Why I Love Belly Dance
By Dave Vajgrt - February 2008
My name is David Vajgrt and I LOVE Bellydance. I was first exposed to Bellydance as I stood beside a
roaring bonfire in Anchorage Alaska. My best friend Stefanie Masters handed me a strange looking drum
and said “Here, can you play this?” I started to play, she started to dance, and I was completely and totally
hooked. The joy, passion and power that she displayed through the dance was
amazing…inspirational…wonderfully uplifting.
I have always felt that women in American society struggle from the time they are small girls to understand
how wonderfully beautiful they truly are. Each and every one of them. Every aspect of the advertising media
bombards women with endless products and gimmicks that will make them supposedly sexier, prettier,
thinner, and in every way possible CHANGE them from what they are right now into something somehow
‘better’. I have seen women who were fantastically beautiful people torment themselves over a handful of
‘pounds’ because of some magazine cover featuring some Hollywood airbrushed starlet.
I love belly dance because it is the answer. Every woman who dances is given the opportunity to release
her true inner goddess, and every one is gorgeous. No matter what your waistline, age, or experience,
when you surrender yourself to your personal dance, you are beautiful. The dance allows everyone to feel
their own body and revel in its perfection and beauty. It encourages women to embrace who they are, to
embrace their shared history as women, and celebrate it through the dance. In the many years I have been
part of the belly dance culture I have never seen anything that has empowered so many.
Personally the dance has made me a better person, a better man, and a better husband. My wife is a full
time Bellydance Instructor and performer (she’s that best friend I mentioned earlier, Stefanie Masters) and
the dance is a passion we both share. It is actually what brought us together. As Stefainie’s best friend I
was her drummer, MC, stage manager, chauffeur, all around bellydance roady and biggest fan. I have
driven her to every single performance she has ever done, and to most of the classes she teaches. There
is nothing I love to see more than my wonderful wife totally consumed by her dance. The way it completes
her fills my heart. And when she can share it with others, a piece of that magic is sent into the world to grow
and multiply.
In this way the dance is, to me, just like it was forever ago when it first began its evolution. The dance
touches all who open themselves to it in a positive way. It brings us together as a community where we can
share the beauty and passion in us all. I love the dance because it is beauty, and from beauty comes love.
And that is a very good thing.
To contact Dave Vajgrt email at vajgrt1@hotmail.com