oh my goodness i hate teachers......

I've been asked to cover for school cultural festivals and also events at a local church... the answer? Wear a beautiful Gawazee coat! Always a flattering item on any dancer. :)

Cheerleaders, last I made costumes for them, are not allowed bare midriffs, either. It's school policy to have your stomach covered, but there are no rules about how short your shorts can be. If Cece were to perform in booty shorts, the school wouldn't have a thing to say, because there is no rule against it. However, since no one associated with the school or a school event is to have a bare tummy - boy or girl - it would not be considered good form to have your stomach showing, knowing full well the regulations associated with the school district. This isn't a question of double standard, in this particular instance. Boys aren't allowed to have their tummies showing, either - although the thought of midriff-baring boy's basketball players does make me giggle a bit. If this were a case of discrimination, then an outcry would be just. But as it is, there seems to me to be very little cause for complaint. One student is being treated just as fairly as every other student, and it seems rather unfair to think that one student should be allowed to bend the rules when so many before him or her have been unable to.

The rule is not an attack on women. it was placed there with much thought by the school board. Personally, school dress code does not bother me one bit. When I was in high school, the only people complaining about it were the ones who wanted to dress in the extreme opposite of the rules. The school boards do not throw rules around just because it's fun. They do it for the safety of the students. There's a reason students aren't allowed to have pagers, backwards baseball caps, bare midriffs, cleavage-baring tops, bare feet, and everything else included in the dress code. In my opinion, it's unfortunate that the schools had to create and enforce dress codes with teenagers because some parents didn't. And while I realize that this statement might open up another can of worms, it's what I believe. Students need to give themselves a reality check and remember that they're there to learn, and that while everyone has the right to express him- or herself, we all bear a certain amount of responsibility for it. In school especially, your appearance has a direct effect on those around you. And bare midriffs have been banned because it was thought that they were too distracting and left one open for sexual harassment complaints. And as laughable as their reasons might be, they felt justified in them. And really, a little modesty never hurt anybody.

Kay, sorry for the rant. Moving on.

Although I love to bare my stomach when I dance, I also respect the fact that there is an appropriate time and place for it. A school does not wish for stomachs to be shown, therefore it is no more appropriate to dance there in a halter or bra than it is to wear cutoffs and a tank top to a cocktail party. The more we dance, and the more venues we dance in, the more we come to understand this. Our dance is one for the entertainment of others, and when we risk making the audience uncomfortable, or worse, offending them, we adjust. Especially as a paid performer, it is much better to show a little less skin when called for than to never be invited back - or have word spread about us and bellydance as a whole. It's not a question of being ashamed of ourselves, because we as bellydancers get taught from Day 1 to love ourselves for who we are. But we can love ourselves just as much with a tummy cover as without.

There are plenty of ways to show off muscle control without having your stomach completely exposed. There have been a good number of suggestions in this thread as to what to do when you need to cover up a little skin.

As I stated before, I am all for taking what could be thought of as someone trampling all over your vision and turning it into an opportunity to show that bellydance is more than just a peep show. As bellydancers, we all have had our share of sideways glances, snide remarks, and ignorant questions involving 'what we really do'. This is a perfect opportunity to show that what we really do is Maya, Egyptian, and Turkish, with so much inner strength and sheer technical muscle control that onlookers gape and wish they could do what we can. No, seriously. We are effing awesome. As fluid as bellydancers are as a whole, people always look at us and wonder how the hell he do it. heck, most of the time, they can't even fathom what parts of us are moving and where. isn't it nice to know that each time we perform, we get an opportunity to wow someone and open their eyes to our community? Get out there, dance, cover up if need be, and show the audience what strong, graceful, empowered, women bellydancers are.