VIDEO: Dance and ignite your spark

Shimmying Angles, a dance studio based in Weltevreden Park, is making belly dancing accessible for everyone, even for those with two left feet.

The studio was founded by Debby Wright Louw six years ago with the aim of making all of her students feel confident and beautiful with the movement of dance. She said she has been a dancer since she was a child when she did ballet, but as she became older, she found her home with belly dancing. Debby insists that dancing can be continued well into one’s old age, and there is no such thing as ‘too old to start’.

“It doesn’t matter what you are going through, you can do it if you want to. I have had 13 back operations, I have had knee and shoulder replacements, but you can do anything you want to do. So what if you can’t do a complete back bend? You alternate.”

The Shimmying Angles is open to all ages and welcomes every size. She said her oldest student is in their 70s.

Debby is no stranger to the world of dance; she started doing ballet and expanded to other forms of movement such as modern, Latin, alternative, jazz and of course, gymnastics. The dancer and choreographer hurt her back when she was a gymnast, and belly dancing provided relief. She said she tried her first belly dancing class and it has been a grand love affair ever since.

Debby met Michelle Braam on Facebook when she invited her for a free lesson, and the two have collaborated with each other numerous times, on and off the dance floor. Michelle admitted her hesitation when Debby invited her for a class. “I was so scared when I came here, it just felt like something I could not do. Belly dancing is very different from me,” she said in reference to her background in ballet. She added that dancing is a brilliant form of exercise. The dancers often perform at old age homes and charities such as the Roodepoort Child Welfare.

“It’s addictive,” Michelle whispered. “Once you start dancing, it’s in your blood. I dance every day, six days a week. That is my life.” Many dancers would probably nod in agreement as they share the same sentiments about the joys and freedom of dancing. American dancer and choreographer, Martha Graham once said, “Dance is the hidden language of the soul”.

Debby said there is a growing number of participants in belly dancing and studios are becoming easier to find. She said belly dancing is not provocative or teasing in that sense, but an incredibly positive way of moving.

For more information, contact Debby on 072 333 3072.