Middle-Eastern Belly Dancing

Belly dance your cares away!

Donna Whitley has been teaching Middle-Eastern belly dancing for 32 years to students ages 8 - 80. Donna's students drive to Greenville from as far away as Raleigh and Wilmington just to take her classes.

Some of Donna Whitley's past students praise what they learned from her. Ann Schreier enjoys "the whole atmosphere of the class, being with other women in an open and supportive environment." Annette Brooks, a teacher who has performed the dance in a cultural education program for students, says "one of the reasons I wanted to do this kind of dance among women was that I could just dance for the love of dance without sexual or provocative overtones." Olivia Kay Clyde remembers "the first time I was introduced to it and took a class was in California. There were several aspects that appealed to me and touched my heart. The moves themselves were so much fun to do and it was clear it was bringing more satisfaction to me than anyone else! The moves just felt good. I learned these are the same moves women have done for thousands of years way across the world, and I felt connected to women across the cultures and the world."

If you are interested in taking belly dancing classes, please E-mail Donna Whitley. At the present time she is traveling, studying dance, and visiting relatives in Morocco. Her belly dancing classes will resume in 2005.

"The roots of this dance are in the home" explains Donna, "and in the celebrations of the family like marriages, birthdays, and christenings...and they all have their own tribal style." The Arab culture is historically a very sexually segregated one, and Donna interestingly points out that women perform the dance to entertain other women at social occasions and men perform for other men. But the men's style is entirely different..."more athletic with sharp, staccato movements," says Donna. "They are more daring. They dance with trays on their head with glasses of hot tea." All women learn the dance in the homes and it is a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation. Even little boys learn the basics from the women and when they reach a certain age they begin socializing among the men and learn their style.
Donna was first introduced to the art when she moved to California to teach school after studying History and Political Science at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. "I got into it purely to get the exercise and to take care of my body...for fun and fitness," she remembers. Soon Donna got very absorbed in it and was told that she had a real talent, so she moved to Morocco and lived there for a while, dancing in night clubs in Casablanca. She lived and worked in the village where she studied the roots and variations of the dance.