Belly dancers debut without funding

The exotic art form of belly-dancing has officially arrived at Penn.

Ya'lla -- Arabic for "let's go" -- formed this past September with 15 members hoping to learn the Middle Eastern dance style.

Ya'lla is composed of a mixture of undergraduate students, graduate students, Penn alumni and staff members.

"We're all female and diverse, ethnically and class-wise, but we foster a [true] community of women" here at Penn, says Ya'lla founder and Wharton junior Vanesa Sanchez.

Sanchez dreamt up the idea of founding a belly-dancing group her freshman year at Penn.

When she was younger she took belly-dancing classes with her mother in Philadelphia. By her senior year of high school, Sanchez began to devote more time to this art form. However, when she came to Penn she realized that there were no Middle Eastern dance groups on campus. That's when she began to form Ya'lla.

Ya'lla is independent of both the Student Activities Council and the Performing Arts Council. The members did submit a constitution to PAC this past September, but they are still waiting for a response.

As a result of a lack of school funding, Ya'lla members have personally paid for their costumes and found two graduate students to teach them how to move their hips and shake their bellies.

"Since then, I've discovered core muscles I never knew existed," College sophomore and Ya'lla member Nancy Ngo says.

With the support of the graduate student teachers, members take affordable dance classes on campus in the Blue Lounge of King's Court.

Ya'lla's dance classes at Penn cost members $5 an hour, compared to $13 for a typical belly dancing class downtown. Pottruck offers $60 dance classes, but instructors do not teach belly dancing.

The group's graduate student teachers are long-time enthusiasts of belly dancing.

Christina Wills is a seventh year Ph.D. student in the biology department and has been belly dancing for almost eight years.

Wills explains that she got into belly dancing as an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas at the prompting of her friend.

"My best friend's boyfriend thought it would be sexy if she took belly-dancing classes," Wells says, adding that she kept her friend company "and fell in love with the steps and the music immediately."

Along with Wills, Lesley Hickman -- a graduate student in the School of Medicine -- also helps teach the classes.

Like Wills, Hickman has been dancing for eight years. She began dancing her last semester in college when belly dancing was offered as a fitness course. Since then, Hickman explains that she has become "a fabric and sequin junkie."

Wills' and Hickman's dance style of Middle Eastern dance is comprised of many different forms, just like the array of people in Ya'lla.

Uzbek Tamilla Kurbanova, a senior in Wharton and Ya'lla member, danced to music originally written by a singer from Uzbekistan this past Friday and Saturday in Ya'lla's fall show.

Her solo performance according to Kurbanova went a long with a song called Kelinchak, sung "by the most famous singer in Uzbekistan, Yulduz Usmanova."

For other members, this past weekend marked their first ever dance recital.

Janice Brown, a financial systems support specialist at Penn, joined Ya'lla despite never having belly danced, and says that she was a bit nervous for the show, but excited overall.

In preparation for the show, the group put time not only into practicing, but also to creating costumes.

Authentic costumes for Middle Eastern dance can cost in excess of $500. Hickman, however, devoted her time to sewing costumes for the troupe to save money.

" I [am] allowed a little bit of pride for pumping out all those skirts, pants, and veils in one semester,"Hickman says.

She adds that in modern belly dancing "coins are so passe; neon lycra is in."

Overall, although they are not PAC affiliated, Ya'lla members believe their group serves an important purpose on campus.

"It's very empowering to realize that although we're half clothed, none of us has the perfect body. Whatever negative self-esteem we had has been erased by the dance," says Ya'lla member and Penn alumna Diana Hong.

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