Bombaat Bellyrina

Her rendezvous with belly dance was serendipitous. And since then, this danseuse hasn’t looked back. A military child from Kerala, Chitra Nair, also known by the moniker’Bombay Bellyrina’ spent most of her life in Mumbai, a city close to her heart for various reasons. Having relocated to Bengaluru four years back, the dancer launched her own school of dance called the Bellyrina Dance Academy.

“I realised that my corporate career wasn’t progressing the way I wanted it to. I started spending more and more time in dance classes. I would attend a class in Colaba in the afternoon, and then hop on a train to Powai to attend the same class there! I taught my first class out of a gym in Colaba. I had barely 4-5 students that day, but they all loved it. I later founded my own academy,” shares Chitra.

This striking thing about her dance moves is that she shimmies to unusual music combinations — from bhangra to pop. The bellyrina has surprised many a student by playing Linkin’ Park during dance class!

“Most women learn their moves to Arabic music and drum solos. But that’s not the sort of music you will hearat a club or party. I didn’t want my students to be limited by a lack of ‘the right ‘ of music.”

So I’d teach them to listen for beats and rhythms, and to have fun with the music. Belly dance has no fixed rhythm or time. You can move as slowly and fluid as you like, or as quick and energetic.”

From Justin Timberlake to Rihanna, her students would get a taste of different genres of music. Another distinctive aspect of Chitra’s class is that she teaches pre-natal belly dance, which has a plethora of benefits for mothers-to-be.

“Belly dance actually originated centuries ago, not as a form of seduction, but as a religious act. Temple priestesses performed the dance in worship of the Mother Goddess, Isis. The gentle movements, hip tucks and muscle isolations help strengthen the core and pelvic muscles, thereby relieving the discomfort that expectant mothers experience and also easing the actual labor. It even helps the new mother get back in shape. The original recipe for a ‘Yummy Mummy’!” she says.

While she’s entrancedher audiences through her moves, the artiste has also faced backlash when people found out that she was a belly dancer.

“The term ‘belly dance’ was always met with raised eyebrows and judgments on character. I’ve had my relatives suggest that I was moonlighting as a prostitute. Women would nudge their partners to move away from me. It was incredibly stressful and demeaning, but now I look back upon that and laugh,” says the spirited lass, who thanks popstar Shakira for playing a huge role in portraying belly dance as ‘normal’.

“With Bollywood using belly dance moves in songs like Aga Bai and Maashallah, India is beginning to see just how graceful a form it truly is,” she signs off.