First of all I believe this is my first time posting here so hello! *waves*

Looking through this tribe seeing threads about bellydancing unsettling relationships with boyfriends/husbands and the bitchyness you can get within the bellydance scene, it made me think about something that happened to be recently. Not too serious but thought provoking. And kind of rambling.

Last week I’m in a club, the local alternative night, doing my thing on the dancefloor, which these days since I have forgotten how to dance "normally" looks quite a lot like tribal fusion with lots of flowy hip and arm movements, bodywaves etc. I get quite a few guys giving me appreciative looks (which I don’t mind as long as they don’t get creepy) and quite often girls that I know will dance along with me, although they are not bellydancers themselves. I take all this as a complement and I love being able to do this kind of stuff. Bellydance has helped with my self esteem so much so I now feel it is okay for me to move my body and be proud of it.

Of course, for every appreciative comment or look, there is the always the flipside, isn’t there?

I am dancing and I look up, and there is this girl looking at me. A girl I know and quite frankly cannot stand. She has no self-respect. She’s one of those girls that CRAVES attention. She doesn’t feel whole unless she’s in a relationship and when she is in one she still plays around with other guys. I could slap her; the guy she is with now is such a sweetie! He looks so sad when she ignores him in favour of someone else.

But I digress.

She is looking at me with this weird expression, something I can’t quite place, but there is no doubt her attention is fixed on me. A little weirded out, I continue dancing and occasionally catch her looking at me at odd times throughout the night. My boyfriend, who was up on the dancefloor with me most of the time, confirmed that she was really staring at me.

The next day I go over to a friends flat, this girl stays there as well. As I walk in (she’s sitting on her boyfriend’s lap and ignoring him . . . I didn’t even realise that was possible) she immediately greets me and compliments me on my belt, asking if it’s one of my bellydancing belts. As I smile and say no, my bellydance belts have more bells (ooh alliteration) on them, I look up. That look again.

Then it hit me. The look was hard to place because it was a mixture of emotions. I can read people well, and it’s easier to see out of the dark club. It was a mixture of jealousy and scorn. Sort of admiration with just a touch of a sneer. Makes sense I suppose. This girl usually resorts to grind-dancing and/or caressing her own breasts on the dancefloor. I kid you not. She cannot dance and needs attention. ANY attention.

Part of me wants to point her in the direction of a bellydance instructor so she can gain some self-respect and maybe improve her dance style, but another part of me is afraid she would then end up trying to dance with me.

So, anyone here have a similar experience? Other non-dancers getting on your case ‘cause they wish they could move it like you? ;)