Tapping into belly dance

Think belly dance and an image that's likely to come to your mind is one of a svelte Helen in Sholay's hugely popular song, Mehbooba. But there is more to the dance form with Egyptian roots than its Bollywood portrayal. "It is a serious art form that takes 10 to 12 years to master. There are modern touches to it, and just like our regional dance forms in India, it has a folkloric tradition, too," says belly dancer Payal Gupta, who moved to Mumbai last year, after helming a professional troupe in Bengaluru for a decade.

Tomorrow, Gupta, together with 30 of her city-based students, will present their first annual showcase in Mumbai called A Journey From Bombay to Beirut. "Apart from dances that present the various styles of belly dance, we also have a collaboration with tap dancers, where the artistes will use zills [a manjeera-like instrument] in their finger movements, which will be in sync with the footwork of the tap dancers. The dance will be performed to the beats of a live darbouka," says Gupta, adding that props like the fan veil and veil poi, a spinning prop used to create geometrical patterns, will be incorporated in the showcase.

In the showcase

An engineer by training, Gupta took to belly dancing after learning an array of dances including kathak and salsa. "I felt I could express myself best with belly dance. I was a reserved person, but its expressive movements got me to open up," she says.

On May 5, 7. 30 pm
At Veer Savarkar Auditorium, Dadar West.
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