Club Spotlight: Academy Bellydancing Society
By JOHANNA HILLMAN, DIYA SANDEEP, and HENRY WISE
Dancers line the stage, their hips adorned with tinkling gold bells and coins. The music starts, and they begin to move rhythmically, in sync and perfectly in time with the beat. The students filling Assembly Hall watch in awe, captivated by the artistic talent and skill demonstrated by the Academy Bellydancing Society (ABS).
Many members of ABS have found it to be a very welcoming place. “It’s just a really supportive community,” said lower Celia Ephrem. “It’s really, really fun. Whenever we’re warming up, we have these really fun songs, and whenever we learn new choreo, we get to enjoy experimenting with it.”
Upper and co-head of ABS Ayana Okuneye expressed similar sentiments to Ephrem. “It’s always been a really great space,” said Okuneye. She expressed that the club has given her an opportunity to express herself creatively. “I joined ABS last year, having never done belly dancing before. But once I tried it out, I just fell in love with it. I think it’s such a cool skill to have.”
Along with the supportive environment of ABS, there are many other aspects of the club that students enjoy. Ephrem commented, “As well as being a good environment for everyone, to a lot of students, it is not only a creative outlet, but also an opportunity to try something new.”
Okuneye noted her admiration of the art of belly dancing: “It requires so much control.” She added, “It’s been so fun learning to control my body in these very specific ways and learning what my body is capable of.” ABS is open to all students on campus, whether experienced or not, as a means to explore performing and visual arts in a new way.
While club advisor Allison Sarage is off campus for her maternity leave, dance teacher Amberlee Darling has stepped in to fill her shoes. When asked about future possibilities of performances, Darling said, “Every term, there is an opportunity to perform. All the dance clubs are eligible for the pep rallies.” While pep rallies are wonderful opportunities to see ABS in action, they can also be spotted at many cultural events on campus. Darling added, “The really nice part about ABS is that they often perform at Asian Night Market, and there’s a couple of different performance opportunities for them as a cultural group.”
In line with ABS’s welcoming community, Okuneye encouraged others to join ABS: “In the future, we just want to keep expanding.” To conclude, she said, “We want to invite people to join the club if they are interested.”
