Payal’s Dance Academy recently hosted ‘Hipnosis - Shimmy Travelogue’, an annual belly-dancing festival, at a city hotel. The festival showcased various styles in belly dancing and attracted quite a large crowd.

The students of the academy were mesmerising as they donned dazzling costumes and waist belts and glided onto the stage.

The lighting played spoilsport, since it was too dim for the audience to make out the various formations on stage. However, the students of the senior batch were a delight to watch. More than a hundred students put forth their talents on stage and presented various kinds of belly-dancing styles, like tribal fusion, Polynesian, Isis Wings, Lebanese, Egyptian as well as Arabic.

The show opened with the tribal fusion style, which was conceived by a dancer in the USA. It had fluid and soft moves, with a lot of belly rolls and arm movements. The dance was based on the theme of finding one’s identity. Set against trance music, it set the perfect tone for the rest of the show.

The friends and family members of the students, who had come to the performance to lend their support, were also pleasantly surprised by the display.

“I was shocked to see the girls performing so professionally. Belly dancing requires a lot of hard work and focus and the way these girls are performing will take them a long way. I love their costumes and confidence on the stage,” says Chaitra, from the audience.
The Lebanese style of belly dancing was faster, yet soft. The girls used props and finger symbols for this item. The music was contemporary and the costumes were bright and flashy.

The Polynesian style really stole the show. The senior students, dressed in colourful low-waist skirts and golden waist belts, enthralled the audience with the sheer control over their movements.

This style has more lower-body movement, the beats are fast and the music is snappy — which enhances the performance.

The audience could be seen asking for more and commending the students for their brilliant effort. “I loved the Polynesian style, it was so catchy and fast. It was amazing to see the students jive to the beat and after seeing them perform, I too feel like enrolling in this class,” notes Shruti B, who had come to watch the show.