Rio Goes to High School

A student of Thompson Valley High School called me up, more or less out of the blue. She had an assignment that required she bring in some type of professional instructor to teach a session of her aerobics class. She decided she wanted belly dance. Well, today was the day! I spent about an hour and a half teaching and lecturing to around 20 high school students. We stomped and hopped and hair tossed and generally had a fantastic time. The primary question of the day seemed to revolve around whether there were men who belly dance! Yes indeed! Jamil of Australia, Tito, and Zorba are a few that come to mind immediately. They aren’t as common in the professional venues as women- mostly because tourists expect women and won’t pay to watch men, not because the men don’t have the moves!