If your New Year resolutions have quickly lost their shine and you are already making excuses not to go to the gym, the perfect solution is to try belly dancing,” says Payal Gupta, a 26-year-old engineer-turned-belly dancer. Gupta is just back from a successful dance tour having represented India for the third consecutive time at the 22nd International Belly Dance Festival of Europe held in Germany—a hugely interactive platform for belly dancers from around the world to learn, teach and perform their art. Also after participating in the 8th Belly Dancer of the World contest that was held at the festival, Gupta bagged several prizes in the Bollywood dancing and oriental belly dance categories.
She and her troupe conduct classes across different venues in Bengaluru introducing women of all ages to the nuances of this seductive yet demanding art form, which she says is also a new and interesting form of fitness. So even if you are an exercise enthusiast and can endure hard-core kickboxing, spinning and boxercise classes, you might be surprised by how many muscle groups you can work on with seemingly little effort and huge rewards, she promises. “We belly dancers aren’t just wiggling and jiggling our hips; we’re getting an ab workout that sculpts almost every single muscle in our core—even the hard-to-target abdominal muscles,” she says. Gupta’s tryst with belly dancing began much after she tried different dance forms at an age of 10. Encouraged by her mother who enrolled her in all kinds of classes from western style ballet to contemporary jazz, she learned the basics of belly dance from a Bengaluru-based dance teacher, Arti Punwani.
“Arti taught me the basics but I fell in love with it and wanted to explore it fully. So I looked for expert guidance internationally,” she says. Gupta has since mastered the various sub-categories of belly dancing like Bellynesian (Tahitian) and Samba-inspired to routines that work with drum solos, veils and finger cymbals or classical Egyptian formats. She skillfully incorporates these techniques into other dance forms. She has been trained in kathak, Bollywood freestyle, jive and modern contemporary. The result is a lively mix of an ancient dance style that is yet fresh, energising and relatable.
Taking her passion out into the city streets, Gupta has even conducted a mega belly dance flash mob on world belly dance day (celebrated on the second Saturday of May every year) involving 85 belly dance students, including her troupe.
But aside from the visible benefits of learning belly dancing that she rattles off expertly—a really good exercise, better than a gym session yet-so-feminine, the chance to wear sparkly costumes in vivid colours, and a low impact workout that can work for everyone from pregnant, menstrual or menopausal women to teenagers—there are plenty of other positives. “Those going through menopause have seen a marked improvement in symptoms, from a reduction in hot flashes to resurgence of self-confidence since organs affected by hormonal changes are strengthened by increased blood circulation. The same applies to the menstrual cycle and pregnancy. A friend of mine who is in her third trimester is still teaching belly dancing and she reports feeling very fit and flexible although this is her first baby,” says Gupta.
Gupta’s core troupe also includes Deepanshri Naidu and Arpita Bhat, both coincidentally engineers by profession. They also teach and perform at various corporate or celebratory events and travel overseas to participate in dance festivals. “Belly dancing helps people de-stress from their day jobs, performing gives you an amazing adrenaline rush and you get a more defined waist as it really tones your obliques,” admits Bhat. Giving us a quick demo to the beat of a catchy drum solo, Naidu adds: “You can also fine-tune your party moves. After all, everybody loves a well-executed shimmy on the dance floor.”