Why do you Belly Dance?

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I suppose this is a fairly open question, but I'm curious as to why other people belly dance? What first caused you to become interested in belly dancing? Do you do it purely for exercise? Do you find connection in your particular spiritual path? Is it something that everyone in your family has done? For me, I have always enjoyed the artfulness of the belly dancer, but it would be in a belly dancing class that I would learn all the things we see in the movies are moves seldom done for long periods of time by true belly dancers. Meaning, all of the shimmies we see in the movies aren't really done for exaggerated periods of time. I was also facinated after having started belly dancing to learn it was used very much to tell stories, and beautiful ones. I also found a deeper connection with the Goddess through my dancing.