thought this was the phase where I needed to focus only on academics. But clinical psychology can become emotionally intense because you are constantly studying mental health, trauma, and disorders,” she shares. According to her, movement reconnects people to parts of themselves that may hold shame or emotional memory. She expresses, “There is healing happening at biological, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels. Through circles, hip work, and chest movements — the body slowly becomes a place you return to instead of disconnect from. True confidence comes from allowing yourself to move and express. Belly dance creates a space where, for those two hours, all struggles pause.”
From resistance to recognition
If belly dance today occupies a visible space in Hyderabad’s dance culture, instructors say the journey was anything but easy. Reeja Karrai, founder of RAQsology Hyderabad, remembers when the form first entered the city through scattered workshops around 2013 and 2014 before regular classes emerged. “Back then, there was enormous hesitation. Studio owners themselves were unsure because belly dance carried a very specific image,” she shares. According to her, many failed to recognise the cultural and historical roots of the form. “Belly dance comes from folk traditions of Egypt and the Middle East. It may not be codified like ballet or Bharatanatyam, but it absolutely has vocabulary, rhythm structures, technique, and years of training behind it,” she adds.
No judgment, just movement
Sravan Tela, one of Hyderabad’s few male belly dance performers, began teaching himself through online videos before formally training in Hyderabad. “I remember asking myself — why should only women have all the fun?” he says with a laugh, adding, “Belly dancing made me fearless. It taught me self-acceptance and helped me become more open with people. One thing unique about Hyderabad is that different dance communities support each other. Classical dancers, Western dancers, social dancers — everyone coexists and collaborates.”