Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 05/01) - You won't be invited to belly dancing classes in Yellowknife unless you are willing to rotate your hips.

"The girls are shy," explains the instructor. "Men can do it, too, but I'm not teaching them."

Evelyn Serre de St. Jean has been teaching belly dancing in the city for three years. She says it's fun and great exercise. But Serre de St. Jean is not interested in showing it off.

"We are very shy when it comes to men wanting to take a look," she adds.

When Serre de St. Jean was learning belly dancing to earn a certificate in 1979, she recalls, there was one woman, a larger woman who, unlike the instructor and her fellow dancers, was not shy.

"The woman was very large and when she did it all the men were drooling," Serre de St. Jean says.

Anybody is welcome to take her course when it runs again next fall, she adds, "as long as you are a woman and you have a belly."

Serre de St. Jean outlines some history on the art of "Beladi." She says it was done by women in harems in the Middle East to cure boredom. The little bikini tops and slinky skirts, however, are a westernized version.

Serre de St. Jean is well-covered and dressed as if she is working out, because she is.

"It's low impact, you move across the floor, stretching and moving muscles you never knew were there," she says. "All women have the movements in them -- it is just a matter of moving your hips and arms a certain way."

Serre de St. Jean says there will be no classes this winter. Belly dancing is strictly a fall class to prepare for the Christmas season, it would appear.

"If you think you don't have a waist, you'll find out you do," she promises.