WATERLOO - The elevator was the perfect dance floor, so long as no one else was going up.

That's what Helen Harton discovered when she enrolled in her first belly dancing class. The hallway, the elevator, the family room -- any flat surface, really, could be used to practice.

She enjoyed the class immediately. Twelve years later, she still practices belly dancing and teaches the skill to others.

"I love that I get absorbed into it," Harton says. "I feel the music and respond to it."

Belly dancing has its roots not just in the Middle East, but also in the cultures of Egypt, Turkey and other northern African, Mediterranean and Baltic countries. The Arabic name for the dance is raqs sharqi, which means "dance of the East or Orient."

"The best way to describe belly dance is art in motion," says Lois Marshall, 49, of St. Louis. Marshall, whose stage name is Salwa, directs a belly dancing studio. She has been belly dancing for 27 years.

"This is an art form about individuality," she says. "We all bring something different to it."

Contrary to images you may have in your head, belly dancers do not need to have perfectly formed abdominals or be curvaceous sirens.

In one class you might find a woman with six-pack abs dancing next to a woman who just had a baby dancing next to a 60-year-old who's had many babies over the years.

When Harton took her first class as a graduate student in southern Florida, she was one of the youngest in the room.

"Most were retirees, and they looked so good doing this," Harton recalls.

Belly dancing is praised by those who practice it as a way to boost confidence and self image. All shapes and sizes show up at Harton's classes, which she has taught for several years at the University of Northern Iowa, and will start teaching at the YWCA later this month.

In fact, in the Middle East, most famous belly dancers are 40 pounds overweight, by American standards.

"It's about the hips, so if you've got hips, it's about showing them off," Harton says.

The traditional art form of belly dance is based on isolations. That's the idea that you keep the rest of your body steady while moving just one part in a fluid motion. For instance, when you do rib cage circles your entire body is still except for your rib cage, which moves in a fluid circle from the back to the left to the front and then to the right.

Beginners learn to do one isolation at a time, but the very best dancers can layer one isolation on top of another, meaning they are isolating their neck muscles, their chest muscles and their hip muscles at the same time.

Dorinda Rohret, a West High School senior, started belly dancing lessons several years ago when her family lived in Brazil. She says the relocation inspired her to learn about different cultures, so she signed up for a belly dancing class. Rohret took a month of lessons, then turned to the Internet to explore the art on her own. She watched Internet videos and studied different moves. She orders hip scarves and music from eBay.

"For anybody who has a curiosity, check it out," Rohret says. "It makes you proud to show off what you've got, of what you have."

Harton recommends coming to class in comfortable clothing, like yoga pants and a tank top. While you don't have to show your belly, she says, it helps to wear form-fitting clothing to better see how your muscles move.

Stacey Palevsky can be contacted at (319) 291-1580 or stacey.palevsky@wcfcourier.com.

Knight Ridder Newspapers contributed to this story.

Shake your hips in another language

The YWCA of Black Hawk County will offer cultural dance classes beginning at the end of March.

A summary:

Capoeira (Afro/Brazilian martial arts and dance)

Starts: March 22

Classes: 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 2 to 4 p.m. Saturdays

Cost: $35 per month

African dance

Starts: March 23

Classes: 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 1 to 2 p.m. Saturdays

Cost: $25 per month

Belly dance

Starts: March 25

Classes: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Fridays

Cost: $38 per 10-week session

Latin dance

Starts: March 26

Classes: 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturdays

Cost: $25 per month

The world's oldest dance

Many experts say belly dancing is the oldest form of dance, having roots in all ancient cultures from the orient to India to the mid-East. Probably the greatest misconception about belly dancing is that it is intended to entertain men.

Throughout history, this ritualized expression has usually been performed for other women -- generally during fertility rites or parties preparing a young woman for marriage. In most cases, the presence of men is not permitted.

Many believe belly dancing was created to help pregnant women strengthen and roll their abdominal muscles in preparation for childbirth.

Belly dancing is natural to a woman's bone and muscle structure with movements emanating from the torso rather than in the legs and feet. The dance often focuses upon isolating different parts of the body, moving them independently in sensuous patterns, weaving together the entire feminine form.

In America, belly dancing enjoyed its first significant renown at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Americans found themselves fascinated by the exotic body rhythms and music, eventually including them in many silent films made just a few years later.

Since the turn of the century, belly dancing has grown enormously in popularity across the U. S. and worldwide. Belly dance festivals, workshops, and seminars take place constantly, attracting large audiences of interested, involved men and women. Many dancers now study the art form intensively, traveling to the mid-East and elsewhere to experience it where it originated.

Source: www.bellydance.org