New students learning an old dance
Fort Collins residents shake their belly while learning about
culture, costumes and food.
Rene� Sierecki, 34, has been taking belly-dancing lessons
for the past four weeks at the Fort Collins Senior Center, 1200
Raintree Drive.
“I have been dancing since I was three,” Sierecki said. “But
this is the first time I have ever tried belly dancing.”
Sierecki hadn’t tried belly dancing because of a lack of
opportunity. A girlfriend of hers helped push Sierecki toward the
class. She said belly dancing is a different dance than she is used
to.
“I have usually done hip-hop and jazz dance classes,” Sierecki
said. “(Belly dancing) is so different. It’s kind of difficult for
me.”
The senior center has offered a belly dancing class for the past
five years, said Katie Stieber, the recreational coordinator for
the center. The center currently has 19 people enrolled in the
class and that might be a few too many, Stieber said.
“We offer the class for 14-year-olds all the way to seniors,”
Stieber said. “We mostly have people in their 20s and 30s but
younger people are always welcome.”
The class meets every Thursday for six weeks and is aimed toward
beginning belly-dancing students. The class is from 6 to 7:30
p.m.
Andrea Sellion, the center’s belly-dancing teacher and a CSU
senior psychology major, has been belly dancing for the past seven
years. Sellion received the position when her belly-dancing teacher
Andrea Ragan moved to California.
“It is such a beautiful dance,” Sellion said. “Some might think
it is more of a sensual dance but it’s really more about
rhythm.”
The class offers participants exercise in a unique way. The
belly dancing targets the abdominal and buttock muscles for an hour
and a half.
Sellion said the class is for all ages, but they advertise for
females older than age 12.
“We did have one guy once,” Sellion said. “It lasted about a
week but it didn’t really work out.”
Eva Zmatlikova has performed belly dancing for more than two
years.
“You really have to feel the music,” Zmatlikova said. “You have
to move from the center, from your belly.”
Zmatlikova said the dance is not complicated, but it is
physical.
“Women used to dance for other women,” Zmatlikova said. “It has
roots in childbirth and such.”
Currently Zmatlikova is talking with The Pulse fitness center,
2555 S. Shields St., about having a workshop to include both yoga
and belly dancing. Zmatlikova wants people to know that this dance
is for anyone.
“Belly dancing is for all ages,” Zmatlikova said. “Little girls
to older women. Men could do it too. This dance is for people of
all shapes. It doesn’t matter if you are skinny or curvy. Your body
is beautiful and you can do this beautiful dance.”
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