I used to dance when I was younger jazz and tap and I will add that I was a big girl back then too. You know but once puberty hit dancing went out the window for me. It just wasn't important to me anymore. I knew deep down inside that I would find dance again. In my early 20's I attempted dance by taking hip hop classes but the demanding schedule of work and school put that to a halt. My senior year of college I joined the african american cultural center at my college for a yearly performance the school gave. Most of the competition involved dancing and when we were learning choreographies etc things just click and my knack for dance was back. Ok fast forward to 2006 when I moved to FL and acquaintance at the time and I decided to take classes together and I have been hooked every since.

Honestly, when she mentioned belly dancing I said to her " me bellydance my belly is the biggest thing on me” had a second thought of man how will that look and then I said to myself “heck why not this is my biggest "flaw" etc why not embrace it! ”

So here I am dancing and loving it. I would also like to add that the most gratification I get out of dancing etc is being able to encourage others who may have self image issues or just need that added boost to get out their and go after their wants and desires whatever that may be.

I honestly started taking classes b/c I am such a clutz and wanted to try and do something that might make me more comfortable with my body, more in touch and possibly, just possibly find something graceful within me. And I did, almost immediately. I had a wonderful teacher that made us all feel beautiful, and graceful, and welcome. I have been hooked since and am actually going to be doing my first public performance in the next couple months. I am nervous, but I love the dancing more than any insecurties I may feel over my size. It has been so freeing.

I was recovering from breast cancer surgery and radiation treatment which in itself leaves you feeling less feminine and attractive. I was becoming a couch potato during my recovery and knew that if I didn't start moving I'd soon be glued to the couch permanently. I went to a bellydance class after being personally invited by the instructor and after the first class was immediately "hooked". Bellydancing helped restore a sense of self-esteem and femininity that cancer tried to rob from me.

I knew this post would elicit beautiful stories! Thank you for sharing.

I grew up dancing - tap, ballet, jazz - since I was in kindergarten through high school. I love to dance! During my early adult years the opportunity to take lessons slipped away and life just took over. A friend of mine convinced me to take a BD class at our gym. My first BD class was in 1983. I loved it, but then I became pregnant and stopped. I shouldn't have, but at the time I didn't know that BD was okay to do while pregnant.

Years later hubby and I were going through some personal struggles with our business. After that was all settled, I needed to find something....an outlet to just relax, have fun and feel good. So I looked back into taking BD classes. But this time I had gained weight and felt like the big white elephant in the room! I eventually dropped out. I wasn't happy with how I looked.

Then we moved to Charlotte in 2004 and in 2005 we went to the NC Renaissance Faire and I saw the Jewels of the Caravan perform. There were a few BBBDs in the troupe and I thought "I want to take this up again" and sought out this studio where BBBDs were accepted. I have been taking lessons religiously now for 2 1/2 years and can proudly say that I am now a member of the Jewels of the Caravan and will be dancing in this year's Ren Faire!

I love the feeling BD gives me. I feel challenged physically and mentally. I feel energized. I feel the love and support of my sister dancers. I feel acceptance. I feel sexy! It has taken several years for me to come to accept my body.

Growing up with a tiny Asian mother, aunts and cousins and I was the "big boned" American daughter/cousin, was difficult. My aunts used to say my boobs were too big for me to wear the traditional Korean dress. But through time, therapy and a loving husband and friends, I have reached the point where I am finally happy with who I am and what I am. I truly believe that BD has played a very big part in this.

I also enjoy helping others. I receive so much joy in helping others. Whether it's helping them with a costume sewing project, or helping boost their self esteem, I'm happy to be there for others.

At first I did it because a friend of mine was doing it. I had a lot of fun. After recovering from a broken foot and pregnancy, which kept me out of dance for awhile, I eventally stumbled upon tribal and tribal fusion, which was much easier for to dance to with really bad knees, as compared to the cabaret style I was initially learning. As I learned more about tribal I quickly saw pictures of women of many shapes, sizes, ages, nationality, etc. Being BBBD never entered the picture as a hindrance for me. I just embraced what I saw and had fun.

Not dancing now because I had surgery to replace both knees on Jan. 29. But I am eagerly awaiting the time when I can start getting back into it, even if it's just the basics.

It choose me. I danced a bit in high school, my mom and I took a belly dance class together, then again as a young woman.
I was singing in the opera La Traviata when it ran into me again. I recognized one of the dancers as a customer in the latte shop. She kept inviting me to her house for her free lessons, and one Tuesday I went.
I never looked back in all these five years. I never thought I would be in a troupe that loves and encourages my BBself. Or dance at Tribal Quest of Rakkasah. It really captured me and I am so much better for it.

I hate exercise. All of it. Running and walking sucked (and were hard, frankly, too much impact). I had met a gal through some friends of mine who was a bellydancer, and she was a larger woman than my 280 lbs self and I thought, sheesh, if she can do it, I can do it. My doctor had been on me about exercising to help get my blood sugar under control. I wanted a way to get exercise but I didn't want to go to a gym, so I went to my 1st class and got hooked. Found out that my friend wasn't the only BBBD there although my troupe has women of all sizes. The best news? I lost 40 lbs, and am continuing to lose in large part because of my dancing. And it is something I will do, I got to class, I enjoy it, and my body is changing in ways I never thought possible (thank you isolation work).

I danced in highschool and college - mostly Jazz and Modern, I was always one of the bigger ladies in classes but I was fit and not that much bigger so I didn't think about it much... I loved loved loved to dance..... and then I graduated and got married, and stopped dancing, and gained a ton of weight, and got divorced and managed to loose some of that weight by working out in the gym and hating every second of it.... but fell off the gym wagon and never lost the rest of the weight I'd put on.

Then I met the man who later became my second husband.... and we worked as staff on a small Renaissance Festival that had a couple of belly dancers - and I got to work with these amazing women and fell in love with the dance through watching them perform and getting to know them over the months that we worked together. - one of them in particular encouraged me to look for a belly dancing class near where I lived - But then this wonderful man and I got engaged and the next year was a whirlwind of wedding planning and I never quite did anything about belly dancing.

After the wedding, I became a couch potato - no more wedding planning to do... my husband was out at his martial arts classes and so I would sit at home alone in the evenings watching TV or reading....and getting depressed.....suddenly something clicked - I NEEDED to find something of my own to do with my time and I needed to get off that couch!.... and I remembered belly dancing. I started looking for a teacher near me - finding only 4 and 5 week classes here and there taught at local gyms - I went to some of them, but they didn't click... they where better than walking on a treadmill but I wasn't in love..... yet something in me kept screaming that this wasn't quite belly dance, it was aerobics done with belly dance moves... that if I could find someone to teach me Belly dance, I would be in love with it..... and then at another really tiny renaissance faire in my area I saw a troupe called Fringe Benefits perform..... and I met Peggy, their troupe leader, who was an amazing full figured woman that I could really relate to.... and I found out she was teaching an adult ed ATS belly dance class one town over from where I lived - and the very first night in her class I felt that passion for belly dance really bloom in me! I've been hooked ever since. It's 3 years later, and I just started my own beginners troupe called Anka Kusu, I take 4 dance classes a week and my darling husband is learning to drum!

I studied ballet for 16 years...When I hit my teen years I got boobs and hips and couldn't balance on pointe so I switched to jazz for 2 years...I studied modern dance in college...I got pregnant and gained weight...Got pregnant again and gained more weight....Got divorced and then remarried...Wanted to start dancing again but no one would let a fat girl in their ballet class...Saw a fellow fat girl belly dancing at my local ren faire...And that was that...I'm still here 10 years later!

Really I did! I was riding on the Quarter horse circuit and during a training session I was thrown and managed to crack 4 ribs, collapsed a lung and crush 3 spinal process bones. After a week in the hospital and months of P.T. I got SO bored with my yoga classes. My yoga teacher was also a belly dancer and she (knowing I was a dancer and theater arts major in collage) suggested that I try her class as part of my P.T. I started in her AmCab beginner classes and really loved the music and the movement. I took classes for a long time with no thought to ever performing never mind teaching. Then I took my first ATS class, found my bliss and the rest is history. Belly dance not only helped my injury but really helped me fall in love with my body after really hating it because of the constant pain I was in. It combined my love of dance and love of costuming. A match made in heaven!

I have always wanted to be a dancer. When I was a little girl, I was told that I was much too big to be a dancer. I've always been a tall, sturdy, incredibly uncoordinated girl. So I just accepted it and moved on with my life.

A few years ago, I started Jazzercising. While fun, I constantly found myself the butt of the big girl jokes from the college girls talking behind their hands in class...like being a big, fat Amazon makes me completely deaf or something...

Then one day...it happened! I saw a bellydance performance at a Farmer's Market and I looked for an instructor to see how it would go. My first teacher was Cabaret and I was immediately impressed at how much it was not my style. I'm just not meant to be coy or flirty. I just can't do it. Plus she was hopelessly stuck on herself and spent every chance she had executing impossible shimmy layers in my beginning class showing off. I took one lesson from her and decided to move on.

I found my current teacher, Barb, on the internet and it was MONTHS before I could screw up the courage to go to a class. She was inviting and accomodating to me. She was also an ordinary looking woman (by that I mean she was NOT a pin up girl or a cheerleader type...lol) She has a butt and boobs and a belly just like I do. After one lesson in her more modest ATS format, I was hooked. There was no choreography to remember not to mess up. There were no boob shimmies and I didn't have to wear chiffon if I didn't want to.

I am hopelessly hooked on tribal. I can't imagine what I would do with myself if I stopped. There are so many facets to the dance and the costuming and music that I see myself involved in dance for years to come even if my knees do fall apart like both my parents' knees did. So far so good but I get a twinge now and again.

At nearly 45 years old, I never would have guessed that I'd be performing anything...period. I'm an introvert. I don't care to be the center of attention for the most part so the group format of tribal really appeals to me...although I did my very first solo piece last August as at the behest of my teacher. I don't see myself as a serious dancer. I know I could never make money doing it much less make a living but I do take the dance and the troupe seriously. I love the sisterhood we've developed and the support we give each other. Some of us are big women, some are small, thin, fat, round, etc. It completely doesn't matter at all.

The best thing that bellydance has given me is a sense of personal satisfaction with myself. It has let me realise more than all the yoga classes I've taken rolled into one, that I am absolutely ok the way I am and there is nothing I must change this very minute to be an acceptable person. Yes, I'm fat, but I'm healthy and I'm having the time of my life. What more could I ask for?

i didnt choose it, it chose me...

my mother had been a bellydancer when I was little and outside of that I never thought one minute about being a dancer myself until I moved to KY and saw tribal fusion (had never heard of it up until that point) I was hooked right then and there... went to a class the next day and haven't stop (almost 6 years later)

It just happened! I started taking bellydance lessons, found out I had some talent for it, was encouraged not to quit by my first teacher (when I felt like a big fat clumsy moose, she convinced me otherwise), and the rest goes on!

I've had one comment about myself in photos, that coming from a woman who was lashing out at me because she was trying to hurt a dear friend of mine. My friend and I both had a good laugh about it, because it turns out that woman could make two of me and doesn't dance at all and is filled with self-loathing.

A couple of women approached me and my troupemates after that performance shown in the photos I just posted; they said, "You were goddesses on stage!"

And what could make you feel better than that?

I joke that I started with Fat Chance's videos because they had "fat" in the title, but that's really not far from the truth. I was feeling lousy, tired & whiny & needed a form of exercise I could do at home without having to motivate to go somewhere - someone on one of the fat activist lists I belong to recommended FCBD. It took me probably a year to actually take an in-person class (in Egyptian folkloric/cabaret style) from there, but I loved that class, too.

What actually made me a bellydancer, though (meaning a performer & later teacher) was assembling a group of people to dance and play with. I went looking for a group to join & couldn't find one with a tribal slant, so we had to make our own. That meant immediately shifting from class and video to dance being a commitment and an art form that I really had to study and understand well enough to lead others in.

It called to me for a long time before I answered. I played coy, I played hard to get. I wasn't easy to sway over at first, I was 50 pounds heavier at that time in my life. All the other experiences I had with belly dance were with slender, young women. What changed it for me was a street fair in Ventura on July 4th 1994. (I even remember it like a first date!) There were all these lovely young slender tribal dancers milling about getting ready to perform. When they finally started to come on stage, there was one woman who I hadn't seen milling around before the performance caught my attention. She entered the stage last. She was large and soft and full of full round curves in all of the best places a woman can have them. When the troupe started to dance, I couldn't keep my eyes off her. I was mesmerized. All of the dancers were beautiful, and skilled in the moves they were performing. But what this one beautifully large woman could do with her body was just poetry in motion. She had soft flesh & curves to move that the more slender girls didn't have. Watching her dance with so much confidence and the smile that radiated from her spread over everyone in that audience. It was that moment when I realized that size did not matter. What mattered was the joy of the dance. I went home & the next day found an instructor and have been dancing ever since. So thank you lovely woman who ever you are for being so confident & comfortable with yourself. You are the reason I started to dance. I hope I can pass on that gift to another woman through my dancing.

I have always danced. I started in ballet and tap dance when I was a little under 3 years old. I stayed in ballet until I was 12. I switched to jazz dance until I was about 19, and then I did Modern Dance for several years. I've always had some sort of dance classes. The thing about the other dance forms, is that I never felt like I could make it anywhere with them unless I could give up eating or take up purging. I felt better about the modern dance, but all the girls in the classes with me were also ballerinas and therefore super thin. I just didn't feel it in my heart that it was the right place for me.

One day, a best friend came to me and begged me to join belly dance classes with her. I said no, but didn't tell her why. I was afraid. Afraid that all of the girls would be thin and stunning. She begged for two more years, I repeatedly turned her down. One day, she wore me down and I finally said yes. I have never stopped. I joke that it's the costume that made me stay (and the glitter), but truly, it was the all inclusive nature of the dance. Every woman of every shape, size, and color filled the room of my first class. I was hooked instantly like a fish with a lure in it's mouth. I will never stop, it is in my heart and reaches to the very depth of my being.

I like the way Nisha put it, "It's like breathing for me"... indeed.