I have been a member since 2005, but never really took part in it until now. This place seems (for the most part) very supportive and hope to meet new friends.
My dance name is Jasani which I got from Tibetan language (could be West Indian) which stands for "youthfull" or if you're Latin it could sound like Hasani - but it's not. There are other factors involved in chosing my dance name, not because it's origin or what it means.
I moved to the Seattle area in 1999. I started learning about belly dancing when I saw a beer comercial of a belly dancer wowing some guys with a twist of her veil. At the time I thought she was just bending over to show her clevage but she was doing a large hip circle. I then went on the web to search for belly dancing in the area and that is when I bought my first Delilah VHS workshop tapes. I got a weight belt, zills, and the tapes. I was hooked ever since.
Hello out there....
Oh, you're still reading, great!
Now I am amazed how far I have come. I use to wonder how I could ever transition from one foot to another and then it was transitioning from one combination to another. Now I look back and think why was it so hard to learn to shimmy? It took me a year to learn how to do an Egyptian shimmy or bent leg shimmy. Some of the moves I had to learn on my own because I didn't have a car to get to class. Now, thanks to youtube, I can watch dancing on the web and learn new moves by watching, it's great!