Divine Feminine

This is a term that's bandied about in the belly dance world. It sort of hit mainstream terminology after Dan Brown's book "The Davinci Code", but it's been around since the women's movement began. How does this term apply to belly dance - or does it?

In a patriarchal society (cause that's what we are here in the US) many women began wanting to find a personal connection to the divine (call that what you will - this is not a religious blog) and found that most - in fact the vast majority - of our divine images in this country were male. Now with the rising women's movement - they decided to start looking for female images of the divine. They found them and some have made their way into mainstream society. So, how does that apply to belly dance?

For some dancers, it doesn't. Not at all not one whit. Period. Discussion over. So, we'll move on to the dancers that it does apply to.

Art is creative and certainly the art of the Renaissance had many divine images in it as does the art of many other cultures, but since I'm writing to a mostly Western audience, I'm going to stick with Western images - no disrespect meant to other cultures. In Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way", she postulates that all art is divinely inspired - the creator created beings that then create themselves. This does not mean that all art is religious (another topic - see above statement on religion). It means that she believes that art is transcendent of our world and I agree with that. All art isn't good - all art doesn't speak to me - but all art is transcendent of this world. It all reaches out to emotions, images and concepts that are beyond our day to day life - even if the theme of the art is our day to day life.

Now, if we apply that concept - that all art is divine - then is it any wonder that belly dance seems to inspire the concept of divine feminine? The art form is mostly performed by women (the reason for this is for another time and no disrespect is meant to the many talented men who perform this art). Belly dance has an interesting affect on the women who study it - increasing self-esteem and opening up their world in a way that other dance doesn't seem to do. Tribal Belly Dance is particularly accepting of women "as they are". Talent is just as important - if not more so than looks. This attitude can be found in the cabaret world as well - but not so much in the Restaurant scene which is where most cabaret dance is performed publicly (though, I think that may be changing slowly).

So women, who bring their own personal spirituality to this art, come to class and discover that they too can create art. The ability to create art doesn't mean that your art is publicly profitable, creating art is creating art for the sake of creating art. So they come to class and go "wow" - I can create art! I can make something beautiful and moving beyond what I do to make a living and beyond what I do to care for my family. And this "divine" experience often makes them look around and see the divine feminine in the other women in class who are also creating art and living beyond their work and family.

So many of my students refer to class as "my time". It's their space to explore the art in their soul and to do it in the presence of other women. Now, don't get me wrong Men Rock! They have some very wonderful qualities - not the least of which is to look at us when we're sweaty and have baby puke all over us and see the glorious goddess within and desire that! Believe me on a bad day - loving eyes are pretty awesome. But time spent with other women who are experiencing life in a similar way is priceless. It allows us to develop female images of strength and beauty that haven't been airbrushed and don't exist just to look "sexy".

So is it any wonder that the phrase "divine feminine" gets bandied about more in belly dance than it does in say Ballet or Hip Hop? And the women who are drawn to belly dance are often looking for that connection - whether they know it or not. And the ones who aren't usually progress on to their own needs - whatever those might be. Belly Dance is beautiful and feminine and Ballet is beautiful and feminine in a totally different way - both valid and both serving different needs for the women who dance then and the audience who watches the art. Both technically difficult in different ways and both entrancing to watch.

This past week I had the great pleasure of watching a video of a performance that demonstrates this term the way I see it. The artist is one of my favorites and the performance brought me to tears and I hope that all of you can see the divine feminine in this video:


Donna Mejia's "The Private Rapture of Mary Magdalene"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAUyx2wm5Wk

Be sure to read the notes on this found in the upper right corner under the poster's information.


Enjoy and Be Inspired to Create!
Halleyah