CityView Magazine

arts take a chance AND Belly Dance F Celebrate your femininity and relieve stress thanks to the Middle Eastern Dance Art By miriam landru Photography by Kia McMillan or Hayat Dumas, her love of the Middle Eastern art form of belly dancing started as a young girl. "We would dance in celebrations. We would get our drums and instruments out, start singing and the next thing you know you would put a hip wrap on and start dancing," she fondly recalled. Traditional Arabic music has long been a part of Dumas's heritage and she remembered long car rides from Europe to the Middle East. "We would drive from Germany to Syria…it took a week, so there was a lot of music to listen to!" A native of Germany with Syrian heritage on her father's side, Dumas joined the United States Army in 1996 and was stationed in Korea, Fort Carson, Colorado and Germany among other military installations before coming to Fort Bragg in 2008. She medically retired this year as a CW2-promotable, HUMINT. Before retirement and while deployed overseas, Dumas began teaching belly dancing to other female soldiers. "It really connected us culturally and boosted moral." Dumas maintained that during her separate deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, belly dancing served as a great stress reliever during a tumultuous time. Dumas opened Hayat Yoga and World Dance Arts, formerly La Mosiac Studio, over a year ago in September of 2012. She has been able to devote more time to the art since her retirement last spring. While the studio is flourishing and interest is high, she still notices doubt in the community when it comes to the folkloric dance. "Fayetteville is becoming more culturally diverse, but you can still see hesitation when it comes to belly dancing." While attitudes are still evolving, Dumas maintains the art form is a great core workout. "There's a whole technique of course… there's so much work when it comes to the technical part of belly dancing and you'll move abdominal muscles you didn't even know existed!" In addition to belly dancing, African dance, Bollywoodstyle, hip-hop dance and yoga are all taught in-house with visiting master teachers who specialize in dances such as flamenco. Currently, Dumas teaches all ages from threeyears-old to retirees in their 60s. Hayat also seeks to compete in the professional world of belly dancing and her studio is home to the dance troupe "Lu'Lu Fay" (lu'lu is pearl in Arabic). "One member of my troupe is from Puerto Rico and barely speaks English so we solely communicate through dance," Dumas explained. Dumas is very confident that Fayetteville will grow into an "artistic melting pot." She is encouraging this notion by spreading her love of traditional belly dancing through Friday and Saturday night performances at Sherefé Restaurant downtown. From the stories she tells from experiences, there's already quite the interest and following. "Recently while I was performing at Sherefe, a lady in her 60s snatched my veil and started whipping it around and dancing." Dumas continued, "She had been a belly dancer in her 20s and it was the first time in 40 years that she got back up to dance!" Dumas seeks to open the art to a more diverse audience and is always ONLINE EXTRAS! seeking talent to join Visit us online to read more at www.cityviewnc.com her troupe. CV CityViewNC.com | 33

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